When its existence was first rumored, Shenmue was known as the "Virtua Fighter RPG." That name, for fans of the fighting game series, likely conjured up wishful visions of Akira Yuki fighting his way through a variety of trials. As the project moved on, however, it was later dubbed "Project Berkeley" and then finally, Shenmue. Doubtlessly any initial visions conjured up by the Virtua Fighter connection slowly faded away, but the initial interest surely remained. Yu Suzuki, best known for focused gaming experiences such as Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA, was producing a game that was a departure from his usual style and, according to Sega's PR, marked the creation of a new genre - FREE, short for "Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment." Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment is supposed to offer an intensely realistic world, with a constant passage of time and unparalleled interactivity. While it may not live up to these lofty claims, Shenmue is a truly impressive experience.

Without revealing more than the game's introduction, the basic plot of the game is fairly straightforward. You're Ryo Hazuki, and your father has just been murdered before your eyes. All Ryo knows is the killer's name, Lan Di, the fact that he took a mirror, the basic details of the car he arrived in and the men he was with. Armed with this knowledge, Ryo now must find out what happened that day and how he can get to Lan Di to exact his revenge.

The game starts a few days after the "incident," as you'll soon come to know it. You'll quickly be thrust into the game's main mode, "Free Quest." This mode is similar in execution to the exploration portions of an RPG or a PC adventure game.  You'll wander around and explore various locales, such as your house and the streets of Yokosuka, as your day ticks away on the always-moving clock. What's impressive about this mode is the sheer range of people and objects you can interact with. You can talk to everybody. Not everyone will be helpful, but you can engage every individual you come into contact with. Items and objects offer a little less freedom, but you can interact with a surprising range of items. Want a drink? Go to the vending machine.  Build a little collection of toys from the capsule toy machines. The quest mode doesn't prompt you along. You can proceed at your own pace.  In the early going, this will be a blessing as you explore and tinker with things. The game starts out slow, but if you take an interest in the world and all the neat little distractions you can occupy yourself with, you'll hardly notice. Soon things will start moving along, as Ryo's search develops in a realistic manner, starting out in a scattershot fashion, but eventually becoming more focused as he learns more about the day of the incident.  

As the game progresses, you'll experience other gameplay elements, including Free Battle and Quick Timer Events (QTE for short). In free battle, you enter into a Virtua Fighter or Spikeout style beat-em-up, with full control over how Ryo dispatches the bad guys. This mode is well executed and may be the game's biggest draw for a lot of Suzuki's fans. The free battle mode is surprisingly deep, and Ryo has a wide range of moves at his disposal that makes it a lot of fun. QTEs, on the other hand, limit your control, prompting button presses as they're required. These are the parts of the game that led to pre-release criticisms of Shenmue being an attractive full-3D Dragon's Lair.  While the mechanics of this mode are similar to the old laserdisc game, Shenmue doesn't ask you to match the on-screen prompts exactly, and the QTE portions of the game are not the main focus.  They make for a fun change of pace after you've been wandering around for a full in-game day searching for clues and information.  While it would have been nice if there were more action oriented elements in the game, the mixture of exploration and fast action makes for a very entertaining experience that's a major change-up from typical all-action or all-exploration games. While the mix could be tweaked, it's a fairly intoxicating cocktail as is. On top of these elements, there are also playable versions of the Sega classics Hang-On and Space Harrier available in the local arcade. If you ever wanted those two games at home, you might want to buy Shenmue just for them.

If you haven't heard about the game's graphics yet, you must have had a great hiding place for the past year.  Shenmue is the perfect showcase of why games eventually need to move on to next generation systems.  The game is a graphical showpiece, with amazingly lifelike environments and well-modeled characters.  Many characters show realistic facial expressions when they get emotional, and the changes in the game's environment are simply stunning.  As time passes, day turns to dusk and then night, while the sky takes on different hues and places take on different feels as the light changes.  Snow piles up on the streets and rain ripples in puddles while giving the days a dull look.  A few places in the game are afflicted with slight slowdown, but this doesn't cause gameplay problems at all.  Another problem is that characters will materialize into view from out of nowhere when Ryo is almost right next to them.  Still, the overall graphical splendor of Shenmue is undeniable.  You may have seen more detailed characters in a game like Soul Calibur, but Shenmue is probably the greatest graphical achievement on the Dreamcast yet – a fully realized three-dimensional world that looks and feels alive.  While the idea that gameplay and graphics exist detached from one another is a concept many gamers cling to, Shenmue may be an exception.  Suzuki's world is so authentic that it really helps immerse you into the game.  Without the cutting-edge graphics, the enjoyment of exploring the world just might not have been the same. 

The music and environmental sound effects in the game are superb.  The orchestral portions of the soundtrack are beautiful compositions that fit the game perfectly.  Other location specific soundtracks don't offer the same sort of listening pleasure, but they are appropriate for their locations. As you walk through Yokosuka, the sounds of life and business permeate the air in a very believable manner.  As the snow starts piling up, your footsteps will start to crunch when you step in snow.  The sounds of the bustle in Yokosuka's business district are well contrasted by those in peaceful areas, such as the little pond at the Hazuki house.  

If only the voice acting were as good as the other sounds of the game.  Unfortunately, while many of the voices for main characters are well done, bit players' voices are generally substandard and, at times, completely laughable, especially the voices of local children.  The dialogue itself is not so bad, but some of the reading is just awful.  On average, the voice acting is slightly sub par.  Regardless, I didn't consider it to be a significant detriment to the game, and I left it on - perhaps because most of the important characters who are involved at important plot points are relatively well-voiced.  For gamers who are intensely annoyed by the quality of the voice acting, the option to turn off voices altogether and have conversations in subtitles only is available.  

The game's control scheme takes a while to get used to, as it requires you to walk using the digital pad.  Looking around is mapped to the analog stick. This will feel weird, as most Dreamcast games have conditioned players to use analog control first.  Digital control can make getting around a bit touchy, but there's nothing really wrong with the system.  For people who find the Dreamcast's digital pad imprecise, QTEs may be a bit difficult, but the actual responsiveness of the control in these segments is fine.  The biggest trouble comes in the free battle portions of the game. The control is very responsive, although the buttons used in the mode seem to be laid out a bit strangely. While otherwise very enjoyable, free battle is marred somewhat by an annoying camera.  It would have been nice had the camera followed Ryo in a left-right manner, but sometimes Ryo is facing the screen, or away from it. In these situations, you've got to account for the direction he's looking to properly perform his moves, and it can be a bit awkward. This isn't to say that the control is bad, it's well above average, but it could be better if these issues were dealt with, perhaps via a camera reset button and the freedom to reconfigure the controls.  

Shenmue is an engaging first look into Ryo's story, and will hook many gamers in to see what will happen to the lad in Shenmue 2.  The plot is simple but it's handled well, being both easy to follow and believable.  People who want a thousand crazy plot twists, like a shocking revelation that Ryo is the son of Tom, the Caribbean-American hot dog stand owner, may be disappointed.  Perhaps Shenmue 2 will be the time for shocking revelations.  

Yu Suzuki has succeeded in producing a detailed and vibrant world for gamers to work their way through. While much of the achievement of Shenmue is technical, the game itself is well worth playing and highly recommended. The worst thing about Shenmue is the knowledge that the sequel is probably at least a year away.