Okay, so I played a couple hours and quit right after the Panzer Dragoon segment. I know that you guys are saying this is the "weak" part of the game but I'll give some early impressions anyway.
Combat system is suitably different to not really refer to it as God of War ripoff. It's not really the kind of system like a GoW or DMC where you can essentially mix between light and strong attacks. It lacks that kind of flexibility. However, you still have a lot of tools at your disposal, so it's still varied enough that it doesn't feel liike Dynasty Warriors or something. Evading is a bit hit-or-miss. Evading backwards usually doesn't bear fruit because enemies tend to move forward a lot, so you'll often get hit right after evading. Evading to the side does work better, but sometimes you can get hit then too. My best method seems to hit the evade button multiple times if I see an attack coming. The finishers are perfect. They're not too long, not too short, look awesome, and you can pull one off fluidly off of a normal combo. They feel much more natural than they do in God of War. Overall, the combat system isn't Ninja Gaiden or DMC level awesome, but still very satisfying and yes, very "visceral". I know that's a cliche, but I think it works.
Presentation is pretty good. Lots of color in the environments and I've already seen multiple landscapes in just the first couple hours. Playing on 360 and yeah, tearing is kinda bad. Luckily for me, tearing is more of an annoyance and not a dealbreaker. As said before in this thread, animations are also fantastic, especially the finishers.
Definitely diggin' it so far, which bodes well for the rest of the game.
