Here's the marvelous thing about this game: The game lets you choose your encounters in a way I haven't encountered in another game. Yeah, it's linear as hell, but a large number of enemy encounters occur when the Mechs are idle, giving you plenty of time to assess the situation before diving in. Do I pick them off with my ranged attack, or I sneak around and man a turret? There's never any combat fatigue and I always feel in control of the situation. Most of the time is spent climbing about and sucking in the story, and I'm plenty satisfied with the even delivery of exposition and gameplay.
It's the platform-climbing adventure I've always wanted- the Tomb Raider game that has enjoyable combat. It has a lot of gameplay elements that would be completely toxic in any other context- the escorting isn't a chore; item hunting is fun; and the co-op with the AI is clever if somewhat unoriginal. Taking cues from Ico, Prince of Persia and Uncharted, the gameplay has little in the way of its own gameplay ideas, but executes all of it very effectively.
The ranged attacks are powerful but need to be considered because of the strict ammo- I thought shooting would feel out of context but it works wonderfully to balance out the melee combat such that neither gets stale.
Best aspect? The pacing. Every chapter is the just the right size yet I want to keep playing as each has enough of a cliffhanger to hook the player in. It could be a little more polished in places, but there isn't any one major area where the game falls done. Hell, I even like the dinky hoverboard stuff.
The characterisation and animation is exactly what I would expect from Ninja Theory, but I can't help but feel slightly let down by the implementation of UE3. As a counterpoint, the game is a good showcase of what the engine can achieve when it isn't fed the usual diet of greys and browns. Mirror's Edge did great things with the engine and so does Enslaved. I guess I just can't help but imagine what the game would have looked like had Ninja Theory been able to retain the Heavenly Sword engine for the title. With a few years under their belt, they could have really polished the crap out of that engine. Technical fluff aside, the game is amazing regardless of the tech it's running on.
I came for nice single-player adventure game with well-realized characters, unique atmosphere and average combat but I'm getting so much more.
