I would love to give this game a more positive review. For much of my time playing, I enjoyed my experience. This review is going to necessarily contain some spoilers for the endgame, which is where the most serious issues reside. A brief mention of some positives: mostly excellent, detailed, atmospheric environments. Some great music and ambient sounds. Clever inventory and ammunition management systems. What pulled this game down for me is its final stretch. The last boss comes in two stages, a chase where it's invincible and can one-hit kill you, and a fight on a rooftop. Neither of these sections are well-designed. The first stage is still rife with technical issues even this long after release that ensure many unfair deaths. The second stage is much more manageable, but in a misguided attempt to make the boss more threatening it's enough of a bullet sponge that it necessitated the developers giving you an unlimited supply of magnum ammunition for the duration of the fight. There seems to be a clear disparity in design between the sections of the game where you play as the forest ranger, Sam, and the HADES helicopter pilot, Raven. Sam's sections feel tightly-designed and a solid update of the classic survival horror template. I would consider these challenging but fair, with excellent and well-maintained tension throughout. Raven's sections, especially towards the end of the game, feel poorly-designed by someone whose only understanding of classic survival horror was to make things as artificially difficult and punishingly unfair as possible. Considering the game ends on the worst of what Raven's sections have to offer, any desire I had to replay this game evaporated as soon as the credits passed. It's a genuine shame as there's some excellent material to revisit, Sam's hospital level is probably the peak of the game in terms of hitting all the markers of resource management, looping level design and puzzle-solving that typify classic survival horror.
