So I beat the game and slept on it. It was an enjoyable ride with some very apparent flaws. I can't wait for a sequel.
Impressions follow:
I went into the game thinking it was going to be a standard TPS with cinematic elements. By the time I got to Chapter 3 and definitely by Chapter 4, I realized the game was trying to be a mix of different genres. It really pops out to me as a Tell Tale game (or Quantic Dream game) mixed with a TPS. If anyone is still on the fence about the game and is expecting a standard TPS, I'd heavily advise against buying the game.
I enjoyed the slow methodical pacing of the game quite a bit. I think it peaked near the beginning chapters however because every gunfight sort of had this build up to it. Near the later stages of the game, I felt the game was putting in gunfights in certain sections just for the sake of having gunfights. The gunplay was excellent, so I didn't mind it nearly as much. But for a cinematic game, I think having more meaningful encounters with build up is better then having numerous ones for the sake of quantity. The encounters themselves were pretty standard fare but as I mentioned, the gunplay was top notch and that really carried them.
The reason I would call this a mix of a Tell Tale (or whatever similar descriptor you use) and a TPS game is because it was clearly is trying to go for multiple different gameplay elements to match the story it was telling. Off the top of my head, we had the standard shooting segments, the stealth, the lycan encounters (where you press X to dodge) and the more QTE heavy lycan encounters. Some of these are better executed then others. I've already talked about gunplay but to elaborate, the guns felt really nice to use and were pretty distinct from one another. What I didn't like were the icons for the guns, because it hard to clearly tell them apart at first, so sometimes I didn't really know what I was getting. The QTE heavy lycan encounters (example:
) were enjoyable. I wish there were more of them. I think these encounters and some of the QTEs near the beginning of the game were the highlight of interactive encounters. They were pretty brutal and you had just enough control to elevate it above a simplistic QTE encounter. I was always left feeling satisfied after the two encounters.
The stealth sections were adequate. They were nothing special but the sections weren't bad either. The insta-fail nature of them didn't bother me in the context of the story, especially given how easy the sections were. The kills were satisfying to watch, the stealth worked. Adequate would be my best descriptor. I enjoyed them within the context of the story and to break up the other gameplay segments.
The lycan encounters were bad. Just awful. Not only were they extremely easy but they had no sense of sanctification for defeating them. The areas you encounter them in are all pretty similar and forgettable, the animations were sometimes wonky and the encounters just felt really lackluster. I would have much preferred all the lycan encounters be similar to the QTE heavy lycan encounters I talked about above because at the very least, there would be some sort of story build up to them and then satisfaction in beating them.
Given the reviews, I wouldn't be surprised that if there's a sequel that RAD goes the way of standard TPS stuff with a ton more shooting segments. Personally, I hope that's not the case. I actually think the number of shooting segments was fine but what the game really needed were a couple of smaller things in the interim to just completely elevate it for me.
One of these would be something like a "Press Triangle to Examine" the things around Galahad. I quite enjoyed when he would comment on photos or objects around the world but that only occurred a few times. I want to be able to examine everything in the world and just have Galahad give his comments on them. Along these lines, interactions with NPCs would have been great. It was nice to be able to eavesdrop in on conversations occuring throughout some of the levels but the level of interactivity could have been improved. The ability to examine things and talk to NPCs would have pushed it more towards the Tell Tale side of things but I feel it would fit right in with the pacing of the game.
I ultimately think what held this game back was the fact that it was trapped by the constraints of the TPS genre which they premised the game on instead of fully experimenting with various genres and sub-genres. In a game like this, the shooting segments should be just one part of the game. Like the stealth and lycan encounters, they should occur only when the story calls for it.
I didn't talk about everything here as that would take far too long. The game does quite a few things well but is riddled with numerous flaws. Despite that, if I had to put a number on it, it would be a
solid 7 to 8 out of 10. I'm not sure which one to be honest as assigning numbers is hard. It was an entertaining and enjoyable ride and I really just wanted more of it to be very honest. I clocked in at around 11 hours. I hope if they ever do a sequel, that they aim for at least 15.