Where is Our Shenmue 3 Review?
Reviewing things takes time.
This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.
Today marks the release of Shenmue 3, the long-awaited next project from veteran designer Yu Suzuki. The last time we saw protagonist Ryo Hazuki, it was 2001-2002 and we were playing Shenmue 2 on Dreamcast and Xbox. Now eighteen years later, Ryo's story continues in a new title for PC and PlayStation 4, following a successful Kickstarter drive and a few delays.
So where USgamer's review? Well, we received review code for the game yesterday, so it'd be hard to put out a full review in a single day of play. Perhaps we could do review impressions, but for a game like Shenmue 3, it's probably best to get all our thoughts out at once. So we're holding off on our Shenmue 3 review.
We've got esteemed freelancer Cian Maher on the case, who just got done writing for The Washington Post. so you can look forward to his deep dive into Ryo, the villainous Lan Di, and a new cast of characters in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. When our review goes live, we promise we'll shout it from the highest mountaintop, or whatever non-descript dock Ryo is working at now.
In the meantime, you can check out all of our great Shenmue-related coverage. There's Caty's feature about the vibrant Shenmue fan community that kept the game alive all these years, or Nadia's look at the history of the series. Alternatively, there's my article about why I didn't really need a Shenmue sequel, because Yakuza has taken its place.