Atomic Heart - Review

 

It's important I mention before reviewing this game that I did not go in with any sort of biased, let me rephrase, negative bias. Two years ago when Mundfish started teasing footage of Atomic Heart I was excited. I like alternative history and the 'what if' questions that arise from them, it was down as an open-world game and reminded me of a cross between Fallout and BioShock - so all good things.  So I was excited to play it, and when it came up on XBOX Game Pass I knew I had to download it as soon as possible.

For those of you reading my reviews you know I have a penchant for all things snacky. Crisps and their cousins are some of my favorite snack food. One type I really like, especially with a beer (drink responsibly - only joking get ripped) are Bacon Rashers. Bacon tasting like corn snacks, which are simple and tasty, which usually means whether you go for the more expensive ones like Smiths Bacon Fries, or Snackrite Bacon Rashers, you can't go too wrong. So, naturally, when I was exploring the corn snack-loaded shelves of Tesco I did not think anything of grabbing a bag of their own Bacon Rashers. They, looked as expected, and had a similar smell, but sadly lacked any real flavor and were so dry as to make them almost inedible. It was quite disappointing, the elements were there but combined poorly. Playing Atomic Heart I found myself asking if was it a good combination of ingredients?

Story 

The game is set in an alternative history, in 1955, after World War II, in which the Soviets came out on top, and have advanced technologically ahead of everyone else, thanks in no small part to scientist Dimitri Sechenov. After the defeat of the Nazis, there was a lack of workforce, so one of many things Scehenov created were robots (with terrifying mustaches). With the great success of the robots, combined with a polymer in which humans will be able to control the robots through simple thought, it was decided to launch globally. Just before the launch something goes wrong, and only one man can solve the problem, Agent P-3.

The way we explain things in the West versus the East is very different, in the West we have to know everything, and in doing so can come across as very ham-fisted. Whereas in the East there is a lot more subtlety, and occasionally can be too vague. Why did I explain this, well, in Atomic Hearts for the most part it feels like you are being hit over the head with a shovel, driving points home even when they are obvious. It feels at times like the story was being told to someone who could not string two thoughts together. A big part of this is done through Char-LES, your portable talking glove. Now don't get me wrong there are a few turns in the story that was not quite expected, but Mundfish could certainly have taken a better approach to storytelling. I expected that similar to games like Metro that the game would be voiced by Russian voice actors with subtitles, nope, instead everyone spoke in English with an American accent, and occasionally someone would speak in English with a slight Russian twang.

The game offers two endings, neither of which feels much better than the other, and while the end credits fill in some blanks, it did feel like things went a little off the rails.

Overall the story could have been more exciting had Mundfish taken a different approach to storytelling, and leaned into the game being set in the Soviet Union, and the game being produced by a Russian video games company.

Visuals

The visuals were a bit of a mixed bag for me. The Wilderness and Facilities in 3826 look pretty good, if not slightly jarring at times. Inside the facilities, everything looks somewhat futuristic, while still letting you know that it is set in 1955. The wilderness looks lush and has old wooden houses dotted throughout them, the jarring part is the random machines and robots around, it feels too harsh a contrast, and while the team tried to blend them with the landscape it did not really work for me. 

The character designs, again a bit of a mixed bag. There are some really cool-looking worker robots, including Bosses which have clearly had a lot of time and thought put into them. Then you have the standard robots you will encounter a lot (see above), that look like mannequins with a random mustache, I say random as no effort was made with any other part of their face, head, or body. 

The game seems to be rich in bugs, textures not loading correctly, and enemies seem to be both moving in slow motion and then speeding up, similar to a high ping rate you may experience with bad internet when playing an old online game, but certainly should not be something you see in an offline game. Getting stuck in a wall, or an object was far too common.

Overall the visuals are okay, but similar to the story it feels like there were a couple of directors working on the game, and rather than picking one clear direction, they tried different ones that ended up creating a bit of a mess. That is not even taking into account all the visual bugs.

