pros: animation, graphics, story, acting, voices, combat system, short loadtimes, no bugs
cons: only available on xbox and pc
definite review edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXwGdQMJ8-8
play this game on 'centurio' difficulty wich is 'normal' ... during ur first playthrough level u char and unlock the skills on order to prepare urself for ur second playthrough on Legendary' difficulty wich is 'hard' and even inpossible at some 'chokepoints' if u have made some poor decisions in the upgrade pass before
note that unlocking the executions in the different categories will also raise the attribute itself permanently for ur char ...
This is one of these games, that keep u motivated from the start to the end and after u finished it for the first time u want to immediately start over again.
the game is totally story focused and will send u through linear levels from one hotspot to the next. in this it is similat to a game like max payne 3.
combat system: the combat system is structured around the mechanic of bringing enemys into execution.state as soon as possible to replensidh one of four resources when finishing the enemy off that way, in this its similat to Warhammer:Space.Marines
U have to combine ur normal attacks and shieldattacks in order to maintain a constant HP drain on an enemy ... tougher enemys will pressure u by blocking and performing heavy attacks themself.
normal enemy attacks can be refelcted easy by timing, heavy attacks can only be defelected by a perfectly timed button input. only heavy attacks are indicated for u by making the enemy flashing red, on legendary difficulty even that will not happen.
all ur button input commands are maesured and rated in 4ranks, from recruit to legendary ... this will effect how much replenishment u will gain, during executions u have to perform a QTE, with legendary basicly needs u to have memorized every finishing move and be able to identify immidetly wich one is performed to make ur button inputs the millisecond before the indicator appears ...
enemys have no lifebars wich helps giving the combat a more organic feeling, there is no visible lock on indicator, but u can easily change targets by pressing or moving in there direction wich makes awesome groupfights with 3 or more enemys a challenge and a joy at the same time, in this it is similar to Batman Games from Rocksteady
STORY and Characters: regardless if u personaly dislike the theme or content of the games story, it is thought and played out in a masterfuel way, that is equal to a cinematic movie and surpasses what is common in tv and video game entertainment today.
the actors and voice actors are one of a kind and a clearly professional acters from the theater. furthermore a lot of the story and the mood and feelings are told through the impressions on the caracter faces and not so much through the words they say.
this is only possible becasue of the technical advancment the devs have reached in real time caracter creation and animation.
'deep facial skinning', motion capture of eyes and even tongue movment, high resolution diffuse / normal / specular textures, along with extreme close ups of faces ... is what makes this kind of storytelling possible and outstanding ...
technic and graphics: if u run this game on 60 fps regardless of other settings, it simply feels like being inside a cg movie. the graphics and animations are simply the best ever achieved in a video game.
the game was developed for the xbox one by making use of its unique eSRAM, that means it cant be simply recreated in this quality on the PS4, even if only running 1600 x 900 on the xbox, unique antialias methods make it appear flawless on that console.
on the pc the game is ment to be played in 4K resolutions on the highest settings it allows to choose.
when playing in traditionel full HD I would disable the Temporal Anti Alias in the graphics options as it only blurs aways half of the details in the very high textures ... as well as the gimickly 'motion blur', wich more often then not takes away from the awesome factor of the graphics
I played this game several times now, and I simply cant see anything negative about it, it also has no techical bugs or flaws ! and just because it is always brought up in discussions, the fact enemys of the same type often look mostly the same and dont differ, it is something that will not bother u a single time while plaing and it was never a point or even mentioned in reviews of games like Batman or Max Payne ... and only on an abstarct level it has to be seen as one of the condition that make all the greatness of this game possible