I have 25 hours played on console and reached what I am told the end of the first of three acts. I enjoy challenging games if done well. I have beaten several From Software games and others such as DMC at higher difficulties. I have also played many hard old school 2D games in my 35 years of gaming. However, this just does it very poorly. The primary issue is the spawn points after death. They are usually very far and require a lot of challenging platforming and even several battles before getting back to the thing you are trying at again. This is just disrespectful of the player’s time and a major discouragement to trying again. This is especially irritating when putting a damper on the excitement of finding the next stage of advancement after searching all over. Save points also require hefty payment to unlock. However, this is not nearly all. The game likes to do many multi-wave gauntlets that take a long time to clear since you can barely increase your strength. Bosses often add extra enemies in the room which can easily triangulate to leave you nowhere to go amidst large AoE boss attacks, yet they zoom away from you if you try to attack them to clear the air. Some bosses require you to back away to a range where they are offscreen, then you are in a gamble of needing to approach again yet they could be starting moves off screen that you are running right into. I am told all of these things, especially the runbacks and platforming gauntlets, only become far more difficult. I am afraid this game is only for super hardcore players who not only like a challenge, but design that is simply punishing and time-wasting for no reason. I uninstalled it today because I don’t like a game that feels like it doesn’t want me to play it. I like feeling engaged and pulled into the fray of battle with abilities that enable tight and dynamic response to every situation. This game makes me feel constantly pushed out every way it can find to make the experience simply annoying.
This is the original ignorant PC port that they released way back when, not updated at all. Only 4:3 resolutions maxing at 1280x1024, and no controller support at all even though it originally came out on Xbox. Many companies are doing way better these days with fully updated ports, as with AVP Classic here on GOG.
