Ground Breaking gameplay, immersive RPG FPS game ruined by bad optimization.
Gameplay:
The game isn't a first person shooter "per say" It's not a kind of game where you're going to run and gun like Call Of Duty. The game is highly involved with Role Playing and depending on what power you purchase in the game as you complete the game will determine the outcome of the story's progress. You can do damage/armor/weapon upgrades to your character, you can blow anything that gets in your way by looting weapons from enemies, buying ammo, upgrading your character's special abilities, etc.. Or you can decide to take the Metal Gear approach and play the game in a stealth/sneak manner. Depending on how you want to play the game, it's a completely personal preference and changes the whole experience of the game. This game is very natural. You're not going to take 9000 bullets to the chest and still be walking gunner like some of the older games. Sometimes one bullet is instant death, so it is imperative to carefully plan your attacks. Boss battles are quite hard and requires you to think, rather than a simple point and click solution. It's rewarding if you play your cards right, but it will frustrate you to no end if you you don't bring your A game to the table.
It's an interesting game and challenging game. What kinda ruined it for me was the bad code design/ inevitable stuttering(majority of users are having these problems), clunky controls(srsly mouse wheel to zoom your weapon?) , lack of nice and steady weapon progression(like Re4). Like they literally just keep throwing away weapons at your disposal, and then you're forced to micro manage everything for ever, till you're sure which one you'll keep and which one you want to drop. What's even funnier is This is a FPS game, but i felt even the 360 controller or a normal gamepad was suited better for this; if you're willing to digest the horrid accuracy. And of course they're going to give you ammo for weapons you don't own, of course they're going to give you an energy bar, when something like an emp gernade would have been 10x more beneficial for that stage. I could go on about the things i love, but then there's going to be a con or two around the corner, and I know people don't like reading Wall QQ's.
EIDOS HATEFUL TRUTH.
I actually really did enjoy this game, but like i have mentioned before, Eidos ruined this game. This company should be fired immediately. I have a powerful pc (core i5 2500k and gtx 570) and on direct x 11 and everything high, i was still getting quite some stuttering. And DX11 crash to desktop every hour or so. This game was terribly unstable. If played on DirectX9, there was no crashes, but the lag and stutter was unbearable. Horrible Horrible optimization. Remember Batman Arkham Asylum and all those Physx/Crash to Desktop/APPcrash/Fingerprint errors/etc...? Guess what, the company that published that game was also *cough* Eidos. You don't need to take my word over it, I'm not going to loose sleep over it. Look upon the hundreds of post on Eidos/Steam forums. Users who bought the game are not going to waste their time lying if something was glitching their games. I will never purchase an Eidos game in the future again. Thank you Eidos, for ruining everything you get your hands on.
Graphics and Conclusion:
The textures, lighting, narrow corridors, bloomy scenery may have looked neat and sharp, but the graphics were just plain out awful(stop lying to yourself, you know this is true). I was going to be that 12y/o picky, snub-nose s.o.b who uninstalls this game within 5 minutes due to the 2006 graphics, but I am really glad i kept going.This game was designed to ruin your life if you don't know what you're doing, but it's amazing naturality and rewarding/strategic moments is what makes gameplay earth shattering addictive.The environment is obviously not as large as it is like the Fallout Series, but with the tons of side-quests, exploration, and an exceptional story, this game makes up for it. There's a lot of things i liked, and quite a few things that i despised. Still, the game is def worth the $50 price tag, but please, unless there's some sort of future patches to address the many issues that many pc players are facing, I strongly urge you to stay away from the pc version. Play the game on on a 360 or PS3, even if you have to go a random person's house to do so.