If you saw the trailers for this game, you knew this was only a matter of time. How could I resist the twisting world it showed us? Long story short I didn't and I started playing from my backlog a few weeks ago. And while it was intriguing, I am very happy I didn't get it at full price to find out just what the whole thing was about.
Story: Jesse has finally made it! Ever since she was a child, she was told this organization didn't exist and she had just made it up. But for all the effort of all the psychiatrists and professionals, she knew better. After all, not only did they take her little brother away, but she has always felt them watching over her shoulder all her life ever since. And now here she was at their front door and they WERE going to give her brother back.
And yet it did not take long to see this just might not be as direct as she would like. The place was empty with the exception of a friendly (if weird) janitor... and oh yeah, the Director's office was open and he was dead on the floor, weird human-like creatures with that seemed to glow red were trying to kill her, and everyone is claiming she is now the director. And she just arrived!
Shoved into the position, Jesse learns the building is being invaded by an inter-dimensional force she names The Hiss and her first order of business is to clean house of them so they can lift the lock-down to both the outside world and the departments within. This would both allow her to find her brother, as well allow the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) to continue their mission to protect mankind from things like the Hiss.
As you play through this scenario, you will learn about the people of the FBC, their roll in the event that changed Jesse's life as a child, and just what the hell has invaded them in the now as you fight to regain control from these alien forces. The path is littered with details for you to assemble yourself, really handing you only the most basic outline through game cut-scenes. The rest will be told through articles, videos, and even interviews and other recordings strewn about the world, but the whole picture is definitely worth putting together, both for the picture and the pacing it offers the rest of the game. But to explain this would be a disservice to anyone who plans to play, so I will say no more.
8/10
Graphics: As a modern AAA game, you would expect this game to be pretty, and it does not disappoint, at least not most of the time. You will wander the halls of the FBC and the game does a great job of showing you a pretty realistic federal office building as designed in the 1960s, complete with reflective marble floors (or gaudy red rugs) and plenty of potted plants you can assume are probably plastic. And this is not without some rather amusing "off kilter" details either, like snack machines that have nothing but white generic packages with the contents printed in big black letters. But this is only the tip of the surface, as before long you will find places built for security and more warehouse like, and that's the stuff you can explain. Some places can best be described simply as "warped" or even like someone tried to make a room out of blocks but did not quite do it right. But it all looks pretty damn good.
And this goes especially true for whenever the game uses lighting to enhance the scene. Dust particles float through beams from window slits casting a realistic play of light and shadow across the world and reflective surfaces actually are reflective. True they are not mirrors, but that's the point... its a blurry reflection that actually is of the world around you much like a clean but used tiled floor might. And this is without ray-tracing. This game seriously works with the tech amazingly well.
But that is not to say there are not some casualties in the attempt to imitate the effect. Metal surfaces (like for example doors to safe-rooms throughout the building) from a distance often appear sparkly, as if almost supernatural and not fully there in the attempt to get the sheen as real as possible without the hardware designed to do it right. It's distracting when nothing else is going on.
But of course there is more to the world then how well light plays across it. There is also the matter of those who inhabit it with you, and here the game isn't quite as good as the world itself. Do not get me wrong, people in this game look pretty goof, but they walk a little close to the uncanny valley on the gake side and as such stick out a bit as not as real as they should be. And this goes especially true when you can compare them to live-action videos throughout the game, but if not for that, you would chalk up that difference to a graphic style.
Enemies, on the other hand, have no such issue. Most of them are humanoid, but either their faces never show or they are just inhuman and kept at a enough distance while fighting them you don't notice.
8/10
Sound: If I had to give one word to the ambiance of this game, it would be "creepy." You will often have no music to speak of in the background, relying on the sounds of an empty section of the building to keep you company... at least when you are truly alone. Your enemies in this game tend to be fairly vocal and being in an area infested with them will more often then not treat you to their "chant" of their voices, all repeating the same string of words as one like a prayer at a church or cult meeting. This game is not sublt to let you know you are in a dangerous place.
Not that other voices are bad either. In fact I would commend everyone who did voice acting for this game... the characters all acted in a way that works for this world, from the the "company man" who climbed his way up the ladder to a supervisor postilion over the more dangerous objects the FBC has secured from mankind to Jesse herself as she talks to both the people who just accepted her as their new Director (even as she questions that) and to herself and the other who guides her actions. The only exception to this might be the Board, but I have to put that on might as they were intentionally distorted to be hard to hear and understand, requiring the use of their subtitles 99% of the time... and even those seem to have dual sets of words, muddying them.