Music

I love video game music, so was excited about the approach that would be taken with Atomic Hearts. A lot of the tracks have taken a classic piece of music and remixed it with dance music, and occasionally metal. The music was composed by Mick Gordon, best known for his work on the Doom and Wolfenstein soundtracks.  The soundtrack is made of music created/remixed by Igor Skylar, Vladimir Kuzmin, Olga Vosconyan, Pensinary, Bio, Maria Pakhomenko, GeoffPlaysGuitar, Zemlayne, and Alla Pugacheva.

The soundtrack only runs for a little over an hour, which considering the length of the game felt a little short. My favorite tracks included; Arlekino (Geoffrey Day Remix), Golden Hoop (Neus Remix),  Zvyozdnoe Leto (Geoffry Day Remix), For The Good Of Man Kind, and PT-1X12.

The soundtrack was underwhelming, I am unsure if Mick Gordon was told to use certain artists' or if he had full control. Hopefully, it was the former as it is certainly not the caliber of work I am used to hearing from him.

Gameplay 

Onto the gameplay! Let's start with the gun mechanics, they are not awesome. Weapons feel pretty decent when it comes to boss fights, well mostly, but standardly they don't ever feel like they are very accurate or pack a particular punch. When it comes to first-person shooters, the shooting mechanics need to be on point.  

Similar to the BioShock series you have access to abilities, shooting fire, ice, electricity, and levitating enemies, along with a shield system. My personal favorite was ice as it helped slow things down when getting swarmed by enemies. 

An interesting feature was the ability to rest all skill points and any parts you put into upgrading or creating weapons without losing anything in the process. The massive benefit of this is you could try every weapon and ability out at their max levels, and get a real feel for them.

Char-LES your talking and often berating glove can be used like a Hoover to suck up material around you, along with cabinets and drawers. Unfortunately, it has the sucking power of fifty-year-old Hoover.  There are no upgrades as such to resolve this, so would have made more sense to simply let you search like in any other game rather using a low-suction Hoover glove.

There are puzzles to figure out in the game, but nothing too bad. Apart from locks. I have never played a game that has doors with such a variety of locks. Some of them require the glove, others require you to find a code, select lit-up sections of a lock quickly, use a cable lock pick, or match colored shapes to certain parts of the lock, finding a key that looks like a metal biscuit, and in some cases a combination of them. The big question for me, is why?  It made no sense to have so many types of locks, especially when most of them were so annoying. It makes me think of a great quote from the US Office that Dwight says, "Michael always says, K-I-S-S. Keep it simple, stupid. Great advice. Hurts my feeling every time."

The game is supposed to be open-world but generally ends up feeling quite linear which is a shame. Linear is fine too but if the aim was open world, it did not really hit the mark.

The boss fights were some of the best parts of the game as they felt varied, and really enjoyed the final boss battle. 

Bugs galore with the gameplay, freezing at times, not registering when missions had been completed, getting stuck on objects, and bullets seemingly missing their target even when just a few feet away.

Overall the gameplay was so-so, with some great moments, but not enough to ignore all the shortcomings.

Final Thoughts

Soooooooo, after around twenty how did I feel? Massively underwhelmed. The story had some interesting elements to it but was told poorly, and the payoff at the end was disappointing. The visuals had potential but ended up being mediocre at best. The music is hard to tell whose feet the blame falls on, but the outcome was the same, some good tracks, but overall underwhelming. The gameplay had its moments, no doubt, but some poor choices, and bad mechanics let it down. Overall, I was left disappointed knowing this game could have been a lot better than it was, this one gets a crushing 2 out of 5

Doom Eternal - Review

 

Any gamer, no matter their experience or skill level knows the name 'Doom'. Doom creator John Romero's impact on first-person gaming is huge and showed that the genre could be more than just a simple shooter.  I feel the same way about Half-Life creator Gabe Newell who mixed puzzles with great storytelling to create something more. In 2016 id Software released a next-generation version of Doom which was a lot of fun, I didn't play the sequel when it was released but recently saw it available on XBOX Game Pass and thought now is the time to play it.

