This game is scary. As it should be. Enemies are satisfying to fight: - Good amount, not too many or too little, often show up in a scary way - Just hard enough - Never forced to fight enemies with a weapon you don't like - If you like a weapon, you can almost exclusively use that weapon (might have ammo issues though) - If you don't like certain weapons, you can pretend they don't exist. I personally used only 1 plasmid and 3 of the (~8) weapons consistently. Exploring is rewarding and interesting - you never really feel like you have too much ammo or money. The optional areas always have interesting rewards and contribute IMMENSELY to the scary atmosphere / experience. The story is intriguing and compelling - the story and your character's actions always match up congruently. You rarely even notice you're playing a game, it just feels like YOU ARE IN RAPTURE. At first I didn't like the "pause game to choose your weapon / ammo type" button, but later it was all I was using. It's really satisfying - you get to fully enjoy the horror aspect of the game while still playing the fights out near-perfectly if you want. (To put this into context - BS2 doesn't have this menu. I can't tell you the amount of times I pulled a non-weapon out in the heat of the moment, wasted charges on it, and lost a whole health bar trying to press the right button (1-9) and then manually cycling through ammo types in real time. It just feels terrible when that happens.) Overall - a fantastic experience!
Expected a horror-style game, similar to the first one. This game is not scary. It's just a worse version of the first one. Music: Horror sound/music is played every times waves of enemies show up to fight, but even the 1st time it happens (it happens a lot) you know exactly what's going on, you have to TRIGGER those waves yourself. The music just doesn't fit what's going on. Combat: There are also SO MANY enemies that you fight constantly, and they're weak, making them just normal and uninteresting to fight or encounter. The dual wielding mechanic and real-time hacking also make the game worse - you have no way to pause the game and pick a weapon, so you're always fumbling to press the correct 1-9 key for the weapon / ammo type you want to switch to. The drill is super clunky, especially since almost all enemies have guns and fight in packs. RIP drill role-playing. In the first game, you could be smart about your battles (pausing the game and choosing the exact gun/ammo for the situation) and be proud of how you optimized your weapon/plasmid use. In this game, you're just fighting ALL THE TIME, empting your ammo one fight, replenishing all of it before the next, and every fight is either too easy or an overwhelming mess. Never actually satisfying. Hacking & Sneaking: The long-range real-time hacking is really annoying. It incentivizes you to "sneak around" and be careful not to get spotted by a camera or a turret. But you're a BIG DADDY in this game. BIG DADDIES STOMP THE GROUND ON EVERY FOOTSTEP. I can't even enjoy roleplaying as a big daddy - every sneaky step I take reminds me that this makes no sense. Story: Bland. Big Sisters are super lame, you never get a chance to be attached to Eleanor (which is THE reason this is even happening). The story feels forced. Overall: This game is alright. It's just nothing like the first one. If you like the lore / atmosphere, and just enjoy shooting and zapping stuff, I guess it's fine. I just expected more.
