This game is heralded as a $168 million failure, meaning it sat at the absolute bottom of my backlog. The score sits between a 5.5 which feels like too low for this game. The combat didn't vibe with people, and the animation locks definitely annoyed players. That being said, I loved this game. My only real mechanical complaint is that the inventory gets cluttered particularly in the beginning. The combat is a bit janky, but I actually like it. I also liked the combat of SNES's Secret of Mana 2, so maybe I just like janky combat or have brain damage.
Because the game places a heavy emphasis on melee, you need to lean away from punches by holding left or right, and there is a block mechanic that damages enemies if you invest in the upgrade. When there is more than one enemy, you are forced to manage distance by throwing them/heavy attack into spikes, or blasting them away to focus on another. Once enemies start to mutate, you need to get some shots off quickly to stop the process, or they grow stronger with more health.
Meanwhile, the stealth is hilariously terrible in the best way. It has lightning-fast animations, and the only noise that triggers enemies is running. Stabbing them while Jacob yells and violently kicking their corpses for supplies somehow won't alert a guy standing five feet away.
Visually, it’s fantastic. You can absolutely see the Dead Space DNA in the health gauges and kinetic glove. However, there is one thing this game does better than Dead Space and Alien: Isolation: there is no map. The game relies entirely on environmental cues and camera angles, and it is incredibly refreshing to navigate intrinsically without staring at a mini-map or holding a button for a line on the ground to follow.
The voice acting is solid, the atmosphere is dreadful, and it is gory in the best way—the video game violence is delivered in droves. I also appreciate the simple weapon upgrades. They are super limited and focus on basic, clear milestones like recoil, damage, ammo capacity, and alt-fire. I don’t need a 2.5% incremental fire-rate increase; just condense it and let me move on. Lastly, the game allowed me to use my pistol as a viable enemy- and boss-killing weapon. In these types of games, I hate being forced to switch to more advanced weapons (think Dead Space or Resident Evil 4). I think that feature may have skewed my opinion in a more positive light as well. While I wish there was more boss variety, the core package is great. It sits so much higher on my subjective rating scale than I ever expected, and I genuinely wish there were an expanded sequel.
