I see lots of one star reviews and considered to give the same score, but I did beat it. Took me less than hour and not a small part of the actual game time was spent on level three wandering aimlessly before I realized that, yes, you're actually supposed to just shoot the giant floating isles until they break. The game has many flaws and feels more like a proof of concept for an actual project, but I did have just about enough enjoyment out from it to not give it a one star. The full price is an insult tho.
This game is hard to rate and hard to recommend. I bought it out of nostalgia and to finally finish it after all these years. Was it worth it? I would say it was, for me at least. This game has awful lot of friction from modern viewpoint. Everything breaks. Your guns jam. On harder difficulty the enemy chases you relentlessly and late game shoots you with mortar shells from afar in a way that feels unfair. You have malaria and constantly run out of medicine. The mission structure is pretty simplistic. All of these are valid reasons to quit before the credits. But if you can push past them, there is some gems to be found. The physics are impressive and a time capsule from time when gimmicks like it were a selling point. The story is pretty lean, but the way the theme emerges from (repetetive) gameplay loop is pretty interesting. Spec Ops: the Line is more well known retelling of Heart of Darkness and its linear nature leads to more compact and better paced experience, but there is value in this open world version as well. Even though I'm still not sure how much the feeling of unreliable narrator I get from this game is intended.
