I've been playing it through this weekend and I must say I'm loving it. It has a couple of problems I don't like at all (checkpoint saves and "unrealistic" overpowered bosses) but other than that it's a great game. Actually, I'll post here a small review I already wrote on Obsidian forums:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm playing it on my PC. In general, I'm liking it, but there are some flaws that are worsening my experience. Not to the point of ruining it but transforming what could have been one of the best games ever to an ok game.
I play the game mostly for the story, the NPC interaction and the decisions and its consequences, by the way. So, combat and graphics are secondary to me. I'm playing on hard difficulty
The things I'm loving:
- The story is great so far. I've finished Saud Arabia and I'm currently playing in Moscow. I'm stuck on Brayko, that's why I've come to this forum in the first place
.
- I can already see how my decisions shape the game, but it doesn't feel as if absolutely everything depends on me, which would have been lame. Everybody has its own agenda.
- I like the stealth system, maybe not the absolutely best out there but the best I've seen in an RPG, which combines your own skill with that of your character.
- I love the dialogue system and the fact that you have to choose fast.
- The voice acting is great. The only game I've played with better VA is Dragon Age. Mass Effect would be an equal to this one.
- The talking with the Halbech executive every now and then is a good touch. Makes me wanting to know more.
- The skill system is good. Being able to specialize adds to the replay value.
- Speaking of replay value, it seems to be big so far. I'll know when I replay it.
- The music is well chosen. It accompanies the scene without getting in the way
- I like the minigames even if the hacking one is cluncky.
Now on the negatives:
- The menus are very poorly designed. I have to navigate through many of them to reach a point. And I need more hotkeys. Besides, they're unintuitive. ESC should be used to escape a menu anywhere, not sometimes.
- There's too much combat. Yes, you can approach it differently, use different weapons or martial arts or even stealth. But it's still combat. I still haven't seen a mission where you can get out of combat through charms, at most entering a place and that's it. I expected to play James Bond and I'm playing Rambo instead. A ninja Rambo but still a Rambo.
- The graphics and animations aren't as good as most games today, but I don't care about that.
- Now we're approaching the worst aspects. For a spyonage game it's too unrealistic. I hit a guy with two fire grenades, multiple shotgun shots from less than two meters and many punches and kicks and he's still alive and kicking? WTF?! And he doesn't even have an armor! I didn't know cocaine was a god mode. And that can be said abut most "bosses". Lame.
- You can't change the game difficulty in mid game. Why?
- And the worst for me. I HATE with a passion save checkpoints! This isn't the 80s anymore, I have gigabytes of space to store as many savegames as I want. Why can't I save anyplace in the game? I Should be the one deciding how to play the game I've bought, not whoever designer has decided to put this crappy feature! I tend to quicksave a lot, I hate to redo parts of the game I've just done and done well, and this game forces me to do so. If I'd know about this feature I'd have choosen normal difficulty instead of hard. Ugh!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
And this is something else I wrote after some comments on my review:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
What I meant by "unrealistic" was that it completely shatters my suspension of disbelieve, something needed in any fiction. I know the rest of the game, or a James Bond movie, aren't exactly realistic. But I can play or watch them and not find myself constantly thinking (or screaming ) "Come on, that's too much!". I don't want to play Dragon Ball goes Spy.
I agree the story is superb and the dialogue is great. If it wasn't that way I would have abandoned the game due to a boss fight I got fed up with. And I'm not fast to give up on games.
Oh, a little something I forgot to mention. It's not a great deal but.. why are Russians and Arabians talking in English between themselves?
By the way, the dialogue countdown could have been a little bit less short. I like that you have a countdown, but I'm not a native English speaker so some times I must read the subtitles (unfortunately, the voices weren't translated into Spanish). I could use some more time to choose my answer, I don't know, one or two seconds after the NPC has finished talking. Oh, and the method to fast forward a conversation (mouse click) should be different than the method to choose an answer. More than one time I've seen the next bit of dialogue "fast forwarded" due to me choosing an option a little too late.
Now that I think about it I'll check if I can change it in the options...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keep in mind that the "unrealistic" bit is only about the boss fights. The rest of the game doesn't have that problem.
My specialization skills are saboutage, stealth and martial arts. I have big number of points on pistol too. Oh, after playing some more after the review I'm liking it more than before.
Modifié par Kenrae, 31 mai 2010 - 12:05 .
Retour en haut
you can ninja everyone even if you stand right in front of them 
So even tough its not splinter cell level its still fun. Pistol+Stealth+Martial Arts is a win combo. Chain shoot is also haxed ability, its kinda like mark&execute from Splinter Cell Conviciton or Dead Eye from Red Dead Redemption
But cameras and turrets can still spot you. 
