I really wanted to like this title. It has loads of style, a fitting but simple story and great cyberpunk atmosphere. Unfortunately I had to put this game down after only a short run. One gripe is the high speed of combat. For the most part you do not have time to aim or anticipate enemy actions, so most of your shots spray past the target, and by the time you are aware of bullets flying toward you from other directions they have already hit. The game doesn't focus on well timed attacks, or strategically picking targets, you just have to go nuts and kill everything as quick as you can while moving as much as possible to avoid dying. This wasn't a gamebreaker for me but those who don't like this type of very fast combat should look elsewhere. The main reason I had to stop playing is that although the game allows you to rapidly dash several times in a row at almost any time by repeated press of the dash button, but I found that it prevented me performing the second dash immediately when I was in the middle of combat and trying to move away from an impending attack, which is when it is needed most. This happened to me more than five times in two minutes early in the game, but when I wasn't about to be shot or stabbed at close range performing rapid consecutive dashes worked just fine. I was not stuck on cooldown, had dash charges to spare, was not stunlocked or recovering from being hit in any way, my game did not stutter or freeze, and there is nothing active which should interfere with the controls. For this core mechanic which is relied on for survival to simply deny use when it really matters is unforgivable, and made it clear to me that I was going to have more frustration than fun. I'd advise others to beware of this problem. I can't in good conscience recommend this game, but I am pushing my rating up to two stars because I really did love the game's style and I did not run into any other technical or performance issues.
Fun if you enjoy stealthy lurking, I'm 5+ hours in and having a blast. The tutorials and early objectives are smoothly delivered through a series of in-character phonecalls from your buddy, and every little task you need to do (hack a phone to wipe it, pick a lock, etc) comes with it's own minigame (although the jewellery tool task is more just click in a few places to complete than any sort of challenge). The game story doesn't lock you down much. Mostly you are free to do as you like and can just ignore story to explore, test out hiding spots, make some extra cash between objectives and so on, but following the objectives will lead to bigger cash rewards faster as they quickly introduce new tools to steal bigger and better loot, and from houses with better locks and security which you cannot access early on. A bit unpolished in areas, such when it comes to interacting with the environment you may have to move your aim around some and hit buttons a few times to scale that fence or jump out through that window. The game gets it right most of the time, just don't expect a level of fluidity that lets you feel like you're in an action movie. A few important notes: 1) You can throw large items to toss them over fences and out windows for later retrieval. I didn't notice this at first and it helps often. 2) You can't hurt anyone in person and if you hit anyone with your car you will "fail the mission" and have to reload from the last checkpoint (last time you climbed out of your car). 3) Some residents are armed with tasers too (orange outline), 4) Just because the cops are alert doesn't mean you have to leave. I've continued quite a bit of stealing when the cops were on to me. You can outrun and misdirect them, then pause to grab a few more things. 5) Previous burglaries get noticed later. The cops aren't always on the way to your current location just because the sirens are going off. I recommend this game for stealth enthusiasts. Keep those toasters coming!
I have to say that I do NOT recommend this game. I felt that nothing was ever explained and what little story was there only existed to hint at things it never delivered on. For a game about exploration and revealing mysteries it's fell very short on the revealing part. I finished the game in one sitting and while it wasn't bad to play I was always waiting for something more to happen, reading the logs as I progressed and wondering when they were going to actually focus on telling me some story for my efforts instead of handing me minimal amounts of information which didn't seem to point to anything. I won't say more regarding the story to avoid spoiling it for those who still want to play this. PROS: - Looks nice - Sounds effects are good and suit their application, nice snappy sounding lasers SO-SO: - Despite the game's simplicity some of the battles can get challenging, which is good, but this is mainly due to how easy it is to die over and over while the enemy base just churns out more units to replace those few you managed to kill, which can leave you feeling like you're just smacking your head against a regenerating brick wall. CONS: - Occasional problems getting stuck in small crevices until the game inexplicably cataputs you out, almost murdering you upon landing unless you have a shield up. - Weapon choices are limited and some of them make no sense. A few unlocks just make me think "why would I ever use this gun that is worse than the lower level counterpart I got an hour ago?" - Around the middle of the game every gun you can use starts to feel underpowered. Then you get the Titan unlocked and enemies die quickly under your endless waves of lasers. - The long range rifles unfortunately become less and less useful as the game goes on, due in part to being outperformed by the assault weapons, but also made ineffective by the awkward terrain you have to fight on towards the second half of the game which obscures enemies until they are almost on top of you. - I used the sidearm once or twice in the whole game, felt a bit pointless. Being able to change sidearm or replace it with another piece of equipment would be nice. - Shield has both a time limit and a damage limit. Feels restrictive. - Sudden drone attacks out of nowhere for no apparent reason