This review contains spoilers
What’s there to say about this game that hasn’t already been said? This was about my 10th time coming back to this game and it’s an absolute joy. Instead of ranting repetetively about the infamous AI, the sweet guns, the slow mo, gore, and awesome particle effects I’ll address some of the nitpicks I’ve seen about the game.
Yes majority of the game takes place in an office building but the level design within the building feels real and does such a good job of facilitating the AI. It’s not the sexiest environment or the most original but there’s tons of atmosphere to go around. I think people also forget there are several other areas at the docks, rooftops, city streets, an abandoned hotel and the underground lab at the end. Again none of these are original but there’s more variety than people would lead you to believe.
Another complaint I see is the scripted horror sections suck. While they definitely don’t hit the same after a couple play throughs the first time through I found them to be very effective. Even now I still enjoy them as they help pace the game nicely between the light platforming puzzles and combat. There isn’t a single moment where the atmosphere falls off.
Finally I see people talk about how the ghost like enemies suck especially when they are the only enemy in the last chapters….I don’t have a rebuttal for that. They’re annoying and not nearly as fun to fight as the replica soldiers but luckily they only appear a couple times and heavily in the last 5 minutes.
I love everything about this game despite its minor flaws it still holds up extremely well and to this day has some of the best fps combat of all time. It’s a shame the rest of the franchise fell off after this (the sequels suck but the DLCs for this one are worth playing) but at least I’ll always have this to come back to.
10/10
Yes majority of the game takes place in an office building but the level design within the building feels real and does such a good job of facilitating the AI. It’s not the sexiest environment or the most original but there’s tons of atmosphere to go around. I think people also forget there are several other areas at the docks, rooftops, city streets, an abandoned hotel and the underground lab at the end. Again none of these are original but there’s more variety than people would lead you to believe.
Another complaint I see is the scripted horror sections suck. While they definitely don’t hit the same after a couple play throughs the first time through I found them to be very effective. Even now I still enjoy them as they help pace the game nicely between the light platforming puzzles and combat. There isn’t a single moment where the atmosphere falls off.
Finally I see people talk about how the ghost like enemies suck especially when they are the only enemy in the last chapters….I don’t have a rebuttal for that. They’re annoying and not nearly as fun to fight as the replica soldiers but luckily they only appear a couple times and heavily in the last 5 minutes.
I love everything about this game despite its minor flaws it still holds up extremely well and to this day has some of the best fps combat of all time. It’s a shame the rest of the franchise fell off after this (the sequels suck but the DLCs for this one are worth playing) but at least I’ll always have this to come back to.
10/10