Compared to today's open-world games Shenmue I & II seem downright unimpressive at a first glance. But even though the world in Shenmue is ridiculously small, the side activities are very limited and the plot is barely anything more than a rather basic revenge story, Shenmue I & II are a very special and unique experience even today.

My impression during the first minutes of Shenmue were mixed. The game made me curious and for a 25 years old game the presentation is decent at the very least with especially detailed grafics and character models for the time and good music, which makes the game quite atmospheric and interesting to explore. On the other hand, the sound quality of the voices is very poor because it's extremely overcompressed and the controls seem a bit stiff and delayed at first.

The gameplay is super slow-paced. 95% of the time you just run through the various small areas and talk to people, trying to find clues that'll lead you to your father's murderer. The gameplay has barely any action at all and it is really just about exploring the gameworld, getting to know the important NPCs and soaking up the atmosphere, which I enjoyed quite a lot. It was very relaxing without being boring. Your diary always tells you in a very short and straight-forward manner what to do and where to go next to progress the story. Everything else is up to you to discover, so the game completely flows exactly as fast or slow as you wish. But as much as I see this as Shenmue's biggest strength, it might be the ultimate turn-off for other people. The games indeed feel just like an old tech demo sometimes, because the gameplay mechanics really aren't that deep. The combat (which occurs only very rarely) seems tactical at first with all those possible moves and combos that you can learn, but in the end half-arsed button mashing will absolutely get you through the majority of the game and probably only the very last few fights will give you a small challenge. Many action sequences are even further reduced and minimal and consist of simple and often slightly annoying quicktime-events.

Due to the limited gameplay mechanics, some parts of the game actually start to drag heavily. For example towards the end of Shenmue I i started to refer to it as the "forklift simulator", because it forces you to repeatedly race the exact same unskipable forklift race and then just makes you drive around crates from point A to Point B for hours on end. Shenmue I & II really feel like a mundane nine-to-five job at certain times and if that was the developers goal, then they fully succeeded.
Some people may also criticize that Shenmue II does next to nothing to really innovate and neither develops the gameplay formula nor the presentation. It looks, sounds and feels literally just like a big add-on to Shenmue I, but as a positive Shenmue II's seamless continuation of the story and consistency in the controls, presentation and artstyle form a very cohesive experience in combination with Shenmue I. At least the streets of Hongkong in Shenmue II are more colourful and lively than the small japanese town in Shenmue I and it also has better music in my opinion but that's purely subjective.

In the end, after easily fixing some minor grafics glitches and getting to grips with the slightly stiff controls I actually started to enjoy Shenmue quite a lot. Due to its slow pacing, great atmosphere, relaxing music and low overall difficulty it's the perfect game for stressful times when you really just need to shut down for an hour or two and immerse yourself into a well-made and atmospheric world. If it weren't for the somewhat stiff controls, overcompressed sound, a few dragging sections and the generally non-existent replay value, Shenmue I & II would easily be a solid 5 (maybe even 6) out of 8, but the gameplay premise is indeed somewhat of an acquired taste and it might be just too slow and "unexciting" for people who are looking for some action, so for currently 35 Euros at full price this collection is way too expensive. Highly recommended if you are looking for a more relaxed and atmospheric adventure experience though.
_________________________________________________________________________________

SHENMUE I & II
Genre: Adventure / Open-World Sandbox / Fighting
Release: Q3 2018

( ) 0/8 Simply one of the worst games ever made. Don't waste any money on this.
( ) 1/8 Bad. Seriously flawed with barely any redeeming qualities. Worth a couple of Cents at best, if at all.
( ) 2/8 Sub-par. Only for hardcore-fans of respective genre / series. Don't pay more than 5 bucks.
( ) 3/8 Meh-diocre. It‘s okay. Don't pay more than 10 bucks.
(X) 4/8 Decent, but not for everybody. Don't pay more than 15 bucks.
( ) 5/8 Good game, Must-play for genre- / series-fans. Worth 20 to 25 bucks max, if you are not a fan.
( ) 6/8 Great game, universal recommendation. 30 bucks would be a steal for this.
( ) 7/8 Outstanding game, a milestone of it‘s respective genre. Definitely worth its full prize.
( ) 8/8 Simply one of the best games ever made. Get this, the prize doesn't matter.