I remember reading a review of this game, back when it first came out, in the Guardian newspaper, which thinking back to it is completely bizarre given they used to review like 3 games a month. Maybe that's just how big Final Fantasy was back then, I can't say I was the most plugged in kid to that stuff. Anyway the review was about three lines long and mostly complained that Vincent was a lot cooler in cutscenes than he was under the players control, that being all they had to say about the game.
And it's not hard to see why that is, Dirge of Cerberus is a game that slides directly off the brain in real time, I couldn't remember what had happened in any given cutscene about 5 seconds after it ended. At first the cutscene direction most reminded me of, of all things, 2001: A Space Odyssey, with it's almost ethereal silence and dreamlike quality, but it quickly becomes apparent that this feeling is largely spurred on by the fact that nothing of interest happens in most of the game's many cutscenes. There's some decent visual direction in parts but it ends up giving way to boredom eventually as soon as the plot properly kicks in, and I'm not really an easily bored person so take that as you will.
The villains are somehow both inscrutable and completely 1 dimensional at the same time, and come off as pound shop versions of a metal gear solid bad guy squad more than anything, none of them really get time to shine (although I did like the one cutscene of Rosso experiencing rain for the first time). In fact none of the characters really get time to shine, least of all Vincent himself who's arc is mostly a retread of his sidequest in FF7 but with a bunch of cruft. The other members of the party show up to do, uh... something off screen I guess but the game clearly just wants you to be psyched that they're here at all. A couple of the new characters have potential that isn't really explored, and I'd have loved to see more of Shalua personally (the scene where she holds the door open with her bionic arm was very striking).
The gameplay is not nearly as bad as I was expecting but overstays it's welcome and doesn't really do enough to mix things up once you've got all the guns about 3 missions in. And yes, Vincent feels very stiff in gameplay compared to the stuff he's doing in cutscenes but honestly I mostly found that pretty funny more than anything so I can forgive it. It felt to me like the game could have done with more sections like the one on Cid's airship where you get a chance to talk to all the characters before the next mission, since the cast doesn't really get room to breathe and grow on you.
That said though, after all the boredom I have to admit that in the final moments where the game goes full 2006 emo and the Gackt starts playing..... I was back on board again, haha. If the whole game had gone for that tone it would have been a genuinely enjoyable experience I think, even with the slightly bland gameplay.
All in all not nearly as bad as I'd been lead to expect, just a bit boring for most of it's 10 hour runtime. A game that is dumb in all the wrong ways right up until it becomes dumb in all the right way at the last possible moment.
And it's not hard to see why that is, Dirge of Cerberus is a game that slides directly off the brain in real time, I couldn't remember what had happened in any given cutscene about 5 seconds after it ended. At first the cutscene direction most reminded me of, of all things, 2001: A Space Odyssey, with it's almost ethereal silence and dreamlike quality, but it quickly becomes apparent that this feeling is largely spurred on by the fact that nothing of interest happens in most of the game's many cutscenes. There's some decent visual direction in parts but it ends up giving way to boredom eventually as soon as the plot properly kicks in, and I'm not really an easily bored person so take that as you will.
The villains are somehow both inscrutable and completely 1 dimensional at the same time, and come off as pound shop versions of a metal gear solid bad guy squad more than anything, none of them really get time to shine (although I did like the one cutscene of Rosso experiencing rain for the first time). In fact none of the characters really get time to shine, least of all Vincent himself who's arc is mostly a retread of his sidequest in FF7 but with a bunch of cruft. The other members of the party show up to do, uh... something off screen I guess but the game clearly just wants you to be psyched that they're here at all. A couple of the new characters have potential that isn't really explored, and I'd have loved to see more of Shalua personally (the scene where she holds the door open with her bionic arm was very striking).
The gameplay is not nearly as bad as I was expecting but overstays it's welcome and doesn't really do enough to mix things up once you've got all the guns about 3 missions in. And yes, Vincent feels very stiff in gameplay compared to the stuff he's doing in cutscenes but honestly I mostly found that pretty funny more than anything so I can forgive it. It felt to me like the game could have done with more sections like the one on Cid's airship where you get a chance to talk to all the characters before the next mission, since the cast doesn't really get room to breathe and grow on you.
That said though, after all the boredom I have to admit that in the final moments where the game goes full 2006 emo and the Gackt starts playing..... I was back on board again, haha. If the whole game had gone for that tone it would have been a genuinely enjoyable experience I think, even with the slightly bland gameplay.
All in all not nearly as bad as I'd been lead to expect, just a bit boring for most of it's 10 hour runtime. A game that is dumb in all the wrong ways right up until it becomes dumb in all the right way at the last possible moment.