Hmmm....ok....so after a few hours with the game, I'm just not very impressed. In-fact, I'm actually disappointed. My main complaints with the game lie with the aimlessness of it all. At times it feels almost serious sam like. And the amount of confusion and misdirection is just jarring. Things are going on from every direction, but it's never very clear which makes battles a tad confusing. I don't think the red blood/damage indicator is sufficient, especially when at times you can be getting shot from pretty much every angle. Half the time I was just clueless as to where I was supposed to shoot. And even when you do, the amount of effects, debris and smoke that come off sort of blur your vision to add to the confusion. The fact that the games constantly dogging you to get behind cover, when there isn't even a proper cover system (something the game desperately needs imo) doesn't help either. Just adds to the sloppiness of gunplay. It reminds me a little of RE5, where a lack of control options often lead to more deaths than actual player skill.
Then there's the auto aim. Ok, have they increased the amount or have times just moved on? The zoom in auto aim is just stupidly generous. It literally moves half the screen to click in to place. What the hell? It's like spoon feeding you kills. It's better to zoom in and out continuously and blindly (guaranteeing you insta locks) than it is to take your time and aim around zoomed in. I find that absurd, and totally anti-skill or reward.
Lastly, the narrative. I can't help but feel it's a tad blotchy and rushed. Elements just aren't fitting together very concisely, and I don't feel I'm getting a sense of the characters or plot much yet at all. For example,
The menu's and interface events are slick, and aesthetically stunning, but how well they help the narrative/characters drive forward and actually embed themselves in the players mind, I'm not so sure.
I also think, the audio need some balancing. Voices are sometimes too soft/quiet, or change in pitch to variables that don't quite seem levelled properly.
On the pus sides, I loved the snow level (a nice pace, and cool effects), though the simplicity of the climbing was a bit un-ambitious (R1/L1 over and over repetitively like 100 times). The atmosphere is also really powerful in segments, in particular the art direction and colour schemes. It all looks quite raw and realistic, if a little on the light side.
So yea, so far, I'm finding it a bit difficult to see the AAA brilliance of the title. It seems like a very messy affair currently. Don't get me wrong, it's very polished with respect to the controls, but not (imo) so far in game design, where it seems to be all over the place and lacking in focus.
Will carry on and update with impressions later down the line. Maybe I just need to warm to the controls and pace of the game a little more, extremely frenetic and busy.
Then there's the auto aim. Ok, have they increased the amount or have times just moved on? The zoom in auto aim is just stupidly generous. It literally moves half the screen to click in to place. What the hell? It's like spoon feeding you kills. It's better to zoom in and out continuously and blindly (guaranteeing you insta locks) than it is to take your time and aim around zoomed in. I find that absurd, and totally anti-skill or reward.
Lastly, the narrative. I can't help but feel it's a tad blotchy and rushed. Elements just aren't fitting together very concisely, and I don't feel I'm getting a sense of the characters or plot much yet at all. For example,
after the Airport level, which by the way I think was probably unnecessarily extreme, the way the main villain just shoots the under cover agent, it all happens so quick and so anti-climatically, you could almost miss it, and all the events that follow just seem rushed and loose as well.
I also think, the audio need some balancing. Voices are sometimes too soft/quiet, or change in pitch to variables that don't quite seem levelled properly.
On the pus sides, I loved the snow level (a nice pace, and cool effects), though the simplicity of the climbing was a bit un-ambitious (R1/L1 over and over repetitively like 100 times). The atmosphere is also really powerful in segments, in particular the art direction and colour schemes. It all looks quite raw and realistic, if a little on the light side.
So yea, so far, I'm finding it a bit difficult to see the AAA brilliance of the title. It seems like a very messy affair currently. Don't get me wrong, it's very polished with respect to the controls, but not (imo) so far in game design, where it seems to be all over the place and lacking in focus.
Will carry on and update with impressions later down the line. Maybe I just need to warm to the controls and pace of the game a little more, extremely frenetic and busy.
