A beautiful game that delivers great cinematic at the cost of game play.
Brutally honest, my friend Kyle bought this right at release and It was probably at least a month before I touched it. The first night I played it, I played it all the way through to where I stopped playing it. That mission with Kai where long story short. There's a lot of close quarters battle that is 1) uncomfortable. Why are you giving a character with only a gun such close quarters combat, never the less a gun thats so awkward to use at close quarters. 2) Why don't you give her a knife or something, it was so tedious to kill them without dying. And I couldn't beat that level.
So long story short, I dont like this game, but let me go into this. I love Ninja Gaiden, and that game is intense. That game has imbued me with skills. I just couldn't die in this game. Block, Roll, always dodging, the whole cant be killed while dodging thing. That makes this game way too easy. I don't know, Ninja Gaiden you need to block or dodge to live. In this, you dodged because it was simple, and you just dont die. Combat was way too easy.
The challenge in this game lied in the Kai stages, which I really didn't like. They really killed the momentum of the Mariko levels. In all honesty, if you just would have given Kai something melee to do. Or more stages like the one where you need to save Mariko's father, which was the most challenging stage I played, and the most enjoyable in the end for me. (Shooting people in the butt has particular glee to it)
Overall, this game was a step in the right direction of gaming, and I hope that more games are encouraged to take a more cinematic approach after games like this, and Bio Shock, and Half-Life.