bullados
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I know that I'm talking about a year old game, but I picked it up off the Humble Bundle and finally got the time to play this thing.
In a word, WOW.
The gameplay is solid all around. Every weapon feels like it has its place (even if I didn't particularly like certain ones). And every loadout makes the game feel different, sometimes harder, sometimes easier. The only thing that really, really pissed me off was the middle third of the final level. You go through this entire game, upgrading your weapons, perfecting your loadout, and then they give you this frankly insane piece of equipment?
I'm going to delve a bit into story here, but it deserves to be told.
One of the big things that made some of the later baddies such a spectacular adversary race was that they were human, rather than the animals and plants I was beating on the rest of the time. They spoke. They performed somewhat intelligent strategic maneuvers. Their corpses remained after they died. It made me feel somewhat bad to have to kill them (cuz they always attacked me first). But with that stupid final weapon, it turns you into a mass murderer, and I just didn't feel right for that role. That weapon is simply too damn powerful, and it laid waste to the baddies in a way that was frankly impossible. Turned that final fight from something potentially epic into something forgettable.
Also. There's one particular ability that you spend 95% of the game not having. But it's given to you in the final level. And it's an absolutely necessary ability to completing the game. Honestly, they could have done completely without that particularly ability, and the game would have been even better than it was. Or, they could have designed more of the levels around that ability and used it earlier in the game. Either way is better than using it for about 30% of one level.
About the story. About 90% of it is meaningless fluff. But it's told with such conviction by one of the best narrators since Morgan Freeman, it's impossible to not love it immediately. I also liked the fact that the narrator was a part of the story, and really THE central role to the entire thing.
The final scene is potentially the single most poignant scene in the history of gaming. That is, if you make the "right" choices. I'm not going to spoil it for you, nor am I going to tell you how to get it. But, sweet merciful Maker, those final scenes are going to have me thinking hard for a very, very long time. Big, huge kudos to whoever designed that scenario, that was spectacular in every possible sense of the word.
And I haven't gotten to the art or music yet. And both are stunning.
The music feels like it was ripped straight from an old, lazy, Western movie, and perfectly matches the entire tone of the game. I'm seriously considering downloading the soundtrack for this game, and that's something I'd never think of doing for any other game I've ever played.
The art, man, I don't know how to describe it. There are so many little details on each level that, at times, it can be difficult to figure out exactly what path you're trying to go down. But every shot of that game could go on a wall in an art gallery, and would have its own place there.
If you have not played this game, you are missing out on one of the best hack&slash titles of the last decade, if not in the history of gaming.
In a word, WOW.
The gameplay is solid all around. Every weapon feels like it has its place (even if I didn't particularly like certain ones). And every loadout makes the game feel different, sometimes harder, sometimes easier. The only thing that really, really pissed me off was the middle third of the final level. You go through this entire game, upgrading your weapons, perfecting your loadout, and then they give you this frankly insane piece of equipment?
I'm going to delve a bit into story here, but it deserves to be told.
One of the big things that made some of the later baddies such a spectacular adversary race was that they were human, rather than the animals and plants I was beating on the rest of the time. They spoke. They performed somewhat intelligent strategic maneuvers. Their corpses remained after they died. It made me feel somewhat bad to have to kill them (cuz they always attacked me first). But with that stupid final weapon, it turns you into a mass murderer, and I just didn't feel right for that role. That weapon is simply too damn powerful, and it laid waste to the baddies in a way that was frankly impossible. Turned that final fight from something potentially epic into something forgettable.
Also. There's one particular ability that you spend 95% of the game not having. But it's given to you in the final level. And it's an absolutely necessary ability to completing the game. Honestly, they could have done completely without that particularly ability, and the game would have been even better than it was. Or, they could have designed more of the levels around that ability and used it earlier in the game. Either way is better than using it for about 30% of one level.
About the story. About 90% of it is meaningless fluff. But it's told with such conviction by one of the best narrators since Morgan Freeman, it's impossible to not love it immediately. I also liked the fact that the narrator was a part of the story, and really THE central role to the entire thing.
The final scene is potentially the single most poignant scene in the history of gaming. That is, if you make the "right" choices. I'm not going to spoil it for you, nor am I going to tell you how to get it. But, sweet merciful Maker, those final scenes are going to have me thinking hard for a very, very long time. Big, huge kudos to whoever designed that scenario, that was spectacular in every possible sense of the word.
And I haven't gotten to the art or music yet. And both are stunning.
The music feels like it was ripped straight from an old, lazy, Western movie, and perfectly matches the entire tone of the game. I'm seriously considering downloading the soundtrack for this game, and that's something I'd never think of doing for any other game I've ever played.
The art, man, I don't know how to describe it. There are so many little details on each level that, at times, it can be difficult to figure out exactly what path you're trying to go down. But every shot of that game could go on a wall in an art gallery, and would have its own place there.
If you have not played this game, you are missing out on one of the best hack&slash titles of the last decade, if not in the history of gaming.
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