And while the sound effects (explosions, gunshots, and the like) all fit their roll and are appropriately meaty, but the real star here is when music actually plays. Remedy must have one HELL of a relation with the band Poets of the Fall as once again they absolutely steal the show with ballads that are well beyond anything you might expect written specifically for a game. Enjoy!
9/10
Gameplay: I wish I could be as kind to the gameplay of this game as I am about the ambiance and environment it will surround it with, but we have hit another game where this is the weak-spot. You will play the roll of Jesse Faden as she arrives at the building housing the Federal Bureau of Control and miraculously manages to get inside while they are in total lock-down due to the Hiss invasion going on, playing the entire game from a 3rd person perspective. You will explore the building as you learn about the world you have just stumbled into while your wandering is peppered with attacks by hiss-infected humans. If you are like me, these battles will be the low-points for even when they are at their best, it's the details you find along the way filling in the world that really keeps you going.
And sadly, I have to say at it's best because really, the game doesn't always hold up here. When you start, you will find your options limited and the enemies immediately getting repetitive since you will basically only be able to fight with the gun you took off the previous director's body. But before long you will claim artifacts that grant you other powers like the ability to grab objects (or parts of the walls themselves) to throw at enemies and even the ability to fly. However, the game in return cranks up the difficulty of the fights by giving you new enemies with new tricks... and while this balance lasts, it is good! But eventually it's clear the developers ran out of ideas as you start facing bosses as enemy types and ultimately, just pouring more and more enemies at you in wave after wave.
For most action-based games this wouldn't be an issue and at worst be seen as standard if uninspired behavior. Here, however, the balance is different. Jesse is a glass-cannon in this game, dealing damage with abandon but being exceptionally squishy. So much like a Dark Souls game (and I really do HATE making this cliche comparison) if you screw up, get ready to get hurt or dead. And when that is balanced against a game that is stingy with checkpoints you respawn at, a lack of new and interesting situations in favor of 15-20 minute battles due to 4-5 waves in any given battle (no I am not exaggerating), and failure being met with starting the encounter completely over when you finally run back over to it and it quickly becomes a lesson in stress over fun. Many of you are likely going to take the "assistance" options available (for example, you can turn on invincibility mode or even a way to kill enemies with a single shot) by the end of the game to lessen that stress and maybe just enjoy the whole thing more.
6/10
Bugs: For all the issue I had with this game, there was only one bug I had happen, even if its one this game is a bit notorious for. To keep the game looking as good as possible while keeping optimized the game swaps lower resolution bitmaps for higher ones as you get closer to the object painted with them. Normally this happens at such a draw distance you never notice, but occasionally the game fails at this, leaving bitmaps that would look at home on 3D games from the early 90s. Unfortunately for me, this actually got in the way of the game since the images it failed to swap properly were white boards I needed to be able to read to complete a puzzle. I reloaded and the issue was resolved, but it did take me out of the game pretty roughly.
Overall: In a word, this game is very unbalanced in what it offers the player. When it's at it's best, the game stands with the greats offering cooler arenas and locations then I have seen in just about any other game I have ever played and facing off with interesting and different creatures that are actually fun to figure out, despite it's punishing nature. But it needs time to build up to this and once it's shown you all the enemies it has, the battle quickly loses it's luster and just becomes an obstacle you have to get through before the interesting details can begin leaking out to you again about the world itself. It's a shame, really, but it makes the game both easy and tough to recommend at the same time. If you are a lore-fiend, you will find a lot to love here, but you will likely cheat your way through before you finish to just stop getting aggravated when some guy you didn't know appeared behind you launched a missile up your ass and now you have to trudge all the way back to the battle to try again. If you are an action fiend, you will likely love the challenge at first, but get bored with the same waves of exploding guys followed by flying guys, followed by walking guys you will see for most of the game.
While the world building works very well, the action gameplay supporting it stops doing so well before you finish, be it from frustration or boredom, depending on your game-style. And to this end I would say check it out if you can get it on sale. I'd hate to miss that story and some of the coolest battles for the sake of the lamer ones, but I wouldn't want to have spent full price because of them.
Score:
7/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core i5-4690 or AMD FX 4350
- 8 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon R9 280X
- 42 GB hard drive space
- Windows 7 (64-bit only)
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
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