That's what I had hoped the game would deliver, but in the end, I was disappointed with it. That was one game that I just flat out overhyped and it ruined the experience for me. I remember having a CDR full of Shenmue videos and everything. I was totally obessed with it for the longest time, but when I finally played it, the game failed to deliver what I wanted.VanMardigan said:Shenmue alone was worth the price of admission. What an experience. I would boot up that game long after I finished it just to soak in the atmosphere. It sounds weird, but the game really made me feel like I was in the environment, unlike any other game I've played. I literally felt like I was in Shenmue's world, with all the characters and their daily routines, etc.
In particular, I stupidly assumed that the level of detail present in the first house of the game would be seen throughout the game. I also expected a city sized world. The fact that the game is broken up into so many tiny loading zones really killed the experience of existing within the world. I should have known that creating such a detailed environment and streaming all of that data would have been impossible on Dreamcast hardware, but I guess my faith was misplaced.
I still thought it was a good game (Shenmue II being even better), but I enjoyed it for different reasons than expected. It's just such a shame that the game was plagued by so many load screens (especially SMII). It was just too much.