Shenmue

Shenmue is a truly great achievement. It is an innovative and ground-breaking game.

As Ryo, you wil explore many places in an attempt to find clues leading to the man who killed your father. The sun rises and sets just like in the real world, but at a faster pace. A hour is about five minutes in Shenmue. Each clue leads to another where you will find more information about your fathers death.

The graphics in this game are incredible. Everything looks beautiful in the morning dew. It is an amazing sight to see the snow fall and the rain splash. As you bask in the warm orange glow of the setting sun, you will realize what I mean about amazing graphics. The sound and music in Shenmue is also unbeliavable. Each song goes perfectly with the location, and each sound effect adds to the mood. You hear a dog barking in the morning and a crow cawing in the evening. It's amazing.

The controls are fairly simple, but can be a bit frustrating at times. You move Ryo with the D-pad, and "A" is the action button. L trigger causes Ryo to run, and the Analog pad is used to look around at your surroundings. Also, during fight scenes, you will go into a Virtua Fighter Style battle using the moves that you have learned. You can practice fighting at certain places in the game. Additionaly at certain parts during the game you will go into QTE mode where you have to press the button that flashes on scren at the right time. This is very exicting because you don't know what is going to happen. Also if you mess up, the game gives you many other chances to try again. Thats nice.

The gameplay basically consists of Ryo walking around and finding clues to his fathers killer. This is extremly enjoyable though. Perhaps the coolest part of the game is how everyone goes about there day. you see people walking to work in the morning, eating luch at noon, and going home at night. You feel like you are in a real world. You can also examine almost anything. Additionaly, another very cool feature is the arcade games you can play. They have full versions of Space Harrier and Hang-On, along with other newly created games. I like the darts game, I even bought a dart board because of it! But maybe the best feature of all is the fact that you can do whatever you want everyday. You go out to the Arcade or casino everyday and waste all your money, or you can spend your time honing you martial arts skills. You don't have to go along with the quest if you don't want to.

In short, Shenmue is just a great game with so much to do. You feel like you are in a living, breathing world the whole time. The game also makes you feel like you are Ryo with all the kick-butt moves. I believe everyone should at least rent this game.