Possibly the worst game i've ever played.
I used to love WotS2 on the PS2 so i was more than pleased when i saw WotS3 was out on the 360. The back of the box tells of a big open world full of oportunity and over 21 endings ! ooh wow yippee, Its just a shame it sucks harder than a sex starved nymphomaniac in a back alley.
The "open world" should not even be described as "open world" because its all split into about 7 or so tiny areas of play. When i say "tiny" i really mean it. Some of the playable areas are nothing more than a stretch of road with nothing to do at all.
All the areas are uninspired and small with nothing to do but go find the job giving person or a main character and start a pathetic conversation or do some grubby little errand.
The conversations in this game only serve to destroy any chance of involvement you may have otherwise developed. For starters the game isnt set in a real world, it is infact set as a game ! and people seem to know its a game which destroys any sense of immersion. I confronted 2 bullies who were harrassing a woman and one of them said "your not going to draw you weapon with LB are you ?". I just face palmed in disgust.
Another person i met who knows that the world is just a game was a woman who is there to help you out with getting to know about the game. You ask her questions about movement and other such things which should have been put in the pause menu like in every other game but in WotS3 you get to chit chat to some douche on the street.
You start the game having no idea who you are, why you are there or what the hell to do. It dosnt even give you a clue as to where to go. If this were an amnesia plotline and your trying to work out who you are then it would be clever but its not, its just that the game makers are incredibly lazy.
So there you are, running around doing jobs such as searching for an old ladies panties (seriously, it happens) and joining a gang that you know nothing about just because you figure you might as well and you think things cant get worse. Well in a way they dont get worse, they mostly just stay on that same level of pointlesness throughout the whole game but one thing you descover more and more as you journey through this trash is that the game makers are so incredibly lazy and half arsed about this game that even seem to knowingly make the dialogue stupid and nonsensical as a sort of giggle to themselves. I can imagine them sat in their homes just chuckling and saying to themselves "hehe, i still cant believe we got away with so much crap in that game".
Im really trying to find something good to say about this game but i really cant find anything.
The graphics are no better than they were on the PS2, infact the characters now dont even look like they are touching the ground they are standing on, it looks more like they are all floating 4 inchest above ground.
The sound is very repeative with no real variation which makes the world seem all the more flat and half arsed.
The combat is boring and uninspired. You can learn new moves but theres no real point in using them and you have to learn the moves for each weapon you use, its not a case of your character learning new moves and using them with any sword, its a case of each weapon has to learn each move individualy and seperately which is just stupid.
One thing that really bugs me is the way Samurai are protrayed in the game. Im very much into Samurai and martial arts and it pains me to see them protrayed as mindless moronic scum who are disrespected by everyone they see and expected to do menial tasks for any douche bag who asks.
Its just not Samurai. They should have called it "Way of the Odd Job Guy 3".
I guess this is the way that certain anime genres are protraying samurai these days and this must be what those kids want but for anyone who wants a good actual samurai game this is far from it.
Im really dissapointed and for the first time in my gaming life i honestly feel robbed and cheated.