Way of the Samurai 3 review
Way of the Samurai has been one of the more interesting franchises this decade. The third installment in the series follows the same principle: you play a Samurai ancient Japan, during a time where different groups and clans are at war, and you don’t have alliance to any particular one of them. You’re free to do what you want, fight whoever you want. Despite the great premise and open ended gameplay, the series has suffered from various issues, ranging from controls to combat, and sadly, the third installment doesn’t improve much on those ends.
The gameplay can mostly be described as Grand Theft Auto in ancient Japan — at least to the extent that you play a character and have a number of possibilities, can pick and chose your fights. Way of the Samurai features a truly open ended gameplay, where the choices you take will lead you in different paths — in all, there are a possible 15 endings to the game. While the game is open ended, the game world is not large by any means. There are only half a dozen or so locations and towns, which can all be explored in a few hours. The sandbox style is a great feature, but when the sandbox is very small, it really becomes pointless. Which is very much the case with Samurai 3.
You can start off anywhere you want, and your possibilities are open from the get go. You can talk to people, and chose to kill them immediately, which, of course will affect your game. The people you kill won’t be respawed for the remainder of the game, so chose your friends and enemies wisely. However, there are some flaws to the system, some will simply be replaced by another character, doing the same job, and unaware that the guy he replaced was cut in half by your sword. You can also kill the head of a clan, his bodyguards, and then rule the clan. However, that’s easier said that done (obviously). You can also do simpler tasks than killing, for instance, doing side gigs for people, delivering messages, finding items etc. This quickly gets boring, as your rewards are rarely worth the effort.
Combat wise, the game is somewhat awkward. It’s not a straight sword slashing game like Assassin’s Creed. Instead, it’s a ratings based combat, and the one who has better skill ratings, will usually win, no matter how good you are with the controller. It’s a strange mix with the worst from turn-based action and the worst from button mashing, and the result is really disappointing. As a game that’s based on sword fighting and Samurais, this is quite a big let down. Technically, the game looks dated, even though it’s the first time the series is featured on the Xbox 360 and PS3, and looks something that would pass as “gorgeous” on the Xbox, half a decade ago. Likewise, there are serious camera issues, which pop up at the worst times; during combat. While the game has a great premise and story, its execution is too poor to recommend to anyone, especially since there are so many great RPGs out there these days.
The Good:
Interesting concept
Good story
The Bad:
Bad execution
Horrendous visuals
Camera issues
Combat isn’t really skill based
Overall score: 4/10