ANNO: Mutationem

[b] EDIT: I changed my mind. This game has so much potential that's just wasted. Changing to DO NOT RECOMMEND [/b] This game is the epitome of mid. The story is mid, the combat is mid, the platforming is mid, and the exploration is mid. It literally came down to a coin toss on if I was going to recommend or not. Heads won, so recommend it is. With some caveats, of course. Only buy this game if it's on a [b] MASSIVE [/b] sale. Like 50% or more discount. I don't recommend the Collector's upgrade pack unless it's also on a [b] MASSIVE [/b] sale as well. Just not worth it really. I loved the graphics style and forced camera perspective with tank controls, felt reminiscent of PS1/PS2 games. The story is like a mish-mash of Evangelion and SCP/Control with a Cyberpunk wrapper. Most of it is also told through diary entries or weirdly shot surveillance footage. I wish I was joking about that. The cutscenes either cut off too early or drag on for just a bit too long after the dialogue and action are over. There's also times when a random part of a cutscene or just one character in it would be voiced, but then everyone else is just text boxes. Not sure if there was suppose to be a twist or the developers are just bad at foreshadowing because I figured it out maybe 3 or 4 hours in. This game is a 2D platformer with some 3D elements. There are literally parts where you have full control over your character (can double jump, dash, roll, swing or shoot your weapons) that transition to 2D platformer where you can't even jump and your "dash" is just a roll within the same part of the level. This is super disorienting. The platforming also isn't accurate enough for what this game is going for with some of it's puzzles. The combat isn't crisp enough for how tanky and gimmicky some of the bosses get later in the game. Basic enemies become tanky in the later half of the game, even with mods that either increase your critical or piercing damage. It's utterly fascinating how many ways the combat in this game just doesn't feel good. You can easily switch between ranged and melee combat though, so that's a bonus, I guess. [spoiler] Your "special demon form" or whatever it's called, is fun to use for the maybe 5 seconds you get to use it, then it's minutes of combat (which you have to hunt down) to reload it for use again. I guess getting hit helps build it up though, so that's now part of the combat strategy. [/spoiler] The game is actually quite gorgeous, when you actually get to experience the cyberpunk aesthetic. The character designs are very well done and the dynamic backgrounds of the cities are really cool. Most of the time though you're either underground or in some brutalist structure that has no real character or discernible difference between each other. The enemy design is good but I wish there was more color in their outfits. A lot of them were just the same shade of grey with a slight color swatch difference here and there. The music was pretty good, find it on YouTube to enjoy it fully. The voice acting, when it happens, is mostly pretty good with some terrible stinkers. There's one character, Ayane, that I believe has every line voiced and she isn't the main protagonist or antagonist. It's a really weird choice because her voice actor is over the top and gets very annoying, very quickly. The developers should've went fully voiced or fully text based since it's jarring to be reading dialogue then have someone voice a sentence and go right back to reading dialogue. Why that line? Why not the whole conversation? Some random observations: There's a really fun bartending mini-game in the middle of the game that I wish was a little more fleshed out. If you care, there's a few cameos by characters from VA-11 HALL-A, which was a fun surprise. The elevator has a direction selection screen for times when you're literally restricted to only going one direction (up or down). Why is that there? Why not just make it only the direction you can go. Or, better yet, just make it go the direction when you interact with the elevator. This is another thing that bugged me. There are random cutscenes or interactable elements for things that [b] DON'T [/b] need them, while those same cutscenes or interactable elements are completely missing for times that make sense! [spoiler] MC gets teleported to a completely different city and doesn't react. We don't even get a simple "hmm" voice line or text box. It's really weird because the MC will then overreact to some of the most basic inconveniences. [/spoiler] Finally, I'll put this thought in it's own category and spoilered. [spoiler] Ayane feels pretty rapey and needs to be toned down, a lot! From the jump she is overly affectionate, demanding, clingy, and just all around very yandere-esq. Several times throughout the story, Ann makes it clear she doesn't like Ayane being so over the top aggressive with her affections, and Ayane just ignores it and continues. If Ayane had been a male character, I'm sure most people would've been icked out and angered by him. I normally don't care about this type of stuff and can ignore it, but the developers made Ayane a very, VERY prominent figure in the game so it's unavoidable. Call me a wimp or whatever, don't care. Tone her down. [/spoiler]