To me buffalo wings with a beer are one of the most perfect snacks, that is until you accidentally order a family size amount of them and decide to eat forty wings in a sitting. I have no regrets, apart from the rapid and explosive bowel movements that followed the next day. Buffalo Wing sauce is amazing, and while normally I am not a blue cheese fan, as a dip it works perfectly. Playing Doom Eternal I found myself asking was ripping and tearing through those wings enough to keep me sated?

Story 

The original story of Doom was based on Mars where humans do what they do best and open a dimension to hell, oops. Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal has evolved the story significantly beyond that point, explaining not only what drives 'Doom Guy' but also so why he is so important. Doom Eternal focuses on the struggle between good and evil, but as always things are rarely black and white and with the fight now being on Earth the stakes are higher than ever before.

Ancient Gods Part 1 and 2

There are two DLC for the game, one of which was only released in the last couple of weeks called the Ancient Gods Part One and Two. The story follows on from the main storyline and answers many questions not only about the Doom Universe but about Doom Guy himself.  

Overall the main story, and that in the DLC is amazing and features a lot of lore which is available in the form of collectables spread throughout the game. I would love to get a book on it but sadly only seems available in the collector's editions which according to reviews online does not always feature it. Right, back on track, amazing story that made me really want to know more about the Doom Universe and find every collectable.

Visuals

Doom 2016's visuals were quite impressive and a serious upscale from Doom 3, Doom Eternal's visuals are on another level. Everything is improved from the backdrops and level designs to the enemies and weapons, all look more well rounded. A big part of the Doom combat are glory kills which are used not only to acquire health but also look badass. There are different types of glory kills that can be performed on each enemy and they all look awesome, some are extremely visceral, others are explosive and some are just fun like pulling out an enemies eyes and hearing them make a satisfying popping sound. There are the classic Doom enemies but there also some new additions, including more bio-mechanical enemies and high powered beings who look like highly advanced robots. The backdrops are really cool, the ones on Earth in particular as it looks and feels like what Earth would be if invaded by a demon army.

Ancient Gods Part 1 and 2

The visuals and backdrops in the DLC are quite different to the base game. The UAC Atlantica Facility brought you a little closer to the survivors of the world, up to this point they are always at arm's length and like a unicorn seems like they may not exist at all.  There are some really cool new enemies that drastically change the gameplay, you also get some great cut sequences and get to the deepest darkest parts of hell.

Overall the visuals are impressive and are so much sharper and greatly improved over the Doom 2016 release, the DLC step things up and certainly give you a bit more of a connection with humanity. I can't even imagine how good the next game will look. 

Music 

The Doom series has always featured a metal soundtrack that suits the gameplay and style of the game perfectly. It pumps you up and gets your adrenaline flowing and really focuses you. The music is created by Australian composer Mick Gordon, his works include the soundtracks for Prey, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, SOMA, Mirrors Edge Catalyst, and Dead Space 3 to name but a few.

Ancient Ones Part 1 and 2

The Ancient One's Part One and Two was created by American Composer Andrew Hulshult rather than Mick Gordon due to fallout between himself and id Software. Hultshult has worked on and created the music for, Prodeus, 3D Realms Anthology: The Re-Rockestrated, Amid Evil, and Dusk (which on my list of games to play later this year).

The base game feature over four hours of music and the DLC features well over three hours created a fairly large soundtrack, especially for a first-person shooter. My favourite tracks between the two soundtracks include:

Cultist Base

BFG Divison 2020

Urdak 

The DOOM Hunter 

The Super Gore Nest 

The Only Thing They Fear Is You

Usuper Gore

Doom Eternal

End Of Level

UAC Atlantic Heavy

Blood Swamps Light

Overall the soundtrack is pretty good but is likely to stay with me, that being said when playing the game it is the music you need.

