A couple of quick thoughts after playing through the first 2 chapters of maybe 1 hour and 30 minutes of effective gameplay.
- The game DO look ALOT better than previous games. I really dont get all the "its still the same graphics" flaming the game has got. Sure, its still going for a more clean and doll like approach but graphics are vastly improved over the previous games. I played through Sigma a while back and compared to that the world has much better lighting, architecture in the enviroments feel much more natural, water looks oh so much better, textures has way more depth to them, even on characters wich actually feels less doll like this time around (some of them anyway) and the overall sharpness of textures is extreme. Textures are so sharp I almos feel they will cause burn-ins to my TV. More shaders and subtle effect has been used to make this feel way more next gen than the upscaled Sigma. I just entered the New York stage and the enviroment and weathereffects there are REALLY good looking.
- The amounts of blood and gore are awesome. This might be the most brutal game I have played. Limbs are flying and blood are squirting everywhere and it stays there. The animation when Ryu cleans his weapons after a fight by throwing the blood off them is awesome aswell. The sound of fighting is also very brutal and you can hear skulls smashing, bones breaking and blood splatter everywhere. Its...yea...its really really cool.
- The combat is hands down the most satifying ever. This is my initial reaction of the combat in NG2 and might change but as of right now that is how I feel. The improvements are vast over Sigma and the combat feels perfect. It feels brutal, heavy, spot on and extremely fluid, smooth and responsive. Especially with the Lunar Staff wich is still my favorite weapon and the one I can handle the best.
- Cutscenes are awesome. The story might be kinda lame but the cutscenes and interactions between characters in them is actually kinda cool. Its way beyond anything NG1 did and its more on par with Devil May Cry.
- Camera is still frustrating. But on the other hand I dont see how you could solve it in any other way. The only other way to make the camera work in this kind of game is making it fixed like in DMC and that is not what NG2 is about. Its more intimate and down close so the thing to do here is to eliminate the frustrating platforming from the first game wich really ruined the experience for me there, because in combat, you CAN handle the camera by turning it and reseting it behind Ryu. So far the platforming havent been too bad but I fear the worst.
- The game is harder than ever. Enemies are smarter and blocking plays a much bigger role in this game. Battles often become most successful when you almost constantly block and then throw some smart counterblows, wich I personally like more than chaotic buttonmashing, this way you can think more about what combos you want to bust out when the enemy has finishes his attacks.
- Bosses will kill you in seconds if you dont learn their patterns wich I had to do on the Chapter 2 boss. The experience itself is more streamlined tho with repleneshing health, frequent savepoints and the ability to try bosses as many times as you want to.
Overall I think this is an improvement over the first game wich I ended up disliking because of its many frustrations and clumsy tries to throw in adventure and platforming elements. Hopefully the game will continue the way it has been going so far. If that is the case I am officially a fan.
Oh, and on a sidenote, best of luck to Itagaki in whatever he might end up doing next. Looking forward to whatever it might be. After all, I am one of maybe three people that actually bought Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 for the 360....