Zaphid
Trakanon Raider
- 5,862
- 294
Bough it during the winter sale on GMG and just finished it on normal, went with Fergus, so here's my 0,02$:
For how much praise the game is getting, I was a bit underwhelmed. There's nothing exactly wrong with the game, except being almost too linear and QTE based at points, but it never lets you go wild with all your toys until you arrive to the last level and even then it's like 2-3 fights. The game would need like 3 more hours of just shooting, instead of this awkward mix of scavenging/shooting with the pacing being all over the place. You have the moon, which is awesome, until you realize you now have to stop at every battery to recharge your ammo, since the enemies give laughable amounts of it and they foreshadow this whole "new generation of supersoldiers" which comes down to killing 2 fatties in the shuttle you are taking home. There are definitely some parts they had to cut, or because I have hard time figuring out how different the fight could be compared to the London monitor (running around charging batteries). At least they pulled off the optional stealth elements pretty well without being too frustrating, which is more than can be said about 95% of other games, but it's funny how a single pistol shot kills an unalerted soldier, whereas once it's triggered, you will end up emptying the whole clip before he finally drops.
The laser gun was implemented pretty well, they even almost avoided the traditional troupe of "overpowered-superexotic-thing-you-never-find-ammo-for" but in the end you just run around looking for charging stations so you can oneshot supersoldiers and take their gun, which is superior to pretty much anything else and can also be recharged, but it takes even longer. I'm also a bit disappointed by how few rounds you find for the sniper rifle, which remains by far the most elegant solution to anything that is not super soldier.
Perks were fun, I intentionally tried not focusing on them to find out how many I can get on my own, surprisingly, I got mostly only the big ones, but none of them seemed too game changing, so that's a well executed RPG element that doesn't get in your way too much.
The story was a bit too serious and bleak for me with all the inconsistencies nagging constantly. If the game wouldn't take itself that seriously, I probably wouldn't mind them so much. Like why the fuck is BJ wearing that old leather jacket with head unprotected when he goes through enough nazi armor and uniforms to outfit a panzer brigade, on top of getting stabbed/shot/exploded like every other level in the cutscenes. Besides, he looks smashing in the lunar officer uniform. I also felt like there was a bit more room for "god what have I become" after using the spindly torque on the Gibraltar bridge. The main story is essentially V for Vendetta but with Nazis. Some of the gory moments also felt a bit unnecessary, frau Engel with broken jaw could scare some kids, but I didn't really see the point. Same goes for the bit with Bubbi at the end. So your screen wobbles a bit for a while while you butcher him and that's it ?
The fetch quests are fucking stupid and interfere with the pacing way too much, same goes for most of the collectibles. No level is big enough to warrant free exploration and they periodically lock your way back, so I regularly spent more time lurking through corners than fighting nazis. That brings to my biggest complaint: Autopickup. Who thought that wasn't a good idea needs a slap.
Overall, solid game, but a bit all over the place. Felt like they bit off more than they could chew and some ideas got lost while they were trimming it down. I'd compare it to Shadow Warrior from last year, which was much more solid and focused game with better level design, so if you don't need to specifically shoot Nazis, go play that first.
For how much praise the game is getting, I was a bit underwhelmed. There's nothing exactly wrong with the game, except being almost too linear and QTE based at points, but it never lets you go wild with all your toys until you arrive to the last level and even then it's like 2-3 fights. The game would need like 3 more hours of just shooting, instead of this awkward mix of scavenging/shooting with the pacing being all over the place. You have the moon, which is awesome, until you realize you now have to stop at every battery to recharge your ammo, since the enemies give laughable amounts of it and they foreshadow this whole "new generation of supersoldiers" which comes down to killing 2 fatties in the shuttle you are taking home. There are definitely some parts they had to cut, or because I have hard time figuring out how different the fight could be compared to the London monitor (running around charging batteries). At least they pulled off the optional stealth elements pretty well without being too frustrating, which is more than can be said about 95% of other games, but it's funny how a single pistol shot kills an unalerted soldier, whereas once it's triggered, you will end up emptying the whole clip before he finally drops.
The laser gun was implemented pretty well, they even almost avoided the traditional troupe of "overpowered-superexotic-thing-you-never-find-ammo-for" but in the end you just run around looking for charging stations so you can oneshot supersoldiers and take their gun, which is superior to pretty much anything else and can also be recharged, but it takes even longer. I'm also a bit disappointed by how few rounds you find for the sniper rifle, which remains by far the most elegant solution to anything that is not super soldier.
Perks were fun, I intentionally tried not focusing on them to find out how many I can get on my own, surprisingly, I got mostly only the big ones, but none of them seemed too game changing, so that's a well executed RPG element that doesn't get in your way too much.
The story was a bit too serious and bleak for me with all the inconsistencies nagging constantly. If the game wouldn't take itself that seriously, I probably wouldn't mind them so much. Like why the fuck is BJ wearing that old leather jacket with head unprotected when he goes through enough nazi armor and uniforms to outfit a panzer brigade, on top of getting stabbed/shot/exploded like every other level in the cutscenes. Besides, he looks smashing in the lunar officer uniform. I also felt like there was a bit more room for "god what have I become" after using the spindly torque on the Gibraltar bridge. The main story is essentially V for Vendetta but with Nazis. Some of the gory moments also felt a bit unnecessary, frau Engel with broken jaw could scare some kids, but I didn't really see the point. Same goes for the bit with Bubbi at the end. So your screen wobbles a bit for a while while you butcher him and that's it ?
The fetch quests are fucking stupid and interfere with the pacing way too much, same goes for most of the collectibles. No level is big enough to warrant free exploration and they periodically lock your way back, so I regularly spent more time lurking through corners than fighting nazis. That brings to my biggest complaint: Autopickup. Who thought that wasn't a good idea needs a slap.
Overall, solid game, but a bit all over the place. Felt like they bit off more than they could chew and some ideas got lost while they were trimming it down. I'd compare it to Shadow Warrior from last year, which was much more solid and focused game with better level design, so if you don't need to specifically shoot Nazis, go play that first.
