Yet another reason I believe Remedy is one of, if not the best modern studios, and im pretty sad I skipped this one for almost 10 years for no real reason. If you love Remedy's tend to blend real life acting with the videogame medium, then this game is their magnum opus in that regard (and that regard only lol)
TLDR; Overall, this game has one of the coolest delivery methods for its story ive ever seen, and its gameplay quirks, while annoying at times, are certainly not enough of a problem for me to not recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Remedy's games! Feels quite a bit like a Control 0.5!
Is it one of the best games ive ever played? No, definitely not, but is it one of the most enjoyable game experiences ive had? Absolutely, and this is because you get to watch 30 minute TV episodes between each chapter which genuinely grows and develops characters within the world, even some you never see in game!
Is it one of the best shows i've ever watched? Also no, but its one of my favorite show viewing experiences simply because I got to play within the world the show was developing right after each episode ended.
Game also looks pretty awesome most of the time, but Remedy has always managed to make their games look amazing, whether its through art direction or general technological innovation.
Unfortunately, aside from the story itself which stayed strong all the way through, the game takes a big drop in terms of visual clarity and gameplay enjoyment in the last ~hour. In the lore, it makes sense for the world to look like visual soup at that point, but from the players perspective, my eyes genuinely began to unfocus themselves because I could not decipher anything on screen besides Jack sometimes.
As for the gameplay dip, my issue was more so just with the final battle. On hard mode, Pauls little instakill orbs would sometimes spawn on my feet as soon as I burned all of my movement abilities and they were on cool down, which basically gauranteed an insta death, very annoying, also had some issues with checkpoint triggering at that point as well.
Another issue I have with this game in general is the gunplay, which just feels very sloppy, and thats upsetting because I never had this issue with any of their previous (or following) games. The hit registration/bullet travel system I never fully grasped, sometimes I felt like I needed to lead shots of heavy/semi-auto weapons, and other times if my crosshair wasnt aligned with the center of their head the bullet would have no chance of hitting them. The game also has some pretty atrocious bloom which makes full auto guns really really bad.
Also, very sad that you stop acquiring new guns like halfway through the game, no late game curveballs or cool secret military weapons, they just kind of stop throwing new guns at you by the end of act 3.
The powers they give you are cool though, I wish they continued giving you more instead of just stopping at a certain point but the game isnt too long so it doesnt feel like youre left with hours of no progression/acquiring of new abilities, also you can upgrade them so it ends up almost being a non-issue (unlike the guns)
