This review contains spoilers
It's pretty ok for a shooter made by platinum.
It's got some good moments, mainly through gameplay and some bits with its characters (mainly sam and his habit of smoking while in near-death scenarios), and it's got a lot of flair to it, especially seen in the cutscenes.
My main problem though is that it's gameplay is more limiting at times. Like a lot of the cooler options, you can do are tied to a meter. If it drains, you have to wait for it to cool down, which is fine... on paper. The problem is tied to a few things it drains, how they drain, etc. The things that drain it are Melee Attacks, Slowing Time, Boost Sliding, and a Laser Gun also drains it. The latter two are fine, but the combat and especially time slowing is not.
The problem with attacks is that it doesn't let you do it enough. Like if you land one hit, then that takes up all of the meter, no matter how close it is to being full or empty, and forces it on cooldown. That makes it feel too situational, especially since the combat actually can help you take back some advantage in a fight, especially against enemies that like to get you out of cover, which is a lot them.
The Time Slowdown has the opposite problem, it can't help but let you use it. You can activate it manually by evading while aiming or shooting while sliding, which is fine and make some sense, but then every time you are near death, it kicks in with no way to stop it until it drains out, and forces you on cooldown. I know the intent is basically to be used to help a player who is near death stay away from death, but it honestly feels more intrusive more often than not because now i'm locked into waiting on it to stop, which can be helpful, but also mostly enforces a retreat more often than not so i can do other things, which is harder to do if i'm getting caught between so many enemies fire, some that can kill you outright, which especially near end game, is very common. It just feels bad, and compounds with the other issues since if i'm constantly waiting on cool down, i can't do anything other than get into cover or hope for the best.
I probably would've just made melee combat not tied to the meter but made it a bit laggier to compensate, and just give you more agency over the slow-motion mode. I also probably would have made your ammo count and health a little more visible. You can see how much ammo you have for a weapon, but not specifically how much is in a clip, just a little hard to see bar near the reticle. And health's got a few indicators i guess, but one of them is the slow-mode, and the others are the screen having the red lines indicating you're hit and pointing to who did it, aswell as a red tint at critical health points. I found out later in the game that sam's suit also has an indicator as it swaps between red, yellow, and green. It's a neat effect, and i do like some of these, but it does get kind of hard to read when you are in the midst of battle, especially when you go critical when you're in cooldown, it's kind of why I like health bars more as they get information across a bit better to me, but that might just be a me thing. Enemies have one, why can I?
Anyways that's kind of it for gameplay notes, it can often feel stifling and clunky when you try to do more than run and shoot, but it can set up for cool things and is generally really fast and exciting. Though despite how faster paced it can be, I did kind of start to run out of steam for the game like, an hour or so before i saw the admittedly kind of cool credits.
STORY SPOILER STUFF START
The last thing to mention is like, the story. And it's very there. I dunno, like i did like some bits with Sam, and his little chats with Burns, but that's kind of it. Not a lot of the plot really stuck with me, and neither do a lot of it's characters, though they want you to since they have like, two back to back fake out deaths from Sam, and a cliffhanger bit before the story ends. It's kind of odd cuz I feel i'm supposed to interpret more from this, but at least it makes sense in that sequel we totally have (we don't have it). Also on a side note, like I know Sam and Raiden have different VAs, but I keep hearing Sam's voice like he's trying his best impression of Raiden and I think it's kind of funny.
STORY SPOILER STUFF END
Overall, I think it's certainly an ok game. Probably one of the weaker games from Platinum Games I've played... eh, it's at least still kind of cool.
It's got some good moments, mainly through gameplay and some bits with its characters (mainly sam and his habit of smoking while in near-death scenarios), and it's got a lot of flair to it, especially seen in the cutscenes.
My main problem though is that it's gameplay is more limiting at times. Like a lot of the cooler options, you can do are tied to a meter. If it drains, you have to wait for it to cool down, which is fine... on paper. The problem is tied to a few things it drains, how they drain, etc. The things that drain it are Melee Attacks, Slowing Time, Boost Sliding, and a Laser Gun also drains it. The latter two are fine, but the combat and especially time slowing is not.
The problem with attacks is that it doesn't let you do it enough. Like if you land one hit, then that takes up all of the meter, no matter how close it is to being full or empty, and forces it on cooldown. That makes it feel too situational, especially since the combat actually can help you take back some advantage in a fight, especially against enemies that like to get you out of cover, which is a lot them.
The Time Slowdown has the opposite problem, it can't help but let you use it. You can activate it manually by evading while aiming or shooting while sliding, which is fine and make some sense, but then every time you are near death, it kicks in with no way to stop it until it drains out, and forces you on cooldown. I know the intent is basically to be used to help a player who is near death stay away from death, but it honestly feels more intrusive more often than not because now i'm locked into waiting on it to stop, which can be helpful, but also mostly enforces a retreat more often than not so i can do other things, which is harder to do if i'm getting caught between so many enemies fire, some that can kill you outright, which especially near end game, is very common. It just feels bad, and compounds with the other issues since if i'm constantly waiting on cool down, i can't do anything other than get into cover or hope for the best.
I probably would've just made melee combat not tied to the meter but made it a bit laggier to compensate, and just give you more agency over the slow-motion mode. I also probably would have made your ammo count and health a little more visible. You can see how much ammo you have for a weapon, but not specifically how much is in a clip, just a little hard to see bar near the reticle. And health's got a few indicators i guess, but one of them is the slow-mode, and the others are the screen having the red lines indicating you're hit and pointing to who did it, aswell as a red tint at critical health points. I found out later in the game that sam's suit also has an indicator as it swaps between red, yellow, and green. It's a neat effect, and i do like some of these, but it does get kind of hard to read when you are in the midst of battle, especially when you go critical when you're in cooldown, it's kind of why I like health bars more as they get information across a bit better to me, but that might just be a me thing. Enemies have one, why can I?
Anyways that's kind of it for gameplay notes, it can often feel stifling and clunky when you try to do more than run and shoot, but it can set up for cool things and is generally really fast and exciting. Though despite how faster paced it can be, I did kind of start to run out of steam for the game like, an hour or so before i saw the admittedly kind of cool credits.
STORY SPOILER STUFF START
The last thing to mention is like, the story. And it's very there. I dunno, like i did like some bits with Sam, and his little chats with Burns, but that's kind of it. Not a lot of the plot really stuck with me, and neither do a lot of it's characters, though they want you to since they have like, two back to back fake out deaths from Sam, and a cliffhanger bit before the story ends. It's kind of odd cuz I feel i'm supposed to interpret more from this, but at least it makes sense in that sequel we totally have (we don't have it). Also on a side note, like I know Sam and Raiden have different VAs, but I keep hearing Sam's voice like he's trying his best impression of Raiden and I think it's kind of funny.
STORY SPOILER STUFF END
Overall, I think it's certainly an ok game. Probably one of the weaker games from Platinum Games I've played... eh, it's at least still kind of cool.