Posted on: September 26, 2022
mdqp
Verified ownerGames: 1946 Reviews: 70
Truly awkward stealth game
The demo leaves a very poor impression, sadly. The inspiration from Metal Gear Solid 1 is obvious, but the game manages to be clunkier than its PS1 spiritual predecessor. You get an icon on the screen when enemies are nearby, but no idea of their field of view or even just in which direction they are looking, just their vague whereabouts. No mini-map. To scan the area, you are forced to stand still, everything turns red and black (bad for visibility) and trees still block the top-down view used in this mode (frustratingly limited ability to actually scout around). The enemies also slow down in this mode, which is a negative in many circumstances (it takes forever to study their patterns, this way). The camera is too close to the character, given those limitations, making for terrible "walk 3 steps, stop to scout, rinse and repeat" gameplay. The game has a very loose idea of stealth: you can only be seen if you are under artificial light (and, I presume, if you make noise or bump into enemies). This is TERRIBLE for multiple reasons: in the demo, you are encouraged to hug the invisible walls (often the light doesn't get there), the border between 100% invisible and 100% visible is hard to distinguish until you walk on said border (there is an icon and the model's lighting, but it's really hard to gauge BEFORE crossing between the two detection areas, the icon doesn't have a "you are still invisible but you are getting too close to a light" state). If you hug a wall, you can't move (you need to press a button to hug/unhug). Aiming is like a twin stick shooter but without the right stick (so it's really bad). There is a reason why MGS 1 used left-right to rotate, and left you were you were aiming when you stopped rotating as opposed to point in a direction. First person is a toggle, which once again is bad (you need it to look around, and can't move while using it, so you want the switch to be snappy). Many more issues, but I have no more room in the review.
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