Gameplay

Let's get on with the ripping and the tearing! The gameplay is immense, intense and so much fun! The weapons feel more balanced than before, Doom Eternal has the addition of a new weapon that offers the same and perhaps even more damage than that of the BFG (a weapon that with just one shot can take out every enemy in a room), the Unmakyr. It offers single and chain shots which are great for some of the larger enemies. The Super Shotgun is great and now has a hook on it that can be used to pull you towards enemies. If that was not enough you know have a shoulder attachment that can be used to burn or freeze enemies and really is a game-changer, additionally, enemies that are burned or set frozen will drop armor for you. Similar to Doom 2016 most weapons can be modded and upgraded providing very different types of damage, once fully upgraded can devastate even the largest enemies. 

Killing demons never gets old, but just in case it does you will sometimes get random harder enemies thrown in or even better an intense boss battle. These battles are tough but you quickly need to get used to them as afterwards, they will appear more often in standard battles.

Need a moment for yourself to escape the crazy? Head to your floating Fortress of Doom, a cross between a castle and a futuristic ship. Here there are unlockable items, including weapons mods, Praetorian tokens (used to upgrade your suit), albums, and toys which can be found on each level and look awesome.

The game is not just a shooter and will require you to figure out some minor puzzles to get to other areas of the game, especially the hidden ones, it takes you away from the combat for a short time but is often a welcome distraction.

Hurt Me Plenty is one of the difficulty types (basically normal), but if that is not enough you can play it on much harder modes including Ultra Nightmare. While I am not bad at first-person shooters there were certainly parts of the game that I found challenging. The game has a great way of pushing to use everything you have, to keep moving and never falter, which feels awesome and every victory feels damn good.

Multiplayer allows you to have three characters, Doom Guy versus two enemies, it is challenging for both parties as while Doom Guy is no push over some of the larger enemies have some great abilities and while AI is good the human element really makes things more intense. While I am not a huge multiplayer head it is hard to deny the greatness of Doom Eternal.

Ancient Ones Part 1 and 2

The gameplay in the DLC felt a lot more hardcore even with keeping the difficulty the same. Most of the time the challenge was enjoyable and the new additions of enemies that need to be killed in certain ways were fun. That being said it did feel a little unbalanced at times, I really felt this way with the final boss. The first three health bars, simple, the last two felt like even a minor mistake would really screw you. Not against a challenge, far from it, but occasional unbalanced gameplay was a little frustrating.

Overall the gameplay is awesome and fairly well balanced with the only exception being the DLC which seemed to be a lot tougher than the base game. That being said the challenge was a welcome one and stopped me from becoming compliant. 

Final Thoughts

So, after over forty hours of playing how did I feel? Pumped up and curious to try the hard difficulties. The story is amazing, and collectable lore in each level expands on everything to provide something really well rounded. The visuals are really interesting and have some really great backdrops and when it comes to the DLC id Software did not leave me feeling short-changed. The music is pretty good and certainly creates a great atmosphere in the game and intensifies the gameplay. The gameplay is amazing, it is brutal, fast and unrelenting, there is so no going slow or taking it easy, go hard or go home - in a body bag. Overall Doom Eternal gets a solid 4 out of 5 

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - Review

It seems like it's been ages since I last did a review, my time has mostly been taken up playing The Long Dark.  It's basically a hardcore survival game, failing to pay attention at any point can quickly lead to your demise.  I had put about twenty-five hours into the story when I found out there are still three episodes to be released.  The Long Dark can be really grueling and I have to wait a while for the remaining episodes to be released, so I wanted to change gears and play something a bit more fun and quicker paced - enter Wolfenstein II The New Colossus.


Chicken Balls!  They are chunks of chicken covered in batter, you can eat them as they are or with a dipping sauce, maybe sweet and sour or curry.  They are not healthy, or good for you in any way, eat one too many and you will regret it.  That being said, there are bad quality versions of chicken balls, sometimes they are almost wet there is so much oil on them, or the chicken can be really tough or stringy.  Basically, you need to choose wisely as to where you purchase your balls from and ensure you do not devour too many of them.  Playing Wolfenstein II The New Colossus I found myself asking was I eating good chicken balls and had I chosen the restaurant wisely? 

