If you like the exploration of Dark Souls but don't care for the boss fights, this game may be for you. Hellpoint is a bit casual, but I don't think that's entirely a bad thing. First, it does away with one of my biggest issues with Dark Souls, which is scattering a ridiculous amount of annoying mobs throughout the world, impeding you from the joy of exploring. Generally, enemies in Hellpoint are more of a nuisance than a threat once you've leveled up a little. They deal very low damage and, for the most part, rarely stagger. You'll even go through a few areas of the game where there will be absolutely no threats, allowing you to focus on pathfinding, soaking in lore, or admiring the environments. In my opinion, this does absolute wonders for the game, and it's great to be given the chance to breathe and take in the world. That said, while the world isn't nearly as detailed as DS, there's a lot of variety to the environments, the art direction is fantastic (reminds me a lot of EYE Divine Cybermancy) and the ability to actually jump opens up a little vertical navigation you simply won't find in DS. Sadly, outside of exploration and art direction, Hellpoint doesn't do much to impress. There's pitiful enemy variety, with the devs going so far as to copy-paste early game bosses, including their full movesets, as weaker mobs. Weapon variety is also poor, consisting of: high-damage slow attack 1H, medium damage fast attack 1H, or low damage faster attack 1H. There's no 2H for whatever reason, meaning shields are basically a given. Meanwhile, the bosses are a bit of a joke. I've killed one of the endgame bosses by continuously stun-locking him while not even wearing endgame gear. Arguably worse, at least one of the bosses I faced was incredibly buggy and would continuously hit me through walls with projectiles and land hits on me even when facing in the opposite direction. For a game that's a year old, this really should have been fixed by now.
I am honestly shocked by how much of a downgrade this game feels compared to Fear 1. The guns sound piddly and weak. The bullet-time effects are a joke. Melee is no longer viable. And the hard difficulty doesn't feel balanced in the slightest. Fear 1 was a poor horror game but a solid shooter. Fear 2 is a neither a good shooter nor a good horror game.
People must have the nostalgia goggles on tight because this game is awful to play solo. Don't trust your AI companions to do anything right. Ask them to clear a room and most of the time they'll get shot in the face as soon as the open the door. If that doesn't happen, they'll get shot in the face after they try to follow the game's awful ROE. Basically, you aren't allowed to shoot a suspect unless they point their gun at someone. See an armed suspect run away from you as you enter a room? Better let him ambush you later unless you want to lose points. Stunned suspect refusing to drop his gun? Let him recover and shoot you in the face or lose points. Suspect RUNNING STRAIGHT TOWARDS YOU WITH A SHOTGUN? DON'T SHOOT, HIS GUN ISN'T POINTING AT YOU. Now none of that would even be so bad if points weren't required to unlock the next mission. This often leads to replaying the exact same mission 5-10 times, usually ending up 2-5 points below the minimum.
This game feels very experimental. Sure it's got your standard Bioware mechanics like decision-making, romance, parties etc. but the lore is horribly shallow and the game's world is a confusing mish-mash of different influences. The story is your standard "you're the chosen one and you gotta save the world" and perhaps Bioware took this too seriously because there are basically no consequences for killing everyone you meet, despite being repeatedly told that messing with the wrong people is dangerous. The voice acting is also extremely hit and miss. Some characters just sound awful and few if any even have a remotely Asian accent. I appreciate Bioware's attempt at replacing the terrible turnbased combat of KOTOR, but the Jade Empire's combat is just garbage. Upgrade one skill to the max then just mash left mouse until the enemy dies and repeat with the next. You can even get a gun at one point which you can upgrade to absolutely cheese the more difficult bosses without even getting hit once. On the bright side, Jack Wall did an absolutely phenomenal job with the soundtrack to the game, which is graciously included with the GOG edition.
If you're thinking of buying this game, know this: Far Cry 2 is not a short journey. There is limited fast travel, respawning checkpoints, and practically everyone in the world wants to kill you.. really really bad. But if you're patient, you can enjoy one of the best games (if not THE best, in my opinion) in the series. The weapons are a blast to use, from the RPG7 to the M1903 sniper rifle; each of them offer a different way to approach your task, from picking off enemies from afar to setting ambushes with IEDs. Being forced to navigate the world by car and foot allows you to admire the beautifully crafted African environment, which always offers unique and interesting sights. The story may not be the most interesting of the series, but it is easily the most grounded. There are no eccentric and psychotic villains, just two sides in a nameless African civil war, and a gun dealer you've been hired to kill. There's no press "X " to be the good guy either. You do bad things for money and work on both sides of the conflict, like it or not, and in the end, no one is quite who they seem.
The concept of a free-roam game set in occupied WW2 Paris is really awesome, sadly Pandemic didn't quite hit the mark with this game. The noir-ish black and white graphics paired with jazzy radio tracks really hammer in the atmosphere but lose much of their charm when you realize that most of the game world looks the same. Outside of the French countryside, which is all but forgotten beyond the first couple hours, the stone paved streets and building facades of Paris quickly blend together. Aside from the excessive amount of Nazi banners, soldiers and the rare firing squad, Paris just doesn’t seem that oppressed. Parisians wander mindlessly along the sidewalks and.. not much else. The world is lifeless, even in “liberated areas,” few changes besides a return of color and reduced Nazi presence. Some missions take you to striking new areas and more still are simply set in the middle of a random and uninteresting space in the game world. The objectives cycle through same three things which is eliminating a target, destroying something, or escorting a character. Most missions allow for some degree of stealth, but they almost always devolve into mindlessly shooting Nazi soldiers, simply because it’s quicker and more practical. The game’s disguise system is unique and it feels accomplishing to slip into a heavily guarded base undetected, yet the mechanics of this system are too shallow and require more patience than seems necessary. As the title suggests, you’re a saboteur. Accordingly, there are tons of “freeplay” targets scattered around the world which you can to destroy in exchange for ingame currency. This system sounds perfectly logical, but destroying these targets is rarely worth the risk or the effort. If the alarm is sounded, a red circle will center on the player. If and only if you escape this circle, you escape the Nazis. Every time an enemy spots you, the circle will recenter on Sean. Escape sounds simple in theory, but the absolutely absurd amount of Nazi checkpoints, patrol cars, wandering soldiers, and watchtower snipers often makes it seem impossible. Ironically, the game encourages you to destroy said targets in order to make escape easier, though avoiding sabotage completely seems much simpler
I can only assume this game was developed in response to pc gamers who wanted a Rising Sun port. Yes there is a Pearl Harbor mission where you ride around in a boat and shoot planes, but that's where the similarities between this and RS end. The rest of the game devolves into walking through nearly identical jungles, shooting away at shrubbery, and getting killed a lot by enemies who can see you through grass and bushes.
