Tis the season of festive sales in video game land, and the Epic Games Store has now thrown open its shutters and bellowed news of its own discount offerings into the cold winter night, which includes the return of its daily “mystery gift” free games, starting with Shenmue 3.
Shenmue 3 is, of course, the long, long, long-awaited third instalment in developer Yu Suzuki’s classic action-adventure series, which finally arrived in 2019 following a gap of 18 years between it and its predecessor. Picking up where Shenmue 2 left off, part 3 sees protagonist Ryo Hazuki resume his quest for vengeance after the murder of his father in the original, delivering a new chapter that Eurogamer’s Martin Robison called both “archaic and arcane” and “a worthy successor to what many consider an all-time great” in his review.
It is, then, perhaps a little niche as a launching point for this year’s series of festive giveaways on the Epic Games Store, but still one worthy of your time, provided you’re in the mood for action that feels like it was sealed in a time bubble and spat forward 20 years to the present day.
As for what comes next, Epic is keeping its remaining mystery gifts a mystery, but it confirmed it’ll be introducing one new freebie every 24 hours for the next 15 days. And although the company hasn’t spelled out its schedule precisely, a leak last week (which correctly named Shenmue 3 as the first freebie) claimed the first 14 titles would remain free for 24 hours while the final game would stick around for a week, until 6th January.