My favorite part is the story. It was engaging at least the 2nd part. I like the change in character's mood.
What I hate
I actually hated the fact there are so many genres are combined. It's not consistent. Sometimes less is more. I feel they could have invested more time into the hack n slash element instead of the hacking or space shooter mini games. If this game was delivered in an elevator pitch it would be a mess. The core mechanics is unclear whether it wants to be a hack n slash, rpg, or platformer or shooter
I literally beat all enemies with the same button. There's hardly any reason to equip another weapon or try a different combo aside from looking pretty or cool because every enemies including bosses will take damage of any kind regardless the amount and this shows a lack of creativity in problem solving. Alot of people will tell me "just crank up the difficulty." But that just means i take more damage or deal less damage it doesn't change the way I approach an obstacle. even in infamous second son, there are alot more reasons why you would revert to shooting projectile or melee or special skill moveset. It also doesn't help that the game throws hordes of enemies constantly at you in multiple boss battles and it feels like there is no end. It got to the point where it was overdone.
My biggest complaint is definitely route c should have just started right after the first play through. In the ps1 day, I would have seen this game as 2 disc game. Disc 1 or part 1 goes up till the fight with eve and disc 2 starts off where the route c starts. say what you want, route b was horrible decision. 80-90% same with a weaker character and a boring mini hack game forced. Basically, this game is saying "we are not giving you the main story unless you do extra optional stuff." this is dangerous design because if a player doesn't obtain all satisfaction or discover hidden elements on the first few tries, then your game gets a bad impression and it's not their fault since games are made for audience not the developers. I noticed that even side quest contained some heavy story elements that they should have added to main quest while some of the main quest felt like chores...im a strong believer that first impression matters. We should replay a game not because we have to but because we want to and we enjoy it so much we want to go through it again. An easy solution they could have done what resident eveil 1 or 2 did and let us chose between guy or girl on start or maybe at the beginning of each chapter.
I think the hack game was horribly misused in route b alot. Sometimes I run into a door or something and I would be forced to enter hacking game where all I do I pilot a ship from point a to point b with nothing to solve literally. I mean c'mon might as well just open the dam door for me. It's like this game is screaming to give us something to constantly do because at heart the devs know there's really nothing to do aside from hordes of enemies swarming at you. The only difference in b Is that you see small fillers of cutscenes which are poorly inputted since they just randomly trigger when you arrive at a point.
What I like
Aside from the bad, which there are some more, I did like the good parts about this game. I enjoy the story alot. The fact that the characters are becoming more human and less robot. Also, the theme it touches on is pretty deep not just a generic good vs evil story. I thought it took a pretty big 180 turn on second half but for the better. I did quite enjoy the levels and the world of the game. I felt like it resonates alot in me after finishing the game. THe apocalyptic feel is good and i never got lost in the levels finding my way around. The change of camera in certain stages helps to keep the paste going. Sadly, some Characters like the twin red headed sister's didn't get enough spotlight but became strangely important at the end. Strangely enough i found it funny that the operator was one of the last boss too when it didnt have enough screen time in the game. I happened to like Pascal alot because he was very life like. I wish he got the proper treatment and overcame his heartbreak instead of self defeating himself at the end. I thought Adam and Eve were the best villains in the story. It kinda sucks they didn't stick around till part 2 or make a return. I feel like we just got stuck with a villain in the end that had little impact on the characters. Some of the boss fight in between the game should have been more valuable to the story also. This is why I think MGS series does a good job with all its boss battle because every boss has personality and plays a significant role in the plot and not just some dummy.
I think eve brought up something interesting saying that they should have been called abel and cain instead since they were brothers and brought up by the machines which I viewed the machines as adam and eve because they broke their ties with their creators(aliens) and obtained complex human concepts which gave birth to two brothers. I found this rather funny instead.
I really like the last part of this game. It switches you up between two competing characters on the same path that are about to meet up at center point and you don't know if they will do battle or join forces but you play both. It creates a nice mix with the narrative even though some games have done this too. The best part about the combat were the skill chipset. They were the only thing that added variety and made me play differently.
Conclusion
I know some people will get the wrong idea and think i'm bashing on the game. I don't hate it. I think it's hard to hate this game. If anything, i actually like it. For what i hate about the game is what i like too. This game seems heavy with literary elements where you have to read into between the lines and gather evidence to support your interpretation of the story which makes it complex and analytical. I like that but also hate it since platinum didn't give us an option. I know in literature it works because thats a medium where audience are suppose to decipher literary elements but in games, we need to just play and understand what kind of theme or story the mechanics are trying to convery especially since gaming is such a global medium that the language of games is the mechanics so it needs to be understandable and accessible to wider group. They really want us to go the extra mile and dig into the side quest and replay the game twice or multiple time in order to obtain informations that i thought were very crucial to the game and needs to be presented upfront especially because this is a very heavy story driven game that tells a story traditionally with voice acting, writing, characters, and cutscene unlike other stories in games that are minimalist or abstract and interactive entirely.
Overall, the pros of the game didn't make me "wow" but the cons of the game made me literally fall asleep. I still think it's a good game. Primarily the story, music and the fact they were able to compromise visual and scale for better frame rate which I think alot of devs should do.
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