An altogether very competent shooter with solid gunplay and cover-based level design. Boss battles are mostly engaging, though melee-focused enemies become quite annoying by the end due to how limited melee options is in this game, but overall, enemy designs are both aesthetically pleasing and keeps gunplay fresh. The enemies react to damages depending on where they are hit, and headshots often make them fight for you, while you can also make them crawl by taking out both legs or make them less effective in combat by shooting of their arms. And all this shooting is accompanied with the beautiful damage effects with armours flying off when you shoot them. As a shooter, this is a rock solid expereince with little problems, which is quite impressive considering it's the studio's first foray into the proper shooter genre.
Its story is, however, a little on the disappointing side. Most of the characters feel like they were created by a Japanese writer trying too hard to write a Hollywood sci-fi story, and the campy jokes fail most of the times. Dan is an exceptionally unlikable character, a caricature of American white male protagonist whose cliches are far too blatant to even provide any kind of ironic comic relief. The central thematic issue at the end is at best interesting, but neither the writing nor the characters discussing it are competent enough to really highlight its dilemma.
The game features multiple endings, which are affected by the trust gauge with your companions. The problem is, half the game forces you to use specific members and game doesn't even tell you that some members' trust levels are completely irrelevant to which ending you get. Also, the way you raise the trust level with your companions are barebones: it's mostly done by being a yes-man to whenever your companion suggests something, and fighting robots well.
On top of this, the boneheaded friendly AI loves to run in front of you while shooting, getting themselves shot by you in the process, and proceeds to complain to you about the friendly fire. This generally shouldn't be too much of a problem, but due to the trust system, it actually decreases the trust level, locking you out of the "best ending" if you get unlucky. The squad order system is also far too simple as well, and you might as well ignore it for the entire game. Lastly, the QTE is an absolute nightmare since they are often too difficult and not even all that interesting.
Overall, a rock solid third-person gunplay with mixed results on the ancillary aspects of both gameplay and narrative. It's ambitious, it is frankly a really good shooter, and it's a shame that it never got the chance to get a sequel that may have fixed many of its shortcomings.
Its story is, however, a little on the disappointing side. Most of the characters feel like they were created by a Japanese writer trying too hard to write a Hollywood sci-fi story, and the campy jokes fail most of the times. Dan is an exceptionally unlikable character, a caricature of American white male protagonist whose cliches are far too blatant to even provide any kind of ironic comic relief. The central thematic issue at the end is at best interesting, but neither the writing nor the characters discussing it are competent enough to really highlight its dilemma.
The game features multiple endings, which are affected by the trust gauge with your companions. The problem is, half the game forces you to use specific members and game doesn't even tell you that some members' trust levels are completely irrelevant to which ending you get. Also, the way you raise the trust level with your companions are barebones: it's mostly done by being a yes-man to whenever your companion suggests something, and fighting robots well.
On top of this, the boneheaded friendly AI loves to run in front of you while shooting, getting themselves shot by you in the process, and proceeds to complain to you about the friendly fire. This generally shouldn't be too much of a problem, but due to the trust system, it actually decreases the trust level, locking you out of the "best ending" if you get unlucky. The squad order system is also far too simple as well, and you might as well ignore it for the entire game. Lastly, the QTE is an absolute nightmare since they are often too difficult and not even all that interesting.
Overall, a rock solid third-person gunplay with mixed results on the ancillary aspects of both gameplay and narrative. It's ambitious, it is frankly a really good shooter, and it's a shame that it never got the chance to get a sequel that may have fixed many of its shortcomings.