Story

I'll be honest, I have never really played any of the Wolfenstein games but the New Colossus, in particular, seemed like a lot of fun, so I thought why not.  The games start off with, 'previously on the New Order' (the last installment), as someone new to the series I really appreciated this.  

You play as Terror-Billy, scourage of the Nazi's, killer of killers.  As we all know every hero needs a back story and Billy's is pretty sad, who had an abusive, cruel father, who is not only mean to you and your mother but also the dog too.  The start of the game sees you being rescued from your last battle, which although you won, it seems you were not left unscathed.  Confined to a wheelchair, you have to find a way to continue battling the Nazi's, who have won the war and now control America, along with the world.  There are plenty of enemies to kill, but your primary concern is taking down the Nazi Commander Frau Engel, who is just lovely.

The story has plenty of twists, and turns, and certainly is outlandish at times but this is not a bad thing.  There are only two complaints I really had, firstly the early part of the game feels really slow paced, and secondly, you would think if you took over a Nazi-controlled submarine you would not wait five months to search it properly, you know in case there were Nazi's still onboard hidden somewhere.  Overall though a pretty solid story.

Visuals

Many people have raved about the visual effects in the game, and I have to say I can understand why.  The lighting effects used in the game look really good and help create a more realistic environment.  Visually getting to see New York after the detonation of an atomic bomb was really powerful, decayed bodies, and buildings, no signs of life, all helped provide a very grim backdrop.  Then there was Billy's home, which while in serious need of a paint job it has been left largely unscathed by the war, it's also at this point in the game you get to see some powerful flashbacks, which look great, if not very sad.

There was a few smaller stand out visuals that deserve a shoutout including, the weird lizard looking suit Billy wears during the game, takedowns on enemies, that are bloody and brutal, seeing a monkey, crossed with a cat sitting in an old TV was pretty funny and bizarre.  I also liked the inclusion of the concept art, these were collectibles in the game that look really cool.  Overall some great visuals that would be better appreciated on a 4K TV, which I/we will get this year.

Music

The music keeps its head down for the most part, and only really appears during battle sequences.  There are subtle guitar pieces played on occasion, which contrasts greatly with the intense, adrenaline-fuelled battle music.  This score was put together by:

Mick Gordon, an Australian composer who has worked on a number of diverse game titles including; Wolfenstein: The New Order, Doom (2016) Dead Space 3, Killer Instinct and Need for Speed: The Run.

The score runs just shy of ninety minutes, and while it's not necessarily bad, it does feel a little underwhelming and is a far cry from Gordon's work on Doom.  Listening to the score again just made me want to replay Doom for the awesome score.  There were a few pieces that stood out for me; 'Main Theme', 'Ausmer', 'Escape', and 'All Combat Themes'.  Overall not bad, but certainly not great.

Gameplay

Onto the balls, of chicken!  I have played more than a few games in my life and I can tell you that starting off in a wheel shooting Nazi's was a first for me.  While there were wheelie good things (sorry I couldn't help it) in the game, one thing that struck me as out of place was the stealth option. Why in a largely balls out shooter would you include stealth, while it is optional, in some cases you kind of have no choice, for me, it just ruined the experience a little.  The tiny subtitles used were annoying as the game naturally has a lot of German dialogue.  Billy's monologuing throughout the game was jarring, a bit weird and a little unnecessary.

When it comes to shooting there is a lot of fun to be had, and that's before you throw in the fact that you can dual wield weapons.  My favorite weapons were the hatchet and schockhammer, the hatchet can be used for stealth, bloody frontal takedowns, or can be thrown from a distance.  The schockhammer is an automatic shotgun that is powerful as hell, and few enemies stand a chance if you dual wield them.  With the exception of the hatchet, all weapons can be upgraded by finding kits in the game, they were all pretty good and worthwhile.  There are perks in the game, all you need to do to get them is kill enemies in a certain way, or with a certain weapon, this pushes you to play differently if you really want a particular perk.  

