Decent graphics and logical puzzles don't make up for a dull story and unlikable main character.
I finally quit playing this game after I could not longer convince myself that it was an enjoyable experience. It is overwhelmingly dreary. The environments are mostly ugly (a corpse in a ditch, sewers, an alley, a run down downtown). The characters are mostly cynical, miserable or hateful people (with the exception of Delores). Is Ransome supposed to be funny?!? He's unbearable! If Agent Ray is bored and just wants to get the investigation over with, why should I care? Most of the humor is annoying and tedious. Hearing "a-reno" over and over again isn't clever, it's obnoxious. This game is like The Secret of Monkey Islands' evil twin. Where Monkey Island is charming, it is cynical. Where Monkey Island has interesting locations, it has ugly ones. Where Monkey Island has winsome, sympathetic characters you root for, this one has mean ones you just want to go away. Where Monkey Island has an interesting plot, in this one it is like... why should I care? Where Monkey Island is funny this... isn't.
The way the story plays out, as an old man's recollections, is very clever and well done. The narrator is excellent. The shooting is slick, and the weapons are satisfying. The art is great, and it runs very well.
Good story and voice acting... Slick shooting action... Just a lot of fun.
Most of the game is mediocre to "ok" but... the end is truly horrid. The game has a mixture of different elements including exploration (fine), adventure game segments (not as good), driving (bad) and combat (atrocious). The graphics are good, but sparse. I'm not going to spoil the end, but it devolves into nothing but the badly done combat style of play, with zero payoff. I suppose describing the end as "combat" is sort being generous here though... which you will figure out for yourself if you manage to slog though it to the end.
Lots of exploring and adventuring to do... Only real negative is that that to increase your skills you you have to do them over and over x 100. Wandering around jumping, or casting useless spells a thousand times isn't fun, it's BORING. Other than that, it would probably be five stars.
There are several things I like about this game: -The visual style is excellent -You can combine weapons to make interesting gadgets to use in combat -Some of the missions are entertaining The game has serious flaws however. -The combat system is awkward. You get two "actions" to use per turn. You can use the first one to attack, use a device or other object or two move. However, your second action per turn can only be used to move. So, you can't run up to a door an open it. You have to wait for the next turn. You can't walk up to a monster and hit it with your sword... you have to wait, and hope the monster hasn't moved out of range next turn. Or more likely, mauled you to death while you were sitting there waiting for you to be able to swing the sword, You will find yourself wasting half your turn often. -The worst problem with the game is that it uses save points. The save points also do not save if you must shut down your session. You must complete each mission in one session. The missions have a puzzle-like structure and require large amounts of trial and error... if you find some monsters, and they close in on you, you are dead meat. You have to know where to expect the monsters to deal with them. This leads to re-doing significant chunks of each mission over and over ad nauseum... because you can't save your own mission, you just have to hope a save point is close enough to where you made a fatal mistake (which can't really be anticipated. I made it to the mission on the surface of the ship before I decided re-doing the mission over and over again just is not fun. It is tedious. If you want a strategic turn based game, I recommend the Shadowrun series, and Xenonauts, both available on GOG, and a lot more fun that this game.
