An impressive story and character development with great acting, start to finish. And there are elements of the gameplay that border in tonnes of fun (esp. Stealth tactics).
Unfortunately, the combination of four aspects of gameplay make it dead frustrating to play, and really detract from the story (I lost interest in the characters solely because I started just wishing the game was over):
1) The characters move extremely slowly. There are 3 types of movement and 2 circumstances affecting speed: you can crouch-walk for stealth, walk, or jog; and you can be in a kind of game mode or story mode (which is activated when dialogue is occurring but also at arbitrary other points, sometimes even just direction-dependent, and makes up about a quarter of the game). In game mode, crouch-walk and walk are a fairly appropriate. Run is a bearable, but only just. In story mode, you feel like you're watching a video at 1/2 speed and it just drove me crazy. It's especially frustrating seeing as the game hides collectibles, ammo, weapon components, etc, all over the place, encouraging you to explore; but if you want to run down to the end of that alley and back, on the 1 in 5 chance something might be there, you're in for a boring slog.
2) The screen wobbles all over the place when the characters jog. I think they tried to make it feel a bit like jogging in real life, but on a screen it just feels like you have vertigo. (It's like they forgot that when you jog in real life, your various senses related to balance are reacting naturally. And/or forgot that that's *not* the case when you're sitting down with a controller in hand!)
3) There's little in the way of aim-assist, even on easy and normal modes. If you're young and still have your twitch skills, it's probably okay, but not nearly as satisfying as most modern games. To make matters worse, there are plenty of scenes where they decide it's not difficult enough as is, and throw a tonne of screen shake at you (because your on a wobbly surface of are hanging upside down, etc) to make it harder.
4) While it seems to cater to different play styles with the usual melee vs guns-blazing vs traps vs stealth, it actually tries to force each of these on you rather than letting you decide how to play. Some scenes are set up with multiple enemies that will swarm and instant-kill you if you don't go stealth; others are set up so that enemies keep coming and coming if you try to take them out at all; and yet others are set up with a CGI sequence in which the characters make so much noise the enemies automatically hear you and you have to go guns blazing. There's occasionally a choice, but it feels forced on you more often than not.
Overall, the brilliance in the character development didn't quite make struggling through the gameplay feel worth it in the end.
Unfortunately, the combination of four aspects of gameplay make it dead frustrating to play, and really detract from the story (I lost interest in the characters solely because I started just wishing the game was over):
1) The characters move extremely slowly. There are 3 types of movement and 2 circumstances affecting speed: you can crouch-walk for stealth, walk, or jog; and you can be in a kind of game mode or story mode (which is activated when dialogue is occurring but also at arbitrary other points, sometimes even just direction-dependent, and makes up about a quarter of the game). In game mode, crouch-walk and walk are a fairly appropriate. Run is a bearable, but only just. In story mode, you feel like you're watching a video at 1/2 speed and it just drove me crazy. It's especially frustrating seeing as the game hides collectibles, ammo, weapon components, etc, all over the place, encouraging you to explore; but if you want to run down to the end of that alley and back, on the 1 in 5 chance something might be there, you're in for a boring slog.
2) The screen wobbles all over the place when the characters jog. I think they tried to make it feel a bit like jogging in real life, but on a screen it just feels like you have vertigo. (It's like they forgot that when you jog in real life, your various senses related to balance are reacting naturally. And/or forgot that that's *not* the case when you're sitting down with a controller in hand!)
3) There's little in the way of aim-assist, even on easy and normal modes. If you're young and still have your twitch skills, it's probably okay, but not nearly as satisfying as most modern games. To make matters worse, there are plenty of scenes where they decide it's not difficult enough as is, and throw a tonne of screen shake at you (because your on a wobbly surface of are hanging upside down, etc) to make it harder.
4) While it seems to cater to different play styles with the usual melee vs guns-blazing vs traps vs stealth, it actually tries to force each of these on you rather than letting you decide how to play. Some scenes are set up with multiple enemies that will swarm and instant-kill you if you don't go stealth; others are set up so that enemies keep coming and coming if you try to take them out at all; and yet others are set up with a CGI sequence in which the characters make so much noise the enemies automatically hear you and you have to go guns blazing. There's occasionally a choice, but it feels forced on you more often than not.
Overall, the brilliance in the character development didn't quite make struggling through the gameplay feel worth it in the end.