So I finished the game: 20 hours of mostly incredible fun. One of only two games this year that has drawn me so much into the world that I was sad to leave it. The other one being Metro 2033.
SOME SPOILERS
Positives
Level design. Compartmentalising the gameplay might not be realistic, but it helped make the game fun. Knowing that each section I approached was a hermetically sealed problem to be solved with my collection of tools made me feel like I was in control. It was also addictive.
Moment to moment play. The sneak, pistol and karate chop combination were very well implemented and satisfying.
Story. Smartly written, mostly great characters, suprisingly well held together despite the complexity, and a satisfying ending. One of the best game stories I’ve experienced.
Music. Fantastic.
Flow. I felt like a special agent sneaking about. It was great. I didn’t want this feeling to end. They could have made me invincible - the challenge for me was keeping the flow. Being caught was the punishment for failure, and even if I didn’t die I didn’t want to have that happen. I hated the alarms going off - I’d hack them even if I was safe.
Negatives
Interface. Ugh. What a mess. It would have been nice if they’d implemented a power wheel like in Crysis to easily navigate the different powers I had. Having to press Z then Q then Z then Q then Z then Q to perform combos like stealth, chain shot, fury took away from the flow.
Bosses. I hate these in most games, and I was pleased that in AP I could kill them easily with a chain shot. But they were silly. Alan Parker, the old bespectacled guy with a pistol, one shotting me at the end was just one example. I mean I can take on a room full of trained guards with kevlar and assault rifles and kill them all, but old man with glasses takes me out with one shot from his pistol?
Difficulty ramping. Actually this was done well througout the game, but there were some bad spikes. The worst for me was the helicopter at the end. I must have died 30-40 times there, where I’d hardly died at all before. It didn’t help that the last level was long and difficult, so I’d used up most of my grenades and stuff already. I absolutely hated that helicopter section.
Forced action combat. I know they were trying to mix up the gameplay, but if I’ve gone stealth and pistol then I don’t want to have to fight like I am armed with an assault rifle.
Gameplay variation. By the end I was starting to do the same thing for every gameplay section: sneak, chop, chop, find a good spot to see everyone, chain shot anyone still alive. A lot of the stuff I used in training never seemed to present itself to me as an opportunity, like gas tanks to blow up and placing shock traps on doors. The AI never seemed to want to move outside of tightly defined areas, so using the sound generators just seemed to alert the guards, but rarely brought them where I wanted them. It would be nice if the gameplay could be varied a bit more, without forcing me into combat that my build isn’t designed for.
