Shenmue 3 is out now after an 18 year wait

18 years after its predecessor was released, Shenmue 3 is out today on PC. The third instalment in the series continues the vengeful quest of a young Japanese martial artist named Ryo Hazuki—who is exactly as old as the gap between Shenmue 2 and 3—as he goes to China on a quest to avenge his father's death. And, don't worry, the forklift minigame makes a return.

To celebrate Shenmue 3's release, Deep Silver has released a 7-minute behind the scenes mini-documentary about how they made the world of Shenmue look and feel alive with modern technology but not losing the feel of the older titles. It's pretty insightful, so give it a watch below.

After an overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter, backed by more than 81,000 fans with a total of nearly $7.2 million, Shenmue set a record for the most funded videogame Kickstarters but unfortunately, Shenmue 3 hasn't had the most peaceful of releases. First, it gathered controversy over its Epic exclusivity and then over Kickstarter pre-order bonuses.

We've mostly liked what Shenmue 3 has to offer so far. Sam and Andy got the change to play Shenmue 3 at E3 2019 and wrote up some hand-on impressions with Andy's review to be up on the site later this week.

Rachel had been bouncing around different gaming websites as a freelancer and staff writer for three years before settling at PC Gamer back in 2019. She mainly writes reviews, previews, and features, but on rare occasions will switch it up with news and guides. When she's not taking hundreds of screenshots of the latest indie darling, you can find her nurturing her parsnip empire in Stardew Valley and planning an axolotl uprising in Minecraft. She loves 'stop and smell the roses' games—her proudest gaming moment being the one time she kept her virtual potted plants alive for over a year.