#foxgames

You barely get to fucking play. I'm 3 hours in and it's cutscene followed by slow walking followed by camera pan followed by the actual game you want to play then firefight then cutscene then slow talking on comms then another firefight then quicktime event then proper gameplay then cutscene then camera pan then dramatic event that just takes away control but nothing actually happens then firefight and then another fucking cutscene.

Should have just made a movie. I know shit like this was popular back then but god is it a slog nowadays. And I'm not a stranger to cutscenes, I love the Yakuza games FFS but the story is just meh. And it doesn't help how annoying Lara is and how uninteresting her buddies are.

This game was great and it helped that I had played Alan Wake recently, although you don’t really have too, it just helps to know what's going on for one of the DLC chapters and a few Easter eggs here and there.

I skipped over this game for awhile because tbh it doesn’t look that interesting, and the first hour or so is very slow and confusing, I nearly put it down but I’m so glad I didn’t. A lot of concepts, weird characters and acronyms are thrown at you in this first section and it got a bit overwhelming. Once you get your telekinesis ability it really picks up, the combat becomes a lot more fun and the story starts to make more sense. It didn’t go in the direction I was expecting it too and that was a pleasant surprise. The first boss battle is actually a real pain but after that I never had any trouble (you can encounter it again but it’s optional).

The whole game takes place in some weird brutalist government building that can shift shape and is being invaded by an entity. It is a government branch that investigates strange phenomena that covers it up from the public, while it itself being a strange organisation with unusual leaders and practices, I didn’t thinking running around an office block could be so interesting but it is. The characters are all a bit quirky, one guy is very Twin Peaks and there’s a lot of stuff hinted at, but never fully revealed, the DLC especially asks a lot of questions, but answers little, setting up for a sequel. A lot of the story can be found lying around in files, recordings and videos so if you don’t like that kind of thing it’s probably not for you. I liked it because you can find something later on that you’ve already read about and I was hunting down every last file I could find. Re-reading/watching stuff later is useful because things will make sense in hindsight. Jesse herself is very likeable, I warmed to her a lot quicker than I did with Alan Wake and she can be pretty funny at times too. Always nice to have a new female lead character.

These notes also give hints about new abilities and most of this stuff is optional. You can miss whole segments of the game if you don’t bother exploring and it will make combat a lot harder for you. You can even miss whole story arcs and characters if you don’t have a good look round. Hell, I thought I was exploring thoroughly and then the game gave a hint that I might have missed something and found a  whole extra sideplot 

You have your main story mission but you can go and do sidequests as well. These are totally optional. Some are more interesting than others, some are just collecting junk or timed missions, but others can reveal new information about the bureau and what goes on in it. It’s a good idea to do these for upgrades anyway.

This game has the best combat of any game I’ve played in years. First you get a gun, it has unlimited ammo but you have to wait for it to reload. It can be morphed into a shotgun, sniper rifle, grenade launcher, etc. Honestly, once I got the power to launch shit about, the gun was secondary. You can grab and launch pretty much anything at the enemies and it’s so satisfying to smack an enemy in the face with a fax machine or a forklift. It get’s even better once you can levitate and and start raining death from above. You need to get good at balancing your gun and launch ability as both need to recharge. Health is only gained by attacking enemies so you really need to be on the offensive throughout,. I tried ducking and hiding at first but Jesse is just too fragile to survive long and enemies are very aggressive. Also, aside from crouching, taking cover isn’t handled well in this game unfortunately. But you can get a dodge ability (you can actually miss this if you aren’t looking around and I can only imagine what a nightmare that would be without it). Keep moving and always be on the attack is my advice. Enemies will flush you out in no time if you try and play it safe.  You can improve combat by leveling up your weapons and abilities. I got a really useful upgrade that restored health with every successful launch smack and that was a lifesaver for boss battles/hordes. You can also increase your health although I found even at max health a strong enemy could still take me out in two hits if I wasn’t careful. For huge battles you sometimes get an ally and they were more useful as a distraction than anything else. I felt the upgrade system was poorly explained however, despite how crucial it is. The game isn’t exactly stingy with them, they can be found killing enemies or through exploration. You can also make your own.  Some of the savepoints can be a bit strange. I had a few moments of panic where I seemed to have been sent back somewhere I’d been 45 mins before after dying but everything I’d done before the death was still done, I just had to run back. Bit confusing.

There’s also some platforming and puzzles. These are all good, nothing felt unfair.

It all looks fine, some character models are a bit stiff but nothing was outright bad. Even though the game is set in America, with mainly American characters, something felt European about it, I can’t put my finger on why though. (I didn’t realise the developers were Finnish at first either) The building is nice and detailed and everything is destructible. A room where you had a fight LOOKS like a room where you just had a fight. IDK if it’s my dying PS4 or what but some of the busier battles had some serious framerate drops. I also had one instance where the game froze and I had to restart.

I can’t remember any of the soundtrack. Like it suits the game and it’s fine while playing, just nothing really stood out. Just atmospheric tracks mostly. One track that plays in the maintenance sector did my head in though. It sounds like someone knocking on a pipe and that really got irritating. Voice acting is alright, everyone suits their character.

I really regret not picking this game up sooner, it’s so good. Usually I find a game has either great gameplay and a meh story or vice versa but this game was great in both areas. I’ve not played anything like it so it was a unique experience too. The Alan Wake tie in DLC was scarier than anything in Alan Wake itself tbh, that monster was creepy as fuck. The only negatives are the incredibly slow start, poor cover system, poor explanation of how upgrades work and the rather abrupt ending to a very interesting story. I guess it’s all being set up for a sequel but it still, it  came so suddenly I was a bit taken aback tbh. Also without the DLC it’s quite short. I just really wanted more and there is a fair bit to do postgame thankfully. Shame there’s no new game+ option though.

