Erelenus
07-30-2011, 10:34 PM
Quick Blurb: A game for the hardier player. Not very newbie friendly, but worth figuring out for a unique and entertaining FPS/RPG experience.
Well, I've just beaten the game (I clocked in at around 12 hours, just doing the main quest-- haven't gone back for side quests yet, as I believe I read somewhere they're coop oriented. also, if my time worries you, bear in mind I'm very experienced with FPS's and RPG's, so I was probably a bit faster than many will be).
Disclaimer: This is personal opinion. Yada, yada. You know the drill.
I'll break this into categories. If you want the short version, skip to the bottom of each category or just go right to the bottom of the review for summaries.
Combat:
It's been said all over the place: the combat is tight, responsive, and right where it should be. The gunplay is good and you can approach combat from multiple angles. I've cloaked and melee'd, I've used magic (Exploding things is fun), and I've relied on my assault rifle. I found all of this to be really entertaining, though for the most part I was only toying with melee since I'm not entirely melee oriented. I wouldn't recommend it for starters, since I think you need to understand the game better before you start trying to chop off heads, since you'll need to figure out how to get in close without being killed first.
9.8/10 for combat. Some of the guns don't feel quite right, but overall it can be diverse and entertaining.
RPG Elements:
One thing I adore is that you can change the overall path of the story. That's a fantastic touch. You can also affect how the missions play out, even going as far as changing the objectives by messing up or doing well. Yes, this counts as a role playing element. Though I'll admit that the biggest decision came along... rather suddenly. Perhaps I skimmed over something important (Though I read 90% of the dialogue).
Character customization in terms of stats, skills, abilities, and research adds a lot of depth. You can take your character down many paths, so long as they're strategically sound. The game does a TERRIBLE job of explaining these elements (ESPECIALLY research), but I'll take points off for that later.
Also, for the sake of helping people out: research unlocks further things you can purchase while occasionally modifying your stats. I'd bother with stats and skills at first and mess around with research a lot more later on.
One final note: research is a creative way of surprising the player. You have no idea what will result from each thing you research (Well, you can reason that medkit research will... get you a medkit, and so on). This makes research an almost addictive and surprising element for the game.
9.5/10. Points deducted because the guesswork can screw you over at times. I prefer transparency, as it helps to keep the player from wasting time, but I like the element of surprise too, so I didn't deduct as much as I could have.
Story:
I don't want to spoil much. The back story is great. The in-game story starts off slow but ultimately takes off. I won't say how or why, but I felt it was fairly good. Also, you could change the course of the story, as mentioned in the RPG section above.
Unfortunately, what wasn't good was the writing. I found most of it to be very amateur-- on a level I really didn't expect. Perhaps it's because things were translated into English. Maybe I should play it in French instead, but that doesn't change the fact that the English dialogue was just... bad. As a direct result, many of the characters came across as either weirdos or jerks and I had little reason to care for anyone at any point.
Due to the bad dialogue and poor characterization, I give it a 7/10 for story. The background and overall story as well as the final twists boost the score considerably. Opinions will greatly vary for this.
Level Design:
I didn't have much issue with the level design. It was all fairly well done. Not top notch, but well done. I had a tendency to get lost in missions, without much of an idea of where to go next, which led to me wandering the level for a while until I stumbled across the proper thing to do. Perhaps more waypoints at certain junctions would help with this, but I feel it was how the game was intended to play out, making you think about what to do next-- or maybe I'm just an idiot.
Also, turn up the lights a little! I deducted .5 for that alone. It felt too dark, ESPECIALLY considering our flashlights are useless. Using the optics enhancement helps, but also forces you to play much of the game with it, which is just... ugly and wastes the atmosphere (Think of the detective mode in Batman: Arkham Asylum for an example: it's useful, but hurts the feel of the game a little). I turned up my brightness and the game was plenty playable, but I felt almost guilty about doing so.
7.5/10 for level design. It was atmospheric, though occasionally confusing and hard to navigate, but overall functional. It shows promise, if anything. I'm sure the developer can do better with future releases.
Difficulty:
Yes, this is getting its own section. I played through on normal difficulty. Much of the game actually wasn't all that hard, but instead felt pretty spot on. I didn't die often, but I did often emerge from fights pretty badly bruised.
