For those unfamiliar with Shenmue, Lan Di murdered Ryo's father after gaining possession of the Dragon Mirror. This forms one half of a powerful artifact that, when combined with the Phoenix Mirror, can give the owner unspeakable powers. The start of Ryo's quest was in his hometown in Japan and eventually leads him embarking into unknown territory in the city of Hong Kong.

Shenmue II, originally a sequel on the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast finally arrives on the Xbox, from the mind of legendary developer Yu Suzuki (of Virtua Fighter and Daytona fame just to name a couple). The game is a third person adventure that combines various styles of gameplay and blends them in with a story that pulls the player in and doesn't let go till the end.

So where do we begin? Taking control of Ryo, your quest is to try and gain information leading to the revenge of Lan Di, but when one appears in a city where trouble lurks round every corner, this is no easy feat.

The game is controlled with either an analog stick or the pad to guide Ryo through the city of Hong Kong from the wharf, to the slums and even into the markets. All along the way Ryo can talk to any person he pleases from a fisherman down at the docks to children playing in the park. There is a very high level of interaction within the game and you never get the impression that you are confined to a certain path. As mentioned before, the actual game is made up of various styles of gameplay. For a majority of the game it is third person, but sometimes Ryo must defend himself. These can be in the form of two styles.

One is a 3d fighter very much in the mould of Virtua Fighter utilizing the four buttons for kicks, punches, evasion and grabs. This worked quite well in the prequel, but has been affected by the camera angles on the Xbox version. To the spectator it looks like you are watching some sort of martial arts film, but as the player it can be very hard to see the location of your opponents.

The other style of defense comes in the form of Quick Time Events, or referred to as "QTE". Although these are used in some of the jobs that Ryo does throughout his quest, they are primarily used for the action scenes. For example, Ryo has seen someone he was looking for and chases the person in question. As Ryo runs after him certain events happen along the way, when an event is approaching a button or direction will flash on the screen for about one second. Should you be successful in pressing the allocated button in the required time Ryo will successfully make it through that event. During these QTE's there is no actual control over Ryo, the event just plays out. Sometimes if there are too many events failed there will be a retry, but occasionally the outcome will depend on whether you are successful or not.

The game revolves around a real world where time does matter, and everybody is going about their daily business. Ryo must work for money during the course of the game that can be used to buy goods, pay for accommodation or even for services from other folk. Working comes in the form of either physical work such as moving goods around, or looking after a gambling stand. As the story progresses the jobs change as well as introducing street fights for money. At the end of a full day Ryo must also go back to his place of dwelling, and choosing to go back before the curfew is entirely up to you. Should the time reach 11pm, then Ryo will automatically spawn back in his room 25 minutes later.

The graphics in Shenmue II work well, and so they should if it is to give the impression of a real world. However the fact that this is just a Dreamcast game converted to the Xbox is obvious. Although the frame rate doesn't drop in the busy sections like the original, there are not really too many improvements to be seen that utilize the capabilities available. The main characters faces do look improved and some moments of the game do reveal that some work has gone into the conversion, but there are still issues with ingame characters appearing out of nowhere, something that should've been fixed.

Ambience plays a big part in Shenmue and is pulled off well in the sound department. Everything that you can hear in the background matches the district you are in and adds to the overall immersion. This is all available in glorious Digital 5.1 for the cut scenes and surround for the actual gameplay. The actual interaction with the characters is well implemented and allows the player to choose the question depending on what you already know. Unfortunately some of the talking cannot be skipped and can lead to frustration when the words have been heard before time and time again.

Movement and looking throughout the districts is done via the analog stick or direction pad, but never both analog sticks. This is a bit of a shame when compared to other titles that are now using both sticks for these functions. The d-pad comes across stiff and not quite responsive enough for movement but also does not allow the freedom one would expect for looking. Speaking of movement, be warned, there can be a lot of running to and fro. Luckily asking someone for directions doesn't leave them pointing the finger and telling you "where to go". A majority of the citizens will be more than happy to lead you the way but this can still take time sometimes long enough to go and get a drink! Thankfully with a game of this size saving can be done almost anywhere, as long as there is no interaction going on.