If you played through God of War 2016, then you will have a better grasp on the mechanics for this game. You lack the instant help function of "BOY!", but have access to a wider variety of tools at all times. A fine game to grab on sell, as it is still a bit buggy. I hit two softlocks, both involving a chest and upgrading after I recieve the prompt I have enough money to buy an upgrade. I hit a hard crash during the bank fight. The game really does not like you restarting the check point before the fight. It starts chugging, then finally crashes. (I think because you have to shoot the sources each time to trigger the fight; the game fails to properly dispose of these assests when you restart.) I also clipped through the final boss, and had to fight my way out to reach the end trigger punch. Aside from that, it ran smooth. As for mechanics, I would suggest to not panic, and learn movesets, as well as timings. All Beat 'Em Ups are rhythm base, so each fight consists of properly timing the proper move at the right enemy at the right time. You do have two "get out of jail" cards to play; cross stun, and hyper mode. About only two enemy types make rolling away a main stay; suiciders, and the baloon throwers. Those suckers can be killed quick, but they tend to be the back lines to other medium size threats. The only really mandatory optional upgrade is the rifle one which allows you to shoot a weak point infinitely without reloading. I don't see how anyone could beat this game without it, as you have to shoot weakpoints all the time. If you have trouble with combat, then focus more on the electrical upgrades. The smashes, when combined, tend to wipe crowds of fodder, and hyper mode tends to rush down a single enemy. Explosives with the tornado just melts most front line enemies. Outside of that, your roll lacks IFs.
Alright combat and story. Hate the matrix, because I couldn't find an explaination for it in game. I accidentally clicked through the help when I attempted to do it once. Gave up and just forced it everytime I hit the minigame. Hate the lingo system. I advise taking gang, shadowrunner, and academic. The others are basically useless.
I'd enjoyed the gameplay and the decision making through out the game. Granted, I'm not much of a crpg kind of guy, and prefer other genres. About the only major gripe relates to the chrisma tree and the lingo perks. Some you might never use because of your choices through out the game, others may be used once, and then others will pop up constently. (I recommend security first, gang second, and then academic third. Socialite, business, and street, rarely ever came up.) I like normal's freedom to build your kind of character. I ran as a dwarf body builder chasimatic monk who punch everything. Took me a hot minute to realize I need to buy my skills, but after that, things moved smoothly. Spoilers: So the main theme is nature abhords a vacuum. If you spend the time talking to most of the npc's in the hub area, then you will unlock a conversation where you learn more about the assistant in the magic show. It exists as an advisor, and uses a beautiful woman's form to fit in to our world. It informs you of the world beyond our world, kept at the border by powerful beings in our world. The dragons act as a part of this boundry. So killing the dragons will weaken the barrier and allow in things beyond our comprehension. (An alternative ending if you so choose it.) The hyper intellegent AI lacks the ability to see beyond the material, and thus assumes the dragons must die. I hate you cannot inform the AI of immaterial world and attempt to convenice it to learn more before attempting to kill things. Pretty much every mission changes if you disobey your client. I ended up going against the Lodge, because they're jerks, and wished to help the resistance in fighting against them. I freed the AI, and now it wishes to kill me. yata yata. Ergo, if you find a fence in the middle of no where, investigate it before doing anything with it.
I enjoyed the difficulty curve, and the challenging trials. Typically, brute force doesn't solve any challenge, but creative use of walls, traps, amplifiers and towers will. However, the artifcat, and endurance challenges force a hard grind. The artifact provides wonderful bonuses towards the game in non-trial modes, but requires another resource, shadow orbs, to power up. You get maybe a few hundred after a single play of an average level. To power up the artifact, requires around a hundred thousand shadow orbs, and this is before dealing with the different levels of its pieces. A high level piece (80+) can require an additional ten thousand or so to completely power up. You want to do this, as it gives you free skill points and nice damage bonuses. The high level pieces come from breaking open vaults or ramping up the difficulty on replaying a level. The vaults reach high levels of ridicuolusness in toughness. A million health and armor, really? Even with my high number of hours of play, I'm not any where close to unlocking the artifact completely or upgrading each piece completely. To conclude It is fair to play through and beat. Don't try to 100% it.
It is a fun game to play, with the ability to customize your character by focusing on different aspects within your hideout; abilities, guns, and magic. Easy enough to beat, and not really going to make you think, except how to sprint. Remeber to turn sprint on, and the game becomes incredibly easier. It loses a star for the odd difficulty jump. The first one, doesn't require too much thinking. The second one requires some strategy. The third, well, unless you are incredibly cautious, you will be losing all of your progress multiple times. If the second difficulty was a bit harder, or the third one didn't have a permenant death feature, then it would be a better game.
I have never played the Castlevania games, and haven't had the chance. So, on a whim, I picked up a pre-order of this game, and was pleasently surprised. It is a fun game, with an okay story, and a variety of actions to choose from as you fight your way through the castle, before destroying it. However, it loses a star, as it has a few one and done things that require you to have specific items to get the proper drops. Otherwise, you will not be able to 100% complete that aspect of the game. In addition, it has a bit of grind, which has a bit of an inverse relationship with difficulty; the easier the game, the harder the grind is. If you wish to enjoy the game, and not worry too much, then beat it on normal. If you get stuck, read some of the key items and they will give you a hint on what you need to do next. If you wish to lose several weeks of your life, beat hard, then take on nightmare.
