i'm glad this exists at the very least. i only ever played 1 and half of Project Phantasma, and i really enjoyed them! but VI is... well, a confused game stuck in between eras.
it wants to be longer than its predecessors to fit in with From's more recent output and today's longer AAA games. it wants to have more traditional action bits with the cinematic bosses to pace the story and serve as replayable challenges, but at the same time it wants to tap into the nerdy specificities core to the series. while i get why all of these at once were chosen as the crowd-pleaser approach, it ended up making it a mostly uninteresting experience for me.
- AC VI basically turned the locales and atmosphere into a pretty matte painting without considering a sense of place. the sightlines are all planned and constructed to look perfect at every angle, when in the PS1 titles i could just fit myself into weird corners that exuded zero aesthetical purpose, which in my view was a better fit for the setting.
- imo the major bosses, aside from feeling like an almost different game, were also not that flexible build-wise. they open up damage opportunities for everyone, but tanky ACs are just at such a huge advantage that it makes those bosses even less compelling.
- the writing was kinda neat at first and pretty funny, but it eventually divulges into either fascist roleplay or revolutionary roleplay depending on your route, which made it feel like every other sci-fi game with player agency.
- i genuinely think someone held Kota Hoshino's soundtrack back. even when working on the AC series, his compositions strayed away from the cinematic orchestra box. they were very hard to ignore. here the tracks are basically just Dark Souls compositions with some cool synthwork and futuristic touches. they sometimes shine in the boss fights but are mostly backing tracks to the action.
- most of the missions were fine though; you can express many different builds and approaches while still feeling the weight of the heavy machinery you're controlling.
it's cool that From took a break from making games in their new household genre to take a fresh stab at an old one, but it nonetheless felt like a safe first dip into what could've been a bolder attempt with fewer compromises.
it wants to be longer than its predecessors to fit in with From's more recent output and today's longer AAA games. it wants to have more traditional action bits with the cinematic bosses to pace the story and serve as replayable challenges, but at the same time it wants to tap into the nerdy specificities core to the series. while i get why all of these at once were chosen as the crowd-pleaser approach, it ended up making it a mostly uninteresting experience for me.
- AC VI basically turned the locales and atmosphere into a pretty matte painting without considering a sense of place. the sightlines are all planned and constructed to look perfect at every angle, when in the PS1 titles i could just fit myself into weird corners that exuded zero aesthetical purpose, which in my view was a better fit for the setting.
- imo the major bosses, aside from feeling like an almost different game, were also not that flexible build-wise. they open up damage opportunities for everyone, but tanky ACs are just at such a huge advantage that it makes those bosses even less compelling.
- the writing was kinda neat at first and pretty funny, but it eventually divulges into either fascist roleplay or revolutionary roleplay depending on your route, which made it feel like every other sci-fi game with player agency.
- i genuinely think someone held Kota Hoshino's soundtrack back. even when working on the AC series, his compositions strayed away from the cinematic orchestra box. they were very hard to ignore. here the tracks are basically just Dark Souls compositions with some cool synthwork and futuristic touches. they sometimes shine in the boss fights but are mostly backing tracks to the action.
- most of the missions were fine though; you can express many different builds and approaches while still feeling the weight of the heavy machinery you're controlling.
it's cool that From took a break from making games in their new household genre to take a fresh stab at an old one, but it nonetheless felt like a safe first dip into what could've been a bolder attempt with fewer compromises.
Prognose_
7 months ago