Shenmue

Shenmue was the game that got everyone talking in the year 2000. It was revolutionary for its time, claiming to offer total freedom in a living city filled with NPCs that had their own schedules. I was hyped, and honestly, it was a big reason I bought a Dreamcast. But looking back, what a strange experience it turned out to be!

The game kicks off with a gripping scene where you witness your father's murder, setting you off on a quest for revenge and answers. You navigate through a few areas: your house, the town, and the harbor. Shenmue also threw in mini-games, combat sequences, and something called quick-time events, which were new back then. Visually, it was stunning for its time-arguably the best-looking game around when it released.

So what went wrong?

Right off the bat, I noticed the sound quality felt off. The character voices sounded gritty and subpar-think of the difference between a classic vinyl record and a clear CD. Two years earlier, I had played Metal Gear Solid on PS1, which set a high bar for voice acting. The storytelling also left a lot to be desired. Much of the time, I found myself searching for characters who were just as likely to be missing as the information I needed. You'd often hear, "Oh, you're looking for that guy? Well, he's not here, but you should go ask this other person." The chain of characters you had to track down got tedious.

Some design choices baffled me, too. For example, you'd have to wait in real time for certain places to open, and later you work as a forklift driver for what feels like an eternity. It was almost like the developers took a five-hour game and stretched it into a tedious 25-30 hours. Sure, the level of detail was commendable, but it felt like fluff more than substance.

The combat mechanics were a mixed bag. They featured both free-fighting and quick-time events. While the animation was great, making you feel the impact of a failed QTE, it was still just that-an event designed for a brief moment of excitement. The free-fighting system was reminiscent of Virtua Fighter; I found it challenging, but not in a way that felt enriching. And the characters you encounter? They run the gamut from being helpful to downright bizarre and annoying. For a title that took itself seriously, the peculiar cast sometimes felt out of place.

In hindsight, despite its innovative approach and attention to detail, the core experience just didn't live up to the promise. Details are nice, but they're just sprinkles on top, and if the cake itself isn't solid, it doesn't matter how pretty it looks. When Shenmue II released a few years later, it felt like the excitement had fizzled out.

Ultimately, I remember Shenmue receiving mediocre reviews, even from the most dedicated Dreamcast fans-an 8/10 was about as good as it got. It's a game that showed potential but couldn't quite deliver the experience we all craved.

For all its ambition, I'd rate Shenmue a 7/10. There's beauty in what it tried to achieve, but it ultimately missed the mark.

This game did a lot of things new for its time and is now a cult classic. By the maker of the arcade game Virtua Fighter 3 among others, he was rewarded with free reign to make a completely unique game for the Dreamcast, SEGA's last console that saw a great year of innovative game releases. Shenmue and its sequel are perhaps the most revered of all those games.

The game lets you run free round a limited but highly programmed set of environments interacting with objects and people all while day/night, season and weather change around you as you slowly uncover the mystery of your situation and pursue revenge. While some areas of the game can waste your time, the level of connection you forge with the environment and characters keep you involved and the addictive beauty of the real-time changing world keeps you hooked.

At the time of release it was at its height of technology but it has aged relatively well while also having a lot of retro charm in its styles. However, it does require your patience.

The game's action involves a combo deep combat system similar to Virtua Fighter games as well as minor combat situations and other fast action moments being dealt with by quick time events (QTE). This is where a button shows on screen to be pressed straight away to succeed at an action, and people generally love QTEs or hate them, but I think they're used well and sparingly in Shenmue.

A feature I love is being able to play a couple SEGA arcade games in full at the arcade within the game although my personal favourite doesn't appear until Shenmue 2. The game is heavily Japanese which feels very authentic. If you don't have the time to invest as a working adult to play, you can find longplay videos online totalling about 8 hours to get an idea of the experience without the full emersion or shortened story videos for highlights.

So yeah, this is a cult classic and worth looking into, but decide your level of interest as acquiring the game for dreamcast can be difficult or costly.

This is my favourite game (Along with the second one) of all time. The story drags you in and you feel for the characters, the music is beautiful and the graphics at the time were the best, this was the most expensive game ever made and the quality speaks for it's self. I love this game so much, like the tagline say's not a game but an experience (something like that.) And for me that was true.

This is not only one of the best videogames around in technical terms (graphics, sound, gameplay), but it also pioneers in a way of telling an story. It has a cinematic presentation, many dramatical and emotional scenes, but the viewer lives the story rather than watching it. It's the viewer/player the one who explores the environments, the one who makes the events happen, the one who knows the characters and in some degree influences the relationships with them.

The story itself is a little plain, and in fact this game is more like a prologue to the whole story that develops in further chapters, but even in this case the global immersion you can feel is extraordinary. I strongly believe this model of videogame hides a great potential, and should be developed in time.

Shenmue is the closest a game has ever come to reality. The game's environment is fully interactable in a legal fashion (for example, you can't just barge into a house...you'll knock first). You can open ever drawer and closet in your house, buy and drink a soda, play in the arcades (with two full versions of old-school classics), raise a kitten, talk to every person, ride a motorcycle, and even take a part-time job with riding a forklift.

But that's not the main idea of Shenmue. Shenmue provides a progressing storyline that will keep you mystified and addicted to it's gameplay. In the process of gathering clues, you will go into fights that will play as a 3D fighting game, mostly like Virtua Fighter. The fights in the game are challenging and fun, with wonderfully animated moves that look like they belong in a kung-fu flick. There is also "QTE" (quick-time event) in which you must press a certain button in a certain amount of time. This may sound simple but is actually fun, and heart-pumping. These events are in the form of controlling a cinematic event within the game, and provides a better experience.

Shenmue is a game that may attract gamers and non-gamers alike. It's story, interactivity, logic, and fun makes a pure gaming experience. The game starts out a bit boring and slow, but soon afterwards, it begins to pick up pace and Shenmue then reveals it's shine.