by Jay "THE FLEA" Wade
Five years in the making, one of the most anticipated games is finally released. But does it hold up to be the best game ever made? A little of both, with the many flaws it’s just short of becoming the best game on Dreamcast.
You play as Ryo Hazuki in the year 1984. Ryo comes home to find a mysterious China man who murders his father. Rao decides to hunt for this man and avenge his father’s death . . . and the mystery begins.
You walk around towns and cities and talk to people for clues on whom and where about of this mysterious man. (And believe me there’s a lot of talking to witnesses)
You keep a note book on the clues and leads you find the next clue to find the murderer.
While the mystery part of the game is suspenseful, there no real puzzles to solve. It’s mostly talking to people. The best part of the game is the freedom to go most any where in the city, people freely walk about the cities and towns and you can enter most any shop and explore.
Every once in a while you get into a fight, at first its press a button to block or duck or get your butt kicked. Later in the game there is an arcade style fighting but it isn’t vary challenging.
There’s tons of little extra goodies to find in the game. Walk into an arcade shop to play Space Harrier, Hang On and other mini games. You can even get the games on CD and play them on a Sega Saturn in the game.
(This doesn’t really make sense due to the Saturn was released til 1995)
You can buy or find music tapes to play, food, drinks, toys, cameras, and other goodies. But I wish Sega had made it so if you play a tape and the music would play in the background. And the food and drink are unnecessary, Ryo should get hungry and thirsty and if he doesn’t eat he’ll slow down. The game does require you to sleep but you’re automatically transported to Ryo’s house when the clock hits midnight.
The best part of Shenmue that really makes this game worth seeing is the graphics.
Some of the best ever seen are in this game. No detail was left untouched. In Ryo’s house you can open most any drawer or closet and see what’s inside, heck you can even remove pictures from the walls.
Every character whether main or background, have their own unique look and voice. Backgrounds are full of beautiful detail and you’ll find plenty of things to look at.
The sound is also a huge plus in this game. Voice acting that you don’t cringe at and every character in the game have their own personality. Shenmue is three discs long but the game really goes by fast, especially if you don’t hunt for all the extra stuff. A fourth disc is included for internet extras.
Shenmue is a remarkable game, just not the masterpiece we were hoping for.
PUBLISHER: SEGA
GRAPHICS: 10 MUSIC & SOUND: 10 CONTROL: 8.5
SECRETS: 7 ORIGINALITY: 10 FUN & REPLAY: 8
OVERALL: 8