Shadow Warrior 3 is literally about chasing the dragon

The first trailer is a doozy

Shadow Warrior 2 ended on a cliffhanger. At the end, and here are some vague spoilers for a game that released four years ago, an ancient dragon is accidentally freed from its eternal prison.

That brings us to the third game in the rebooted series. Whether or not developer Flying Wild Hog meant for the allegorical parallel to opium dens, Shadow Warrior 3 is about chasing the dragon. Publisher Devolver Digital sums up the plot by saying “Lo Wang must traverse uncharted parts of the world to track down the dark beast and push the apocalypse back yet again. All it will take is the mask of a dead god, a dragons egg, a touch of magic, and enough firepower to tear down the encroaching Shadowlands.”

Although this trailer is qualified as a “teaser,” it’s chunkier than most teasers. It outwardly confirms the existence of Shadow Warrior 3, it reveals some new mechanics (grappling hook and wall running!), and it gives us that ultra-gory violence we’ve come to expect — complete with Lo Wang ripping out a demon’s spine a la Mortal Kombat.

More information about Shadow Warrior 3 is just on the horizon. The first gameplay trailer will debut during Devolver’s Direct on July 11. Among the unknowns, we don’t have platforms for this third stab at Shadow Warrior — hopefully it’s next-gen! — and we don’t have a release window. And just like that, Lo Wang flips the bird and peaces out. What a badass.