There is still the typical issues that arise from an action game being on the PS2. But i don't really care! This comes out just a year after the previous instalment, and somehow improves almost every element there was carried over. Gives us an even more engrossing tale, that expands on the returning cast, and creates new favorites. Lock-on 'almost' works! Substorys are still generally mediocre, with few bangers. (You know the ones!) I sadly feel the soundtrack took a slight dip in quality comparatively to yakuza 1, in its connected-ness, to find a word. Which wouldn't surprise me if the reason behind that being the obviously strict deadline they were forced on by Sega. Well whatever, ramble over. This game is GREAT!

After 25 hours I've gotten my fill. Runs are way too long, for how addictive and stressinducing they become. Energy just fizzles at the 40 min mark. At least for me. Tracks has no variety, loops quickly and in general is just sorta dull. Everything that isn't gameplay looks great. The 2D/3D style does not mix. Especially when something... I hesitate to call it animates. I ended up minimizing and muting the game the rest of my playtime. Also i know this is just how card games are made, but I really dislike how rng heavy this one is in particular.

The late game's grueling difficulty doesn't really mesh with the fun unpredictable nature of the units' actions and physics, and makes repeating many stages infuriating. Disregarding that, the Sandbox mode shines in the shear unfathomable amount of infinite combinations of battles you can create with the over 100 different units, and the pretty robust unit creator. You can possess every single one of them and they all have their own dumb-fun moveset(with quirks and all).

I'd say look up a guide for how to acquire all the hidden units, and just go bananas in the sandbox. The campaign is completely optional, while still showing occasional greatness.

Truly baffling. Ok. Before i go off, i need to add some context about this enigma.

This game was made by two 'lonely' Brits(with no video game industry experience) on a journey to create "great, narrative, singleplayer games in a world moving increasingly towards multiplayer and live services." This bewilders me.

Why would you make something this complex, with a photorealistic style,(Unreal Engine?) with a The Last of Us style crafting and stealth system. When you're essentially infants in the business?

Also there's a diegetic health bar à la Dead Space, which fails to do its sole job; Showing the current condition of your health at all times. With 360° of motion, you sometimes end up dying to the angle the camera is facing and the direction you're running in.

The story is almost non-existent. As you could probably assume, it's heavily based upon Herbert George Wells' The War of the Worlds. You're puppeteering the slumbering corpse of a hUmAn named Harper. She's a complete nobody. No mention of a family, friends or anything to tangibly connect her with the world she's inhabiting. She's got like 20 lines of spoken dialogue and it's so nothing, it's kind of hilarious.

There's times where the devs almost acknowledge their shortcomings ingame, like a sign in front of a pool that says "Please do not swim. There isn't an animation for it." Of what little you actually do decently, why throw your immersion out the window like that, for an uncalled for 4th wall breaking joke?

You know. I do actually feel bad about doing this. Defecating all over Grey Skies. If the developers somehow find this rambling: I'm sorry. For whatever that's worth.