At least, until the final mission. That was a doozy. There's also a mission early on that many people have complained about, where you're attacked for three minutes straight. I died three times there. The difficulty for that fight should probably be toned down or more options for approaching it should be added. The final mission could also stand to be toned down just a bit, but I can't really explain that without spoiling things, and frankly I only played through ONE of the potential finales. I assume there are others.
Then there's the learning curve. I didn't have much trouble with the learning curve, but many people have. Better tutorials need to be given to more clearly explain things. Perhaps even example builds for the lesser RPG players out there-- though example builds would also help more experienced players to grasp how things work. This includes examples on what cybernetics to get, and perhaps an example of how research works (As in a video showing something researched and then showing the result. It's a mild spoiler, but would really help to clarify things).
EDIT: I'll stick this in here. The save system saves all major objectives completed, however, for the sake of immersion, should you leave the game or die with a resurrector handy, the game assumes you travel back to HQ and then back to the map you were on, starting you off AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LEVEL. These levels are *big*, so that can be a nuisance. Checkpoints would've been nice. However, I did not personally mind this, since it never took me more than ten minutes to get back to where I was, tops. Though I will deduct points for it, as many find it annoying.
7.5/10 for difficulty, due to some balancing issues with some sections being too hard and the confusion for the first few hours over how things work, as well as the save system being a hindrance to newer players.
In Summary:
The game is great. It's a unique title in today's market that brings its own atmosphere and some great FPS/RPG hybrid elements that work out well. The story could use some work, particularly with the writing, and the difficulty could use some mild smoothing out, but overall I'm very impressed with what was done here. I'm seriously going to replay the game right after posting this.
What I feel this game deserves: 8/10
What I'd feel it deserves should it receive proper polish: 8.8/10
What the above scores average out to: 8.26/10
Should you buy it? If you're a forgiving player who doesn't mind that it's not casual or newbie friendly and you find the idea of the game intriguing, then yes. If not, then I'd wait for a sale and pick it up then.
EDIT: I edited in some information about the save system under the difficulty section, reducing the overall score by a small amount. However, this is information worth noting to players afraid of a rather harsh saving system.
Well, I've just beaten the game (I clocked in at around 12 hours, just doing the main quest-- haven't gone back for side quests yet, as I believe I read somewhere they're coop oriented. also, if my time worries you, bear in mind I'm very experienced with FPS's and RPG's, so I was probably a bit faster than many will be).
Disclaimer: This is personal opinion. Yada, yada. You know the drill.
I'll break this into categories. If you want the short version, skip to the bottom of each category or just go right to the bottom of the review for summaries.
Combat:
It's been said all over the place: the combat is tight, responsive, and right where it should be. The gunplay is good and you can approach combat from multiple angles. I've cloaked and melee'd, I've used magic (Exploding things is fun), and I've relied on my assault rifle. I found all of this to be really entertaining, though for the most part I was only toying with melee since I'm not entirely melee oriented. I wouldn't recommend it for starters, since I think you need to understand the game better before you start trying to chop off heads, since you'll need to figure out how to get in close without being killed first.
9.8/10 for combat. Some of the guns don't feel quite right, but overall it can be diverse and entertaining.
RPG Elements:
One thing I adore is that you can change the overall path of the story. That's a fantastic touch. You can also affect how the missions play out, even going as far as changing the objectives by messing up or doing well. Yes, this counts as a role playing element. Though I'll admit that the biggest decision came along... rather suddenly. Perhaps I skimmed over something important (Though I read 90% of the dialogue).
Character customization in terms of stats, skills, abilities, and research adds a lot of depth. You can take your character down many paths, so long as they're strategically sound. The game does a TERRIBLE job of explaining these elements (ESPECIALLY research), but I'll take points off for that later.
Also, for the sake of helping people out: research unlocks further things you can purchase while occasionally modifying your stats. I'd bother with stats and skills at first and mess around with research a lot more later on.
One final note: research is a creative way of surprising the player. You have no idea what will result from each thing you research (Well, you can reason that medkit research will... get you a medkit, and so on). This makes research an almost addictive and surprising element for the game.
