that will make any and every hardcore Sega Dreamcast fan

break out in a cold sweat

and it's name is Shenmue.

It was billed as the most interactive and immersive game of its time.

Beginning life as a Sega Saturn game starring Virtua Fighter characters

Shenmue blossomed in to a massive, 16-chapter epic

created and produced by Yu Suzuki

a man best known for some of Sega's most memorable arcade hits

such as Outrun, Afterburner and Virtua Cop.

Shenmue was Suzuki's magnum opus

and Sega put all of its weight behind the game.

Until it was beaten by Grand Theft Auto 4 in 2008

Shenmue was the single most expensive game the industry had ever produced

costing over 70 million dollars to create.

Today, ten years after the launch of the Sega Dreamcast

and around nine years since the first game was released

it's clear that Shenmue did not set the world on fire.

But ask any ardent Sega fan and they will tell you:

Shenmue was amazing.

But was it amazing enough to justify its 70 million dollar price tag?

Ryo: "No!"

Shenmue follows the story of Ryo Hazuki in 1980's Japan.

As Ryo arrives home one day

he bares witness to his father, Iwao Hazuki

doing battle with a man named Lan Di.

Lan Di is seeking an ancient artifact called the "Dragon Mirror".

After Ryo's father reveals its hidden location in order to spare his son's life

Lan Di murders Iwao in front of Ryo's very eyes.

This sparks Ryo to hunt down Lan Di and exact his revenge

while simultaneously learning the secret

of why the "Dragon Mirror" was so important to him

The first Shenmue game is considered only "Chapter One" of

Ryo's planned sixteen-chapter quest, and involves

raising enough money to leave Japan and travel to Hong Kong

the last known place that Lan Di was seen.

Shenmue 2 picks up as Ryo docks in Aberdeen

following him through chapters Three, Four and Five

of the Shenmue storyline.

Over the course of the series we learn that

Lan Di is one of several high-ranking members of

the Chi You Men, a powerful chinese crime syndicate.

The Dragon Mirror - and its counterpart, the Phoenix Mirror

are to bring about the resurrection of the Qing Dynasty

an ancient Chinese rule known for their

tyrannical and barbaric practices.

Though the story begins grounded in reality

towards the end of Shenmue 2, the game begins to hint at concepts like

destiny, and the mystical arts, suggesting

Lan Di sought the mirrors for the otherworldly powers they posses.

Unfortunately, because no games were

ever produced after Shenmue 2

not much else is known beyond this point.

Though Sega and Yu Suzuki

coined a new genre for the game called

Full

Full Reactive

Full Reactive Eyes

Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment

Shenmue is primarily a 3D Adventure game

with an overbearing emphasis on immersion.

As Ryo, your primary goal is playing detective

as you gather clues about your father's murder

and Lan Di's whereabouts.

This means talking with people on the street

asking them questions about the day of the murder

and following up any leads.

The world in Shenmue is governed by a clock, just like real life

and as you roam around cities, day will eventually turn to night.

If it gets too late, Ryo will be forced to go home and get some rest.

The clock plays in to more than just a graphical effect, though

if you make an appointment to meet somebody at a specific time

and you get there early, you must wait for them to arrive.

This plays a fairly large role in the game

as certain locations are only available at certain times of the day

Ryo will typically wake up before most shops open in the morning

and seedy locations such as bars are only open late at night.

Should Ryo find himself in a bad situation

the game usually presents the player

with one of two ways to deal with it:

the now-famous

Quick

Quick-Time

Quick-Time Event

which involves watching a cutscene and pressing a button when prompted to

or a more traditional fighting game engine

reminiscent of games like Virtua Fighter.

Though it'll be hours before you see

any of this stuff in the first Shenmue

Shenmue 2 ups the ante considerably, throwing you

into multiple encounters within 20 minutes of stepping off the boat

and it's these moments that really help liven up the slower parts of the game.

Between appointments, Ryo can waste time (and money)

at the video arcade playing classics

like Outrun and Afterburner

practice his martial arts skills in empty parking lots

seek out side quests, or do part time jobs for extra money.

Even with all of these distractions, however, you'll occasionally find yourself

with spare time to kill and nothing to do.

All of this is done in the name of immersion

Shenmue is paced this way to give the game a sense of reality.

To intentionally make parts of your game boring

strictly for the sake of realism is a bold move

and depending on the type of person you are

this will make or break Shenmue for you.

Shenmue 2 makes strides to avoid these boring moments

by including a feature to "fast forward" to an appointed time

but there's simply no avoiding the tedium

of a part-time job involving moving crates.

But for those who really understand Shenmue and what

it is trying to do, the game provides

an unparalleled sense of immersion.

Just like real life, there are hundreds of people

that populate Shenmue's towns and cities

and each character looks and sounds unique

though most of them obviously have no reason to talk to you.

Woman: "I'm sorry, but"

"I don't have time to talk right now."

Likewise, the world is stocked with thousands of objects

for Ryo interact with

allowing you to look in places that most games explicitly ignore

even if they don't contain anything you can use.

Even today, there are few games that offer

anything close to this amount of detail.

All of Shenmue's game mechanics work towards

the singular ideal that you aren't just playing as Ryo Hazuki

you ARE Ryo Hazuki

seeing and experiencing every exciting

or mundane moment the world has to offer.

It's this unflinching dedication to immersion and realism

that was one of Shenmue's many undoings.

Though the game was only on the fifth of

sixteen planned chapters

Shenmue and its sequel did not sell anywhere near enough to justify

its ridiculous production costs

and Sega was already in enough financial trouble

with the Playstation 2 digging a grave for the Dreamcast.

In the end, Shenmue's intimate sense of immersion

became a double-edged sword

all of those who became so heavily invested

in living the life of Ryo Hazuki would never see

the story get proper closure.

Lan Di would go unpunished

and the fate of the two mirrors would be left a mystery.

Perhaps it was for the best

to many people, Shenmue was simply

paced too slowly

and by the time Shenmue 2 made an effort to

streamline the game mechanics

the damage had already been done.

But regardless of how many people

appreciated the goals Shenmue was trying to accomplish

it was these kinds of daring, weird games that had come to define

the Sega Dreamcast, and you'll have

a hard time finding any game that matches Shenmue in

tone, style, and pure ambition.

Ryo: "Ah, good."