The gameplay completely destroys its great story changing dialog mechanics
Now i followed this game on Gamespot before it came out and seen videos of its gameplay and almost didnt rent it because of it.
I read all about its great story but was very unsure about how i should feel about its incredibly shotty gameplay.
I had rented this game curious to see what the game really had to offer. It started its introduction video and i could tell that they had worked hard on making this look good and feel like the story could change depending on how you wanted it. The games choices are usually Suave, Agressive, or Professional based. so u can either be James Bond, Rambo, or Jason Borne.. basicly. you will have choices like "kill or not kill" this person. and a decision like that you know the story will change big time.
But anyways, as soon as i was granted the ability to move around and interact with things, i was going through the first level with a look on my face like >:
The way it handled. the way i moved. The way the animations worked... you would think they made this game 8 years ago. i was dissapointed right from the get-go. I thought "hey lets look past this just to witness the story changing decisions" so it did.
My first character i went through the story as a professional good guy. sparing lives and trying to make all the good guy decisions. with my experience with games i could tell they some of my decisions were making big changes, changes i didnt expect. they did really good on creating a story that feels like i really am responcible for the things unfolding in front of me.
The game brags about being a first-person RPG. So you would think that the upgrading system would have had a lot of work done to it. Maybe but to me i think it could have been better. if you upgrade pistols for an example, you will unlock pistol related actions as apose to having your pistol aiming and power or reload time get better everytime you spend "points" on them. but you can level up your character many times before actually being able to increase your pistols actual function. There is a nice bunch on things to spend points on though. You can make your guy stealthy and have many stealth related actions or have a power fighter who is good at fighting and shooting depending what you spend your points on.
Everyone will have Mike Thorton as their main hero but you will be able to customize him. Because you can either be stealth or shooter or fighter, you will get many kinds of things to buy for yourself. as a professional guy i choose stealth. I had a suit that increased my stealth and also a silenced pistol as main weapon. you can buy thigns for your weapons and also things you attach to your suit and alter your performance. Theres a good number of things to buy and a wide variety of them too. so that and also a huge data base for everyone you ever meet or hear about makes the computer a great thing to access in between missions. Which is located in your safehouse which changes depending on which part of the world you decide to do missions in.
The enemies...
Where do i start.. i am pretty sure they just got some high school students to write their A.I. not really but if you ever played this game you would know why. They are DUMB. that if you fire a shot they will come to where you shot. if you sneak around a corner they will look around take a few steps and just go back to their post in some cases. They will be in alert mode if theres alot of enemies but if alone they will just be like "well that was some1 firing a shot... i cant see them.. i guess they went into the next dimension, not my problem.. do do do do"
You eventually face off with a special team called G22 who are intensly great spec ops type. or so they were designed to be like that. They just have an increased alerm mode. All enemies have "routes" that they walk.. all routes are childishly simple and easy to take advantage of BTW. but the G22 guys are just flashy ordinary enemies with better weapons.. and if im wrong and they have some kind of thing in their A.I. that makes them so much better then the rest of the enemies.. it was incredibly apparent to me. obviously.
Its a pretty fun game tho. if you are looking for a well-done game that challenges your intellect and skill. this isnt your game. But if you want to play a game that is completely different each time you play, get it. it might even be buyable material if you really like story telling. but as for the shooting mechanics and enemy AI.. this game is terribly ugly and dissformed.
On a personal note: the character called Sis that you meet eventually.. i dunno if its the way i played the game but i really wish she had a bigger role in that game. she was pretty awesome :P