9.5/10. Points deducted because the guesswork can screw you over at times. I prefer transparency, as it helps to keep the player from wasting time, but I like the element of surprise too, so I didn't deduct as much as I could have.
Story:
I don't want to spoil much. The back story is great. The in-game story starts off slow but ultimately takes off. I won't say how or why, but I felt it was fairly good. Also, you could change the course of the story, as mentioned in the RPG section above.
Unfortunately, what wasn't good was the writing. I found most of it to be very amateur-- on a level I really didn't expect. Perhaps it's because things were translated into English. Maybe I should play it in French instead, but that doesn't change the fact that the English dialogue was just... bad. As a direct result, many of the characters came across as either weirdos or jerks and I had little reason to care for anyone at any point.
Due to the bad dialogue and poor characterization, I give it a 7/10 for story. The background and overall story as well as the final twists boost the score considerably. Opinions will greatly vary for this.
Level Design:
I didn't have much issue with the level design. It was all fairly well done. Not top notch, but well done. I had a tendency to get lost in missions, without much of an idea of where to go next, which led to me wandering the level for a while until I stumbled across the proper thing to do. Perhaps more waypoints at certain junctions would help with this, but I feel it was how the game was intended to play out, making you think about what to do next-- or maybe I'm just an idiot.
Also, turn up the lights a little! I deducted .5 for that alone. It felt too dark, ESPECIALLY considering our flashlights are useless. Using the optics enhancement helps, but also forces you to play much of the game with it, which is just... ugly and wastes the atmosphere (Think of the detective mode in Batman: Arkham Asylum for an example: it's useful, but hurts the feel of the game a little). I turned up my brightness and the game was plenty playable, but I felt almost guilty about doing so.
7.5/10 for level design. It was atmospheric, though occasionally confusing and hard to navigate, but overall functional. It shows promise, if anything. I'm sure the developer can do better with future releases.
Difficulty:
Yes, this is getting its own section. I played through on normal difficulty. Much of the game actually wasn't all that hard, but instead felt pretty spot on. I didn't die often, but I did often emerge from fights pretty badly bruised.
At least, until the final mission. That was a doozy. There's also a mission early on that many people have complained about, where you're attacked for three minutes straight. I died three times there. The difficulty for that fight should probably be toned down or more options for approaching it should be added. The final mission could also stand to be toned down just a bit, but I can't really explain that without spoiling things, and frankly I only played through ONE of the potential finales. I assume there are others.
Then there's the learning curve. I didn't have much trouble with the learning curve, but many people have. Better tutorials need to be given to more clearly explain things. Perhaps even example builds for the lesser RPG players out there-- though example builds would also help more experienced players to grasp how things work. This includes examples on what cybernetics to get, and perhaps an example of how research works (As in a video showing something researched and then showing the result. It's a mild spoiler, but would really help to clarify things).
EDIT: I'll stick this in here. The save system saves all major objectives completed, however, for the sake of immersion, should you leave the game or die with a resurrector handy, the game assumes you travel back to HQ and then back to the map you were on, starting you off AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LEVEL. These levels are *big*, so that can be a nuisance. Checkpoints would've been nice. However, I did not personally mind this, since it never took me more than ten minutes to get back to where I was, tops. Though I will deduct points for it, as many find it annoying.
7.5/10 for difficulty, due to some balancing issues with some sections being too hard and the confusion for the first few hours over how things work, as well as the save system being a hindrance to newer players.
In Summary:
The game is great. It's a unique title in today's market that brings its own atmosphere and some great FPS/RPG hybrid elements that work out well. The story could use some work, particularly with the writing, and the difficulty could use some mild smoothing out, but overall I'm very impressed with what was done here. I'm seriously going to replay the game right after posting this.
What I feel this game deserves: 8/10
What I'd feel it deserves should it receive proper polish: 8.8/10
What the above scores average out to: 8.26/10
Should you buy it? If you're a forgiving player who doesn't mind that it's not casual or newbie friendly and you find the idea of the game intriguing, then yes. If not, then I'd wait for a sale and pick it up then.
EDIT: I edited in some information about the save system under the difficulty section, reducing the overall score by a small amount. However, this is information worth noting to players afraid of a rather harsh saving system.