“I made like Chow Yun-Fat” - Some random guy with a trenchcoat
A Max Payne-inspired John Woo game seems like a neat idea at first, but in execution it isn’t the best. The combat and movement systems are the true successor to the mechanics Max Payne showed back in the day, with a lot of options to make use of. You can wall-jump, walk and slide through railings, ride a cart while shooting everybody, slide over tables and not only you can lay on the ground as long as you want (in a more intuitive way than any Max Payne game by holding the same key, may I add), you can also roll on the floor. There’s a ton of stuff to work with in enemy encounters. The problems I see here are two: 1- Half of these mechanics aren’t even useful most of the time, and the level design, consisting mostly of enclosed and/or full of props spaces, doesn’t give way to play with and test them. And 2- The game swarms you with enemies non-stop.
This last problem is the most harmful because it’s sooooo constant it turns the game boring and even frustrating. Which, you know, is what happens when a game swarms you with enemies… even more if they’re walking bullet-sponges… which they also are… Every firefight feels like an endless survival for your life, there’s barely any time to think and when you think to yourself “is it over?”, five or more enemies show up from literally nowhere to destroy you. Thankfully they do not drain your health as fast as some other games, but I dunno, you fight like 50 or more enemies per encounter and like 3 to 6 enemies, if not more, at the same time. It’s just tiring to play after some time. And then, the game dares to throw you its god-awful boss battles that are just spamming one of the four skills you have. And for the Vlad boss fight, it’s not even clear which one of the skills you should use, so not only is it tiring, but also suffers from a lot of trial and error. I mean, if I were to play one of the first four chapters of this game for like twenty minutes or so once in a while, I might have fun. And I do have fun with it! but this game is just tiring to finish, because it starts throwing more tanky enemies with more powerful weapons and more health at you. Sure, you can use the skills you have, but using a ten seconds god mode and infinite ammo trick isn’t my definition of entertaining.
Visually this game is very reminiscent of the films John Woo used to make (because he DIDN’T make a new movie, right?), the environment is extremely destructible, everything around you can be blown up, and it is pretty awesome to see wood breaking and glass shattering while you’re doing every kind of crazy stunts in slow-mo. The levels themselves are pretty small though, so certain movements like wall-jumping and walking over railings are rather clunky sometimes and they might even get you killed if you don't have enough health or are not careful enough. This game has one of the truest “John Woo-like” mechanics ever made, and that’s the main reason I gave this game this rating, but none of its elements come together to make a game that works properly, exceeding in bs and clunkiness to a point where it becomes just frustrating to play.
A Max Payne-inspired John Woo game seems like a neat idea at first, but in execution it isn’t the best. The combat and movement systems are the true successor to the mechanics Max Payne showed back in the day, with a lot of options to make use of. You can wall-jump, walk and slide through railings, ride a cart while shooting everybody, slide over tables and not only you can lay on the ground as long as you want (in a more intuitive way than any Max Payne game by holding the same key, may I add), you can also roll on the floor. There’s a ton of stuff to work with in enemy encounters. The problems I see here are two: 1- Half of these mechanics aren’t even useful most of the time, and the level design, consisting mostly of enclosed and/or full of props spaces, doesn’t give way to play with and test them. And 2- The game swarms you with enemies non-stop.
This last problem is the most harmful because it’s sooooo constant it turns the game boring and even frustrating. Which, you know, is what happens when a game swarms you with enemies… even more if they’re walking bullet-sponges… which they also are… Every firefight feels like an endless survival for your life, there’s barely any time to think and when you think to yourself “is it over?”, five or more enemies show up from literally nowhere to destroy you. Thankfully they do not drain your health as fast as some other games, but I dunno, you fight like 50 or more enemies per encounter and like 3 to 6 enemies, if not more, at the same time. It’s just tiring to play after some time. And then, the game dares to throw you its god-awful boss battles that are just spamming one of the four skills you have. And for the Vlad boss fight, it’s not even clear which one of the skills you should use, so not only is it tiring, but also suffers from a lot of trial and error. I mean, if I were to play one of the first four chapters of this game for like twenty minutes or so once in a while, I might have fun. And I do have fun with it! but this game is just tiring to finish, because it starts throwing more tanky enemies with more powerful weapons and more health at you. Sure, you can use the skills you have, but using a ten seconds god mode and infinite ammo trick isn’t my definition of entertaining.
Visually this game is very reminiscent of the films John Woo used to make (because he DIDN’T make a new movie, right?), the environment is extremely destructible, everything around you can be blown up, and it is pretty awesome to see wood breaking and glass shattering while you’re doing every kind of crazy stunts in slow-mo. The levels themselves are pretty small though, so certain movements like wall-jumping and walking over railings are rather clunky sometimes and they might even get you killed if you don't have enough health or are not careful enough. This game has one of the truest “John Woo-like” mechanics ever made, and that’s the main reason I gave this game this rating, but none of its elements come together to make a game that works properly, exceeding in bs and clunkiness to a point where it becomes just frustrating to play.