Shenmue 2 (xboxdude56 Review)

Shenmue 2 was originally released on the Sega Dreamcast when it was still popular. It was actually the last game for that system. Well 3 years later it gets released on Xbox. Whats the difference between the Dreamcast version and Xbox version? The Xbox version comes on one disc not 3 or 4. The Xbox version also comes with a Shenmue DVD. The first Shenmue so if you havent played Shenmue on the Dreamcast, you can watch the DVD and find out whats happening.

Concept-In Shenmue 2 you take off exactly from where you left off in Shenmue. Ryo is on a quest to find the man who killed his father, Landi. He starts off coming in on a boat into the harbor of Hong Kong. There are tons of people walking around this massive world. You can talk to every single person and they all usually have something different to say. They can give you advice or just talk jibber-jabber. You make a lot of friends that will help you along the way. This game actually takes part in 3 different massive areas. You start out in Hong Kong(the biggest are), then you go to another part of Japan(2nd biggest) then you go to the hills of Japan (smallest)

Fighting-This game has something called QTE (quick time events). This happen randomly. You might be walking and all the sudden you have to press a certain button combination (ex: A, down) to dodge an attack from someone. These are not the funniest things but the fighting gets better. This game has a solid fighting system with tons of combos and grapples. Later in the game you can learn moves by practicing them until you get it right.

Graphics/Sound/Control-The graphics arent anything special. They look good but there not an improvement from the Dreamcast version. The music is incredible. They have giant scores created just for this game and it has a very catchy theme. The voice dubbing however isnt so great. It just doesnt look right when the person is talking and there voices are a little funky sounding. The controls are a little bit clunky and its hard to turn around. But this doesnt mean the fighting controls are.

Replay Value- High
Graphics- 5/10
Sound- 8/10
Controls- 5/10
Game Play- 10/10
Overall- 9/10