...what's not to like? Just one question: would this story even happen if you made the best decisions in D2 and saved that dude from the séance?
Was genuinely surprised when playing this years ago on Steam how much difference the dialogue (and mission handling) decisions made. Like Deus Ex games but it felt less like flicking a switch from one alliance to another. Following on from my choices an (allied) character called me The Angel Of Death. Now this game has a place in my heart for ever. The controls can be a bit clunky, and Mike's name is missing a letter, it just sounds weird. Pleased to see it's available for others to play now, I hope they give it the initial few hours it needs to settle in. If they do they can enjoy the many more hours of spy scumbaggery available. There's some quote about spies/the secret services being villains, but on your side. Be the scumbag spy villain, justify your horrific actions for some nebulous higher cause. It's great fun. I did wonder if there's a dialogue choice anywhere that might get the missing "n" back in Mike's name. Let me know if you find it.
Ticks lots of 90s shooter boxes, however: - Large, confusing levels often with no clear path. YOU'VE FOUND THE RED KEYCARD! Now where the hell was the red door? Separate "DOOR UNLOCKED" message. Which door? This level has HUNDREDS. Good variety of weapons but Chaingun is held back for so long you'd expect it to be amazing but instead it takes as long to spin up as it does to empty and doesn't seem to be any more effective than the SMG. Walking around with RMB held down to spin it is uncomfortable. Throwing bombs is as much of a crapshoot as it was 28 years ago, this was a bug to be fixed back then, not a feature. The shotgun works as well at range as the pistol which makes no sense. Up and down aiming is severely limited, this might be engine-related. Great variety of enemies but Most of the time you'll be fighting only 3 types. You often only know that the cheap, cheaty crab skulls are there because your health is going down, and they can appear from anywhere, while making a sound almost indistinguishable from the various fires on every level. Enemies occupy no volume so can hide around corners where there are no corners. Enemy event appearances (key pickup, door open) get really tiresome really quickly. These are completely at odds with the verisimilitude of the level design. Serious Sam, Postal:BD and others do this but so much better - you get PANIC and a fight you can win first time, here you just have to do that bit again, now knowing where things are coming from. Like it's a 16-bit platformer. Showing your awareness of a technical limitation from a previous era (hitscan enemies) and still including it is...what? Utter (insert own expletive). - It looks good and the voiceover isn't annoying but needs a volume slider of its own; Shelly's voice is the loudest noise in the game. - It's just not fun. At all. You have a mission and a challenge. Play Dusk, Amid Evil or Postal:Brain Damaged if you want to shoot things and have fun. Not this.
