- More action and cutscenes, less atmosphereTHE GOOD:
Great graphics, the gameplay has been HUGELY improved from the original, and the story is interesting. It definitely feels more supernatural than the first one, because they hit you with the mental stuff right off the bat. So right away, this game feels like the awesome, hallucinaton-filled second half of the first game. That's a very good sign. It goes back to "reality" a few chapters in, and the hallucinations/supernatural elements become less common, but it's still fun.
The combat is fun - some people say it's become too easy to beat down on the thugs, and so it takes away from the suspense...but it's fine with me, because 1.) It's not THAT easy to beat up the thugs, you're still on your toes, plus they often attack in packs, and 2.) Story-wise, it makes sense. Ethan's been through so much, he *should* have learned to fight better since the original. So instead of feeling cheap when you're doing a Chain attack on someone, you feel awesome and powerful.
The investigation segments...gah, they're so much better it's ridiculous. Instead of just finding the victim's wound and taking a picture, you have to decide whether they were stabbed or shot; whether it's an entry wound or exit wound, etc. It's awesome.
Now, for...
THE BAD:
The environments you explore are reminiscent of the first game - run-down, deserted buildings. You spend more time outside in the city, which I don't particularly like...at least in the first game, you could pretend that the outside world is "normal", that you're really exploring a deserted department store in a real city. In this game, you're often outside, and the city is ridiculously deserted and the sky is green. Stupid.
It has more cutscenes...more cutscenes that either try to show how "cool" Ethan is, or cutscenes that make you think "What the hell just happened?" For example....*MINOR SPOILERS*....I found a body, took some pictures, thinking how fun that was. I had been with two cops, and we got separated, so I had to tell them the number of the room I was in. And then suddenly a cutscene started which showed those two cops running with the body on a bridge, with Ethan running after them at the head of a gang of thugs. One of the cops turned and shot some electrical box that made a line of fire block the bridge, so Ethan and the thugs had to stop. It wasn't until the "good" cop cried "Ethan's still back there!" that I realized Ethan was NOT suddenly aligned with the thugs. It was just a stupid-looking cutscene, and something you'd never find in the first game.
Anyways, the constant moves from gameplay to action-packed cutscene are jarring and pretty much kills any of the lonely, mysterious atmosphere the first game had.
Another thing I just don't like is the "upgrade" system. If you find things throughout the level (like the dead birds from the first game), you get Mission Points. Do good enough on a Mission (chapter), and you get an Upgrade. Stuff like bullet-proof vests, silver knuckles, etc. It sounds cool...but I kind of like the idea of surviving with whatever you can find in the environment, and getting upgrades that, well, make sense with the game world. It's ridiculous to jump off a roof in Chapter 2, and land in the factory in Chapter 3 with a brand-new bulletproof vest. It feels like it came straight out of a videogame from 1995.
So...overall I think it's still a good game, and I think it's worth $30, but not $60. It seems to have the "Prince of Persia 2" syndrome. It's like the marketing people didn't like the sales of the first game, so they made Monolith put in "more action" and stuff like that. Although at $30, it's kind of tough to go wrong when you know what you're getting into.
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