The definition of mixed feelings,,,
I read a lot of reviews/first looks/previews and heard people complaining about the camera problems. I found the camera to take a little bit of adjustment, but no real annoyance.
The game has amazing sound, crisp graphics, and gore, Gore, GORE. The number of flying limbs is staggering.
The game delivered on almost all fronts. I really only have 4 complaints;
# 1 - The level with the river... nice idea but the sheer number of guys nuking you with missile launchers is dumb. It took me several attempts just to get to the first guy and down him. Cutting the number of guys here by 1/2 would still make it challenging and not so annoying. This part was not even fun, just super frustrating.
#2 - If you die at a boss, you come back right at the encounter. Very nice. I HATE all the clicking and all of the load screens/wait time for this. I know this is petty, but getting owned by a boss then having to wait 2 min to re start the battle sucks.
#3 - The bosses are complete pansies. There were only 2 bosses I could not beat by button mashing. Simply stand toe to toe with a boss and spam yellow - ESPECIALLY with the scythe. That thing does a 5 hit combo by spamming yellow that takes off 1/5 of the bosses life and sort of stuns them so you can start it all over again. It does not work every time on the first encounter, but for the most part get yourself close and start taping yellow. No need to heal, no need to ninpo, nada. The train guy was an exception but you just need patience. The 2 dragons was same - patience. The blood chick was just the quick dash that we used on the last boss of NG1 over and over.
#4 - The last boss. SERIOUSLY? You go through the whole game HSWTFPWNING every boss and then you get to this guy who is dang near impossible (yes you are thinking "Man this guy JUST complained about the fact there was no challenge to the bosses and now he is complaining the last boss is way to hard." Ironic, no?). I am thinking a balance would have better. It's not that he is super hard I guess, it just sucks that if you die on phase 3 you have to go all the way back to phase 1.
In summary, I would say this game is worth the money. Just perfecting the combos of all of the different weapons will give TONS of replay. I am thinking/hoping all of the stuff i complained about can be fixed with patches. Then again, since the team lead for Team ninja quit on the eve of the launch and is now suing, I am thinking they have a lot of witness coaching and document shredding to do...