There are two areas that I really enjoyed playing, the first was in New Orleans which when you get to ride a Panzerhund, a large robotic, dog/tiger like thing that breathes fire.  The courtroom level was awesome, there is so much carnage, and enemies to kill it's crazy, I had a lot of fun playing it even though I died a number of times.

Overall some solid gameplay, with a few minor issues and one major one.

Final Thoughts

After fifteen hours how did I feel?  Pretty good, some good story, great visuals, and some really good gameplay, with a slightly underwhelming soundtrack.  While I can't fault the game too much there was something that didn't blow me away.  Perhaps it was because playing it I kept thinking of Doom 2016, it has great visuals, and gameplay, but didn't get bogged down in the story as it knew what it was, a balls-out action shooter.  Maybe I felt there was too much story for this type of game, or maybe I just wanted to play Doom again.  That all being said I give this one 4 out of 5

Prey - Review

Happy New Year!  Can you believe it's 2018 already?  Last year was a good year, personally, professionally and gamelly (yeah, I know that's not a real word).  I ended last year having played forty-two games, thirty-nine of them completed.  Project X Zone 2 on 3DS I am still playing and really enjoying, and have no doubt I will finish later this year.  There were two games I walked away from last year, The End Is Nigh and Resonance of Fate.  The former started out really fun and challenging, but after getting to the point where it seemed the game was going to end the developers piled on a load more levels.   This would normally be a good thing, but the difficulty level spiked too much and stopped being fun.  The latter, well it was intriguing, with some really original concepts, but near the end of the game after I had put in sixty hours it became apparent that to complete it I would need to put in at minimal another twenty hours.  I bowed out, it had become about finishing the game rather than enjoying playing it.


Anyway enough about 2017, let's talk about Prey, wait when was that released?  When it was announced I was a little skeptically about playing it, why you ask?  Back in 2006 Prey was released, I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to playing the sequel.  Unfortunately, the plug was pulled and there never was a Prey 2.    When I read about the new Prey I found it did not resemble the original Prey at all and I promptly lost interest.  Luckily enough my main man DG told me a lot about the game and he encouraged me to play it.


I find calzone's to be highly underrated, which is a shame as they can be really nice.  One could argue that they are simply a folded pizza, and it would be hard to disagree with that assessment, but to me they are more than just that.  On the outside, they look simple, unassuming, but when you take a bite you can't believe what you have been missing out on.  The cheese seems more cheesy and the tomato seems more, well you get the point.  Playing Prey I found myself asking, was there something tasty inside or was it just a poor imitation of a pizza?

Story

The game's protagonist is Morgan Yu, you wake up in your apartment and your brother Alex calls letting you know how happy he is that you will be working with him.  Get up, go to work, rinse, repeat, everything's normal, or is it?  Very quickly things become dark and confusing, not knowing what to do or who trust.  Being honest saying any more than that will spoil the main story.


The game offers multiple side quests some of which directly affect the main story, for the most part, you won't know which ones these are, so try not to skip too many of them.   Some of the side quests were really interesting as they offered insight into the world you were in, especially the social aspects.


Overall the main story was pretty good, if not slightly drawn out near the end.  The side quests give depth to the characters in the world and really makes you care about them, well some of them anyway.

Visuals

The game looks really sharp, so much so that when Morgan initially wakes up I thought it was a cut sequence.  The world reminded me of a nice hotel or a cruise ship, well except for the darkness and death that is.  There are parts later in the game where you have the opportunity to float around in space which is not only fun to do but looks really cool as well.  The enemies are interesting and terrifying, at least initially until you get used to seeing them.  One of my favourite things visually was watching the Recycler at work, changing weapons, food, scrap into more workable building blocks.


While the game does look sharp I found it difficult to pull out areas that really stood out.  It is inaccurate to say it looked boring but considering the backdrop I thought it would have been more exciting.



