I found this game to be very over rated to be honest. First of all - I didn't like the story, which should be the main strong feature of the game. It is very complicated and not narrated well. It is very unclear, because it's based on overlapping timelines real (experienced) or imaginary or even created by a novel writer ( the main protagonist ). I won't go into details but it's difficult to understand the meaning and chronology of events. People still discuss the story in the forums and each person has his/her own theory about the story, which should tell you all there is to tell.
The graphics and soundtrack are ok.
The game is linear but still there were many open spaced locations where it's not clear where to go. This problem was further enhanced by monsters attacking you when you are wondering around in search of the right path.
The biggest complaint that I have is about the combat. I really didn't like it's mechanics. The events are mostly based in the main character's imagination so mostly he is fighting against paranormal creatures of darkness. The mechanics is the following: in order to destroy each opponent, you have to first take away his darkness shield with some light weapons ( torches ), and only then you can kill it with regular weapons ( pistols, rifles ). The problem arises when many such monsters attack you in the same time, so it's frustrating and frantic having to kill each one 2 times so to speak, and with 2 different kind of weapons. Many times you can get overwhelmed. There are some special weapons like flares that are like bombs that destroy both the monsters darkness shield and body at the same time, but they are scarce.
Another big problem is the scarcity of ammo, batteries, flares and so on. You need batteries to run the torches, which you need both to navigate the dark environment and to take away the darkness shield of opponents. All is very scarce, so I had to put some ammo cheats in order to finish the game, because in some segments it's very hard with the little ammo and batteries you have at your disposition to fight against the enemies. It really becomes a matter of perfect resource management, like a puzzle game. Many people adopted the ammo cheats and said the game is much better with them.
Another game that I just couldn't wait to finish and move on to something else.
