Well, only reason I've played this to begin with was because my PS3 copy of Saints Row 2 was messed up so I wanted to play something quick until I get a new copy (got a new one today for the 360 so I can play that one now). This sure was a game alright.
Gonna start with the positives first: I liked some of the characters and I think that if the game was entirely centered around one or a group of characters it might have helped fix some of the flaws maybe. Also, a big one is that atmosphere wise they pulled off the rainy fall weather quite well, especially at night time when you almost feel the coldness of the scenes in person. The design direction is charming and can pull you in quite well.
Now with the negatives (hoo boy where do I start): One thing to start with is the fact the story tends to lose itself at times and becomes overly convoluted in its own developments, likely due to the classic terrible writing a-la david cage. The game takes itself too seriously and comes off as extremely overly-pretentious and as for everything besides the atmosphere, it falls flat - and badly. The execution of a lot of critical moments do nothing but make you laugh or cringe - or just scream out loud at Ethan for being an idiot (but press X for Jason sure works am I right?). Most times with the awkward, half assed execution you can pick apart what they were trying to do or maybe even get used to it but it's something you still can't entirely shrug off (like come on, did we really need a quick time event for when 2 characters are making out?). The game is full of those and even if the story was more decent it would still personally break the immersion and ruin the mood that specific moment was trying to convey. Now imagine how much it can affect the flow of the story when the story isn't that great either. I get they tried to make the experience feel as interactive as possible and I know it was kinda meant to be played with the PS Move (which I do not have and do not have interest to buy) but if my experience with a controller was awkward and clunky (why do characters control like cars where one button is used to move and then the analog stick is used to steer them to a certain direction, you'd think they'd make it less clunky and unintuitive when the game is meant to be intuitive with all the qte and interactibility). The game has some okay moments and right as I thought the game was starting to get better I see both one of the worst racist caricatures I've seen in a video game in a long while and also sexual abuse scenes. Those don't really make the game any more defensible especially since David Cage and Quantic Dream as a company are both entities with very very sketchy history towards treatment of women and minorities, sexual abuse as well as....other stuff (not gonna get into it more but I recommend reading about it if you want to). Knowing about what David Cage and Quantic Dream have been exposed for really puts a lot of the sketchier moments in perspective and creates some sort of ironic hypocrisy because they're some of the very characters they criticize or mock in the game. Ultimately the game can be convoluted and too pretentious at best and problematic at worst.
In conclusion, it's not a good game. I don't think it's a terrible game either on its own but it's definitely below average and not something I'd personally recommend to anyone. If I could describe it in one word it would be just awkward. Execution wise, story wise, plot wise, everything is simply awkward.
Also fuck Quantic Dream and David Cage
Gonna start with the positives first: I liked some of the characters and I think that if the game was entirely centered around one or a group of characters it might have helped fix some of the flaws maybe. Also, a big one is that atmosphere wise they pulled off the rainy fall weather quite well, especially at night time when you almost feel the coldness of the scenes in person. The design direction is charming and can pull you in quite well.
Now with the negatives (hoo boy where do I start): One thing to start with is the fact the story tends to lose itself at times and becomes overly convoluted in its own developments, likely due to the classic terrible writing a-la david cage. The game takes itself too seriously and comes off as extremely overly-pretentious and as for everything besides the atmosphere, it falls flat - and badly. The execution of a lot of critical moments do nothing but make you laugh or cringe - or just scream out loud at Ethan for being an idiot (but press X for Jason sure works am I right?). Most times with the awkward, half assed execution you can pick apart what they were trying to do or maybe even get used to it but it's something you still can't entirely shrug off (like come on, did we really need a quick time event for when 2 characters are making out?). The game is full of those and even if the story was more decent it would still personally break the immersion and ruin the mood that specific moment was trying to convey. Now imagine how much it can affect the flow of the story when the story isn't that great either. I get they tried to make the experience feel as interactive as possible and I know it was kinda meant to be played with the PS Move (which I do not have and do not have interest to buy) but if my experience with a controller was awkward and clunky (why do characters control like cars where one button is used to move and then the analog stick is used to steer them to a certain direction, you'd think they'd make it less clunky and unintuitive when the game is meant to be intuitive with all the qte and interactibility). The game has some okay moments and right as I thought the game was starting to get better I see both one of the worst racist caricatures I've seen in a video game in a long while and also sexual abuse scenes. Those don't really make the game any more defensible especially since David Cage and Quantic Dream as a company are both entities with very very sketchy history towards treatment of women and minorities, sexual abuse as well as....other stuff (not gonna get into it more but I recommend reading about it if you want to). Knowing about what David Cage and Quantic Dream have been exposed for really puts a lot of the sketchier moments in perspective and creates some sort of ironic hypocrisy because they're some of the very characters they criticize or mock in the game. Ultimately the game can be convoluted and too pretentious at best and problematic at worst.
In conclusion, it's not a good game. I don't think it's a terrible game either on its own but it's definitely below average and not something I'd personally recommend to anyone. If I could describe it in one word it would be just awkward. Execution wise, story wise, plot wise, everything is simply awkward.
Also fuck Quantic Dream and David Cage