A-
		Title	Shenmue
		Publisher	SEGA	Graphics	A+
		Developer	AM2	Sound	A-
		Released	December 1, 2000	Gameplay	A-
		Platform	Dreamcast	Longevity	A
	ESRB Information
	Animated Violence, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco
	Highlights
	One of the best games on the platform, If you own a Dreamcast buy this game! It does get a little slow in places, but overall a great game.
	Full Review

Now that I have completed Shenmue, I have had difficulty coming up with a concrete review for the game. On the one hand, the game is beautifuly rendered and has an incredibly deep level of detail to its environments. But looking back it was too much walking around and not nearly enought kick ass fighting.

But lets start with the graphics. Like I said this game is gorgeous!  It is easily the best looking Dreamcast game I have played to date. While most of the textures do look washed out and pixelated when you get up close and try to look at posters or signs. Overall the rendering quality is comperable to something on the Xbox. The thing that really blew me away with Shenmue was the detail of the environments. I spent almost 45 minutes walking through Ryo's (the main character) house, opening drawers and cabinets. Even if there is nothing usable in the drawers, you can still zoom in and get a look at what's inside. On occasion you will be able to pick up things and hold them in Ryo's hand to get an even closer look. There are even entire rooms and buildings that you have no reason to visit, but have been modelled and populated with NPC's and items, just to complete the feeling of immersion.

The game also features a daytime cycle. Ryo gets up at either 8:30 or 7:30 (depending on where you are in the games story) and heads out the front door just as the sun has finished rising. Businesses are only open during certain hours and people go about their business as you would expect. In the later hours in the day, the sun sets and the street lights come on. People begin to head home as businesses close up for the day. If you head over to the street where the bars are located, you will find stumbling drunks roaming the streets in the late hours of the night.

It's a good thing Shenmue is so good looking, because you will be seeing quite a bit of it through the course of the game. Most of which consists of walking around asking "Do you know where so-and-so is?" Once you find the thing you have been asking about, the game rewards you with a martial arts battle or quick time event. Then throws something new for you to go look for. This mundane repition of go find X, fight X, go find Y and so on, got boring really fast. To the games credit though, most of the advice you get from the NPC's is very helpful and you never spend more than an hour looking for just one thing. So the game progresses at a good pace. So while I was annoyed by the endless searching, I kept playing because the pacing of the game was very well done.

My only other gripe about the game is because you do so much detective work, there is very little fighting. I am willing to estimate that there are more quick time events then there are full on battles. Which is a shame, because the fighting in Shenmue is one of my favorite parts of the game. There are plenty of moves and combinations that you can learn and use in battle. I would have enjoyed a bit more fighting then there was.

The last gripe I have with Shenmue is the ending. I want to avoid spoilers, so I can not go into much detail. Basically, things are left unexplained and you will have to play Shenmue 2 to get the rest of the story. To make matters worse, I have heard that Shenmue 2 has a similarly styled ending which leads into the never produced Shenmue 3. Although I cannot say that for certain as I have only played the first 20 minutes of Shenmue 2.

So, while Shenmue is likely the best looking game on the Dreamcast and is unparalelled in it's level of immersion on the system, the detective novel gameplay and anti-climactic ending will leave you hungry for more. So if you want to see what your Dreamcast can really do and don't mind being hung out to dry with an open ended "ending", put some Shenmue in your Dreamcast.

Download this video as WMV FLV

Download this video as WMV FLV