Publisher: Microsoft, www.microsoft.com
Ages: eleven and up.
Parental
Advisory:
Violence and brutality
The original Shenmue was an innovative Dreamcast title in its day, and Microsoft's Shenmue II provides a worthy sequel on the Xbox. The title effectively continues the story, adds enhancements, and maintains the elements that made the original Shenmue great. But while Shenmue 2 is good and generally approachable, it generally appeals more to those who loved the original Dreamcast game.
Sega's original Shenmue for the Dreamcast was a notable roleplay title that told the story of a young man avenging his father's death. The game was impressive because it offered a large and complex, and fully interactive world; showed days turning into night; and depicted lots of people on the streets living day-to-day lives. Furthermore, in Shenmue, the lead character lived a real life, sleeping, moving about, playing arcade games, and engaging in other activities. Once again, you assume the identity of Ryo Hazuki who is still trying to avenge his father's death. The trail now leads to Hong Kong.
The third-person roleplay game asks you to do lots of exploring and roaming around, and you also interact with other characters, solve puzzles, and train and fight. The game's fight system is a simplified version of the Virtua Fighter system and lets you throw various punches, kicks, and combos, and execute throws. As in the first game, Shenmue II sometimes presents situations and asks you to adequately react to them. Overall, the game plays at a leisurely pace that probably appeals more to older game players.
Shenmue II serves some good improvements. The game shows an outline of the Xbox buttons, which helps you see options and execute them. You can fast-forward the time if you have to wait for an event or meet someone. This way, you don't have to stand-around waiting as you did in the first game. I liked the ability to mark a map to return to a location.
The graphics are better than those in the original Shenmue and the game features a good musical score. However, the voice acting leaves something to be desired. If you are unfamiliar with the original Shenmue, the title comes with a DVD movie that explains what happened. Violence consists of lots of fighting and some brutality.
Playing Ryo Hazuki is a blast , but those who have never played the original game may find the sequel esoteric. But if you like in-depth RPGs, Shenmue II's innovative approach is definitely worth a look.
1/7/03 Daytrum Editorial Staff
