Foreclosed is not a good game. But it's an above average game. It has a good art style and it has a good and varied combat that evolves throughout the game. But it's story, characters and other gameplay styles like stealth are not good. It's a short game, around 3 hours. And it has an easy platinum if you are interested with that. So I recommend it to people who likes to try out different games. It's a linear TPS without a multiplayer component and with a cyberpunk setting. It's unique in that sense. I don't think it's a time waste. There are some good stuff in here.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
Is This A PS2 Game?
I don't ask the question in the title of the review as a bad thing. Foreclosed just feels like a PS2 era game to me. It's short, it has a few mechanics and it just wants to be a fun game that also has a great art style. And I think it manages that.
Our story is set in a cyberpunk world and we play as Evan Kapnos. He is working for a company called Securtech but one day, he finds himself locked out of his identity. His life is basically over. He can't leave the city, he can't buy anything, he can't even use his gun. Soon he learns that he became a collateral damage in a much bigger fight but he decides to show that he won't give up so easily.
The story might seem good but it's actually not that good. The starting point is interesting but unfortunately the core story never evolves something into much more. World building is also pretty much non existent.
Characters are also non existent. Our hero Evan Kapnos is not an interesting character and none of the side characters or villains have any clear character. They are just plot devices.
This is not a game you will want to play for the story, that's for sure. In the gameplay side though, things are much, much better. Foreclosed is a third person shooter. It's a linear game. You mostly do combat but there are also some environmental puzzles and some optional stealth sections.
Let's start with the combat, it might seem basic at first but the thing this game nails the most are the upgrades and abilities. You get XP from killing enemies and finding collectibles called signals. Everytime you level up, you get skill points.
You can either spend those on your gun to unlock special attributes like "Bullets can penetrate energy shields" or "Bullets can go through head and body armor". Or something that changes your weapon completely. You can turn your pistol into UZI if you want.
But there are also character upgrades. With these, you can make enemies float in the air for a bit. You can get a shield of your own. You unlock all of these with skill points but there are some that comes automatically as you progress as well.
Like being able to pick up and throw things at your enemies. There are not a lot of these abilities or upgrades. You can unlock 12 skills in total for example. 6 for your weapon, 6 for your character. But this game takes around 3 hours to complete and there is not much to do.
So this much variety in abilities makes the combat really fun and exciting. As I said, you can also use stealth if you want. Unfortunately though, stealth is pretty undercooked. You can go behind enemies and mash a button to fry their implants which kills them but that's it. Only stealth option is a stealth kill.
No chain takedowns, double takedowns, distracting enemies, disrupting enemies for a while or anything like that. There is also one stealth section against some drones where you need to continue your stealth for a long time and that sequence was just painful.
Finally, the environmental challenges are not much but they do a good job at changing the pace. They are mostly about finding 4 points to open a gate using a detector. They are easy, they are basic but they do their job.
Technically, the game is strong. Sound design is not perfect but the art style is interesting. I wouldn't say it's mind blowing but it's nice to look at. It's different, which is good. Directing is also impressive. The game switches perspective a lot forcing you to play the game at different angles.
I played the game on PS5 and I haven't encountered any glitch or frame drop. Interestingly, the game uses all of DualSense's capabilities and they are good. Adaptive Triggers are supported, they are nice. Haptic Feedback is also included. I am surprised.
One final thing before the verdict, I got the platinum for this game and it was very easy. Like I said it takes 3 hours to complete, if you use a collectible guide to get all signals in one playthrough, you will need to do just one playthrough. Additionally, you will have to use chapter select to get some special ability kills. Like "Throw x number of stuff into enemies" or "Lift x number of enemies". You can get the platinum in 3-4 hours easily.
