Do you know that the studio that made this game, Flying Wild Hog, made Shadow Warrior, one of the best first person platformer franchises out there?
[h2] SO WHY ON EARTH DOES THIS GAME HAVE ISSUES WITH EVEN ONE INCH HIGH LEDGES [/h2]
There's so many things to complain about in this game. For starters:
[h3] One inch high ledges [/h3]
This game does NOT know how to deal with heights of any kind. Your character cannot jump. Ok. That is fine. But it starts getting ridiculous when you genuinely get stuck on one inch high tree roots in the ground. You cannot dodge over it, you cannot roll over it, the only choice you have is to move around it. I have no idea why the team behind Shadow Warrior, a game about PLATFORMING, had so much trouble with the simple concept of giving the character the simple ability to GO OVER MINOR OBSTRUCTIONS ON THE GROUND. This extends to minor three inch high gently sloped hills: instead of being able to just, you know walk down it, the game's pathing clearly wants you to go AROUND it to the very faintly marked other hill that serves as a ramp. Stupid. I have no idea what they did with the skills they learned from Shadow Warrior, a PLATFORMING GAME, but obviously none of that went into this game.
[h3] Difficulty [/h3]
This game's idea of increasing difficulty is to swarm you with as many mini-bosses as possible. I think I quit around the 3/4 mark into the game when the game threw multiple elite-level werewolf enemies, a miniboss that constantly shoots out webs, and a miniboss that constantly blinds you, constantly fires heatseeking missiles at you, and can only take damage if you knock it down after shooting at its weak spot while it's firing its homing laser attack, Previously before this, the game's idea of a pre-boss fight was to throw THREE MINIBOSSES WITH SHIELDS along with TEN+ ELITE-LEVEL ENEMIES at you. Oh WOW, I DO find it difficult to deal with FIFTEEN DIFFERENT ENEMIES ATTACKING ME AT ONCE WITH ABSOLUTELY GARBAGE AOE, that's CRAZY. In fact, one AOE skill (that you have to buy with a skill point) just straight up lies to you and says that it kills common enemies. It does NOT from my experience. Coupled with the facts that you will get stuck on random ♥♥♥♥ on the ground because of the above, and that your dodge/roll isn't a hitboxless roll, and you will find yourself in situations where you're just straight up stuck inside a group of enemies.
[h3] Variety [/h3]
I touched upon it above, but yeah, this game makes you fight the same miniboss over and over. I think the actual common/elite enemy variety is fine, actually. Off the top of my head, there's common ghouls, ranged ghouls, exploding ghouls, brutes, vampires, werewolves, outlaws with guns, vampires with guns, and flying bats that shoot at you.
What annoys the hell out of me is the game's tendency to reuse the same miniboss over and over and over. I was counting how many times I had to fight the shield miniboss and by the time i quit at the 3/4 mark (about 10 hours in) it was over 15 times. It really doesn't help that the game also likes to throw multiple of the miniboss at you at the same time WITH other minibosses AND multiple elite and common enemies. Combat encounters not involving bosses were exceeding five minutes, not helped by the fact that your AOE options are so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ass.
[h3] Combat [/h3]
I actually thought at the beginning three or four hours that the combat system in this game is super solid. If anything, the combat was actually carrying this game for me. But then you get deeper into the game and then you realize how completely shallow it is. Here's a brief list:
1.You can guard and stun enemies, but the guard only works on one enemy and you can only get the upgrade for it stunning multiple later into the game.
2.There's an upgrade that lets you dodge and continue your combo, but the combo will be stopped anyway because if the enemy does a side swing and you dodge to the other side, the wonky hitboxes make sure you get hit anyway. God forbid if it's an attack that comes with an AOE effect.
3.You can shoot weak spots indicated by circles, but some enemies have frame 1 attacks that comes after the circle appears so it's straight up impossible sometimes.
4.There's a juggling system, but your melee attack is too slow to keep juggling and the revolver only has 7 shots, not to mention you can't actually juggle brutes, mini-bosses, or bosses.
5.The game with mini-bosses and bosses in particular turns into a slogfest where you build their stun meter, whale on them for a few seconds, dodge away, and then start building their stun meter again. Keep in mind this gets even longer once the game starts throwing multiple minibosses at you at once. If nothing else, I didn't quit because the game was difficult, I quit because it got ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ANNOYING to have to burst down each miniboss and then move to the next combat arena where I'd have to do it AGAIN.
[h3] Bugs [/h3]
Above mentioned getting stuck on one inch high ledges on the ground, especially during combat. Sometimes, your rifle and your crossbow will not fire where your reticle is. Sometimes, you will get stuck in your gun aiming pose and have to roll out of it to reset it. Minibosses, especially the ones that charge, get stuck on the walls and hover there. You have to slowly whittle their health down with your ranged weapons. The game does shader loading while you play, so expect frequent stutters, freezes, and the occasional frame drop.
[h3] Annoyances [/h3]
The Parasiter boss fell into the trap of throwing a billion things at you at once along with the frame 1 attack after the weak spot shows. None of the cosmetics you can unlock are even remotely good. The upgraded versions of the revolver, rifle, and shotgun lack the impact of their non-upgraded versions. In some cutscenes, there is no lip flapping, and the devs apparently were proud enough of this to shove it in your face repeatedly. None of the collectibles are worth collecting, not even for reading.
[h2] Positives and whatevers [/h2]
To avoid too much negativity
[h3] Environments [/h3]
This is a VERY pretty game when it can be. The worst environment in this game is boring, but when the game flexes its Western setting, this game is up there alongside Red Dead Redemption 2. I particularly liked the oil field level and the mansion level post-Zeppelin crash.
[h3] Bosses [/h3]
Aside from the Parasiter boss, I actually think the bosses in this game are kinda fire. I especially liked the boss that the main villain summoned on you, the one that summons homing shadow clone bombs on you. That was fun to fight.
[h3] Story and Characters [/h3]
It's a whatever. I don't care for it, but it served its purpose. I think the basic character design is ok, and the main character design is good.
[h1] Epitome of a 5/10 game, 6/10 if you don't mind the devs blatantly giving up around the 1/2 mark and doing everything they can to pad the runtime. [/h1]
