Well I guess we should compare SoTD to RE5. Well obviously RE5 has a negative reputation and the game kind of deserves it. I mean I think RE5 is a very creativly bankrupt game, it's like Capcom had no idea what to do with it. "Just add co-op!". The game hardly does anything interesting with it's co-op and is hardly creative in any of it's enmies or areas. In the end they can't think of any enemies so they add dudes with guns. But the thing is I still enjoyed the game and I have never played it co-op. The game still has solid gameplay and the stupid AI never really ruins the game. I've played it about 4 times for some reason.
I just finished SoTD and I kind of enjoyed the game, but just like RE5 the game kind of brings itself down at the end. In RE5 it was because of enemies with guns and adding a "cover system" or whatever that was as a way to add some variety. SoTD does the same though. I hate the 2d levels, I hate them so much. Stylistically they are very cool looking, but they suck. Now I'm not a gamer from the 2d days. My first system was the N64 so outside of rpgs, no I don't play 2d games. Now I guess I should have expected them as NMH has things like these, but I hated them there to. In SoTD though I find them suck because they have enemies who just pop out of nowhere and are just not fun to play. It sucks that a potential cool encounter is used here. Very disappointing. While obviously this attempt at variety were creative unlike RE5's, I found it annoying. RE5's attempt at variety weren't that annoying. I ignored it's cover shit and while enemies having guns did not at all fit with the gameplay and were awkward as hell, the RE5 gameplay overcame it as hell I just gotta make my aim better and kick their ass. Still it's turret sections were typical and not stupid, unlike SoTDs. It wasn't hard and it was easy to earn head shots. Still it still kind of sucks. I died a few times, because who the hell makes it a 1 hit kill thing? Still what I hated is that it took place in cool level that we never got to really go through.
RE5's level a pretty bland and boring. They aren't exciting, hardly creepy, and could exist in any other game. You can't say that about SoTD. It's got a very interesting look to it. I don't know how I would describe it. "Crazy Japanese Mexican Hell". Everything about it's look is quite different and memorable. I remember people complaining about the use of Unreal and how it didn't look as crazy as they thought a Suda game would when the game was revealed. I'll say they were wrong though. I would say Unreal was fine in creating this dark and musty looking hell. I'm impressed by the overall consistent art design, but I think the levels in the middle are very boring and look samey, I swear I saw the same cabin and tunnels like 50 times. Even if I didn't, it just seemed like the middle areas weren't as interesting as the beginning of the game. RE5 did not have this problem. It's pace was fine and I don't think it kept you in the same area longer then it should. Like I said the one area that looked really cool wasn't actually a level. But at least the game kept a good enemy variety.
I think SoTD is really good at enemy variety. It keeps introducing different enemies that are actually very cool for the most part. So I think that's a great strength of the game. It's a very solid shooter honestly. Which is why I didn't want anything taking away from it. RE5 was also a solid shooter though but for some reason I think it's encounters were a bit more dynamic and tense. I'll have to replay RE5 to really give a good reason as to why though. I'm really unsure of what I think about SoTD honestly. Like I said the gameplay is good. What I like about RE4 is how tense the game is. The game is all about the pressure of the encounters as you try to make your shots count while all this crap is going on. For this SoTD has a pretty awesome Light/Darkness mechanic that really piles on the pressure as you try to handle the enemies. It's a great addition, but I think at some parts it gets annoying. Now I can't lock down a specific point or example of where it did happen. Now maybe I'm just a crappy gamer IDK. I think that when the Darkness overcame a player, those Darkness shield regain thingy either should have spawned or dropped off enemies killed, but that may have killed some of the urgency they have. Urgency is pretty important in these games though. I mean what makes RE4 great is the urgency you get from these enemies attacking you. It's why I don't mind the "weak point" mechanic as it does add urgency "your like shit this things coming, fuck better hurry and shoot this point". SoTD really excels at these things and so honestly the gameplay is great. I just can't pinpoint why I'm not as hot as a lot of gaffers here are. The gameplay is solid very solid. I would say maybe some bossess last too long.
SoTD has a lot of personalty though and I think that's what most Suda fans are looking for. I will say the story isn't as crazy or interesting as his past games. It's very simple, so that may disappoint some. Garcia is a fun character and honestly the perfect character for this type of game. Corny and bad ass, just like Leon. Compare to RE5, where it was in love with it's seriousness and it infected everything even the music. It just has a very fun atmosphere during the entire game, which is strange considering it takes place in hell.
I think it's a solid game, but I just kind of hated some of it's side stuff. They aren't bad probably for most gamers so I think this game should really be recommended to most.