Only played the first half hour so far but I’m a bit wary of this one.

Far more action heavy, which I don’t mind since I had fun with resi 2 and even 3, but first person action isn’t a favourite of mine. Biohazard worked really well because it was more horror focused but it feels kind of clunky here. And Ethan is so fucking slow.

It all looks amazing, but it appears way darker than resi7. I can barely see anything in the houses. I followed the instructions but I guess I’ll have to turn up the brightness. Also Rose is a hideous, like most video game babies.

Some things I didn’t like - Markus story moves too fast and him going from carer to Robo MLK was too fast and it made little sense why the older androids just went along with him.

- the whole thing taking in place in like a week is strange

-Everyone moved too slow and stiff, got annoying sometimes. Particularly when Markus needs to find Jericho

-Why wasn’t calling the police an option if Kara truly though Alice was human?

-Why can an unemployed slob living in a shithole afford a family of robots to batter? I get he’s taking out loans but it makes no sense to me.

-Hank goes from Android hater to supporter too fast

-I know it’s to have that ‘imitation krabs’ moment, but hank could have just asked the real connor to convert deviants, instead of asking questions that could be uploaded from memory.

-The Connor was a planned deviant all along story makes no sense. Also didn’t like that his deviant scene could only be brought on by Markus or North instead of Hank. And it’s rushed as all hell.

-why would connor be upset at not being unique? Surely he’d be aware.

-Androids have a few repeated models with the same faces sold by the millions but can disguise themselves to get into Canada? Just have a list of the faces.

-Sumo looks so bad graphics wise, like it’s odd cos everything else looks so good

-The main female character being put into the abusive situations was uncomfortable.

-I felt deviancy wasn’t really explained very well and left too ambiguous. Which as the major plot point really irked me.

-Not really game related but the Gavin/RK900 shipping really baffles me. One get’s barely any screen time and zero dialogue in one end credit scene and the other is a bland shitty person who gets about 2 minutes of conversation. Like where did this come from?

Really dumbass shit

- Alice android reveal ruined Kara’s whole story for me, like so much of what you do is pointless and especially fucking annoying in a game that is to be replayed. Her being in ‘denial’ about it felt weak and luther repeatedly tired to tell her. This kid robot has also sold so well that it’s lowered birth rates and she still never noticed? You could see the twist coming early on as well.

-Humans, aside from Carl and Hank, are just painted as straight bad guys. Yeah they treat their Androids like servants and replace them but they are supposed to be appliances. It’s like that Sid toy story meme how the fuck are they supposed to know those fuckers were alive? They shouldn’t be. Deviants are killing people so it’s not like the fear is totally unwarranted. Could have seen more from the human’s side, like Cyberlife is obviously dodgy, maybe humans wouldn’t so quick to embrace these ‘alive’ machines if they distrusted cyberlife

-The android rights demands were odd too, like owning property, reproduction and compensation for work. Androids will never die and the unemployment rate is at 40%, how’s that meant to even work?

-The fucking robo auschwitz section. It’s so tone deaf it’s actually comical. Someone really sat down and thought this was a good idea.

-The ham fisted revolution in general. Other people have explained this better than me, but again, it’s cringeworthy I found it more funny than anything. Really thought an ‘I have a dream’ option was coming up.

-North and Markus lovestory felt forced as all hell. I pissed her off constantly but it took little to raise her to near lover status. I actually don’t mind her ‘kill all humans’ mindset, she has her reasons, but the lover thing was bleh.

-Same with Josh, he was hostile on one of my playthroughs but nothing happened? He supported me anyway? Wasted character.

-The way most people in Jericho, new and old members, just follow Markus without question made it feel more like a cult at times. Also wtf was with Lucy.

-David cage in general tbh.

-WHY CAN’T WE SKIP SCENES AND REPLAY CHAPTERS FROM CERTAIN POINTS FUCKING HELL. I ended up just killing Kara to speed up replays, she adds nothing to the main plot anyway.

Stuff I enjoyed

-Choices actually mattered, first for me in any game I’ve played. Permadeath is neat. And although it is handled poorly a lot of the time, controlling a whole revolution is kind of cool. Getting to fail by just dicking about.

-Connor and Hanks’ storyline is by far the best, best gameplay with the investigations and they play off each other well. And you can be an absolute savage arsehole if you want. Connor was my favourite, I liked his awkward deviant/cold machine personality and his less linear story. Think the most effort went in his storyline and it’s the only one with humour.

-The actors all did very well, despite the shitty writing at points.

-Cool scene in the dump with markus.

-Some really nice moments, like the carousel scene.

-We finally hear Sailor mouth Mr Krabs, probably my favourite thing about the game.

-Looks amazing, best facial features in any game i’ve played, probably even better than resi2

-I liked the futuristic yet familiar setting. There are autonomous cars and androids but everything  else is mostly like present day. Weird ebooks everywhere is a bit dumb though.

-Some pretty tense scenes, mostly in Kara’s story. That motorway scene was a highlight. Bit less so when you know Alice is an android but whatever.

-Really good soundtrack as well, underrated. I don’t remember much of Markus's tbh,aside from his singing, but Kara and Connor had some great themes that I’ve had on repeat the past week.

-I don’t like American accents usually but connors is very soothing.

-I like these Ai stories in general, so I’ll have a soft spot for it even if it could have been so much better. Basically ‘makes no damn sense, compels me though’.

Got pretty addicted to this, even platinumed it despite not actually giving a shit about trophies most of the time

So my first impressions of this were poor unfortunately, due to the combat but that issue has been patched since. A real shame that probably turned people off because this is a series I feel deserves the same level of recognition as Silent hill or resident evil.