Foreclosed is not a good game. But it's an above average game. It has a good art style and it has a good and varied combat that evolves throughout the game. But it's story, characters and other gameplay styles like stealth are not good. It's a short game, around 3 hours. And it has an easy platinum if you are interested with that. So I recommend it to people who likes to try out different games. It's a linear TPS without a multiplayer component and with a cyberpunk setting. It's unique in that sense. I don't think it's a time waste. There are some good stuff in here.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
Is This A PS2 Game?
I don't ask the question in the title of the review as a bad thing. Foreclosed just feels like a PS2 era game to me. It's short, it has a few mechanics and it just wants to be a fun game that also has a great art style. And I think it manages that.
Our story is set in a cyberpunk world and we play as Evan Kapnos. He is working for a company called Securtech but one day, he finds himself locked out of his identity. His life is basically over. He can't leave the city, he can't buy anything, he can't even use his gun. Soon he learns that he became a collateral damage in a much bigger fight but he decides to show that he won't give up so easily.
The story might seem good but it's actually not that good. The starting point is interesting but unfortunately the core story never evolves something into much more. World building is also pretty much non existent.
Characters are also non existent. Our hero Evan Kapnos is not an interesting character and none of the side characters or villains have any clear character. They are just plot devices.
This is not a game you will want to play for the story, that's for sure. In the gameplay side though, things are much, much better. Foreclosed is a third person shooter. It's a linear game. You mostly do combat but there are also some environmental puzzles and some optional stealth sections.
Let's start with the combat, it might seem basic at first but the thing this game nails the most are the upgrades and abilities. You get XP from killing enemies and finding collectibles called signals. Everytime you level up, you get skill points.
You can either spend those on your gun to unlock special attributes like "Bullets can penetrate energy shields" or "Bullets can go through head and body armor". Or something that changes your weapon completely. You can turn your pistol into UZI if you want.
But there are also character upgrades. With these, you can make enemies float in the air for a bit. You can get a shield of your own. You unlock all of these with skill points but there are some that comes automatically as you progress as well.
Like being able to pick up and throw things at your enemies. There are not a lot of these abilities or upgrades. You can unlock 12 skills in total for example. 6 for your weapon, 6 for your character. But this game takes around 3 hours to complete and there is not much to do.
So this much variety in abilities makes the combat really fun and exciting. As I said, you can also use stealth if you want. Unfortunately though, stealth is pretty undercooked. You can go behind enemies and mash a button to fry their implants which kills them but that's it. Only stealth option is a stealth kill.
No chain takedowns, double takedowns, distracting enemies, disrupting enemies for a while or anything like that. There is also one stealth section against some drones where you need to continue your stealth for a long time and that sequence was just painful.
Finally, the environmental challenges are not much but they do a good job at changing the pace. They are mostly about finding 4 points to open a gate using a detector. They are easy, they are basic but they do their job.
Technically, the game is strong. Sound design is not perfect but the art style is interesting. I wouldn't say it's mind blowing but it's nice to look at. It's different, which is good. Directing is also impressive. The game switches perspective a lot forcing you to play the game at different angles.
I played the game on PS5 and I haven't encountered any glitch or frame drop. Interestingly, the game uses all of DualSense's capabilities and they are good. Adaptive Triggers are supported, they are nice. Haptic Feedback is also included. I am surprised.
One final thing before the verdict, I got the platinum for this game and it was very easy. Like I said it takes 3 hours to complete, if you use a collectible guide to get all signals in one playthrough, you will need to do just one playthrough. Additionally, you will have to use chapter select to get some special ability kills. Like "Throw x number of stuff into enemies" or "Lift x number of enemies". You can get the platinum in 3-4 hours easily.
Foreclosed is not a good game. But it's an above average game. It has a good art style and it has a good and varied combat that evolves throughout the game. But it's story, characters and other gameplay styles like stealth are not good. It's a short game, around 3 hours. And it has an easy platinum if you are interested with that. So I recommend it to people who likes to try out different games. It's a linear TPS without a multiplayer component and with a cyberpunk setting. It's unique in that sense. I don't think it's a time waste. There are some good stuff in here.