Music

The music and sounds of Prey can be best described as intense, even when you think you are safe it reminds you otherwise.  In many games when enemies appear music plays and then when you kill them it stops, not in Prey.  This is done really well and has you constantly at the edge of your seat, along with making you ask the question, 'are there more enemies?'  There were a number of people who helped create this terrifying score:


Mick Gordon, an Australian composer who has worked on a number of diverse game titles including; Wolfenstein: The New Order, Doom (2016) ShootMania Storm, Killer Instinct and Need for Speed: The Run.

Ben Crossbones, an American composer who works include;  Organ Trail, Skate or Die, Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD and Kick-Ass.

Raphael Colantonio, French game designer and founder of Arkane Studios who brought us the Dishonored series.  Outside of this he also performed the track 'Brigmore Lullaby' in Dishonored 2.

Matt Piersall, an America composer and audio director for GL33k, some of his works include;  Epic Mickey, Full Metal Alchemist and The Broken Angel, Splosion Man, Halo 4, Metroid Prime 3 and Recore.


The score lasts little over thirty minutes, it's filled with dread, darkness and really only exists for one reason, to let you know you are never safe.  The atmosphere it helps create really made the gameplay itself that much more enjoyable.  My favourite pieces were; 'The Phantoms', 'Neuromods', 'No Gravity' and 'December and January'.

Gameplay


Onto the meat!  The first thing that gave me pause when I was about to embark on my journey were the difficulty options and their descriptions.  Easy, 'You will survive. Probably' and Nightmare, 'Nothing Can Save You'.  I really liked that touch, games like Doom and Duke Nukem have a tendency to do the same thing.


Nobody likes tutorials but they are necessary to get you up and running.  Some games try to make them interesting, others do not.  Prey is definitely the latter, it felt like a tutorial from the nineties and it's only saving grace was the personality questionnaire at the end.


The game is a first person shooter style and as such that means there are a number of weapons of your disposal.  My favourite weapon for the first few hours of playing was the turret, if I found one I carried everywhere as my protector.  The Gloo gun was a stand out weapon that was not only used to remove hazards but could be also used to reach inaccessible areas and stop enemies in there tracks. The Golden Silenced Pistol and the shotgun were my go to weapons and upgrading them certainly helped.  Need more materials?  Don't worry you can you use Recycler grenades, through them into an area with lots of stuff in it and boom instant conversion - very handy to remove obstacles too.

Nothing is safe to pick up.  When is a health kit not a health kit?  When it's a mimic.  These enemies throughout the game made me jump many times even when I knew they were there.  They will jump right at your face and if you are not careful it will mean your demise.  There is a creature you encounter later called the Nightmare, it's exactly what it sounds like.  You have the choice to hide until it passes by or kill it, at least early on I would recommend the hide and pray option.


There are no shops to sell things but there is a genius invention called the Recycler.  It take anything you dont' want and converts it into one of four materials; mineral, exotic, organic, synthetic.  These materials can then be used in a Fabricator to create anything you might need, and trust me you will call on the both many, many times through out the game.


The skill tree is pretty standard until later in the game where you have access to many unusual abilities.  There is no levelling up system so you will need to collect or fabricate neuromods which are used to purchase them.  While there were many good abilities I found myself sticking to the same reliable few.  Initially I thought this was due to laziness on my part, but then I realised there were many that just were not that worthwhile.  One of the most frustrating abilities was hacking, not the ability itself but the annoying mini game you had to do each time you wanted to do it.  Anything outside a level one hack was painful, lucky enough in most cases there was a way round this.


Overall some pretty good gameplay with few complaints apart from hacking and a some so so abilities.




Final Thoughts

So after just over thirty hours how did I feel?  Pretty good.  The story was interesting and only near the end did I find it to be a little drawn.  The game looked sharp visually even if it wasn't very standout.  Musically the game was right on the money and really helped intensify the gameplay.  The gameplay itself was fairly solid with a few minor exceptions.  Overall I would have to say this calzone was pretty tasty and give it 4 out of 5