Ironic that a game who’s plot is about breaking your programming and going against what would be expected of you ends up with a reputation that takes what it presents at face value and twists what it actually is so it could fit the mold of what people expect 7th gen games to be, and this game faces no critical re-evaluation to this day, simply look at that disgrace of a description, in-fact there’s only one other person who appreciates it for what it is and he is the one who recommended this to me in the first place, it seems everyone else is still stuck up on taking the first 45 minutes of this game as gospel for representing everything else it has, failing to recognize that the game acknowledges the doubts a person could have about sci-fi military shooters of that gen because it begins with a section that can’t be anything other than a parody to GoW. Shed away all of that and you have a fantastic shooter underneath with a heartfelt sci-fi story, the variety of weapons on display here are nice and fit whatever playstyle you’d want to go for, there’s also the fact that you can combo with your partner to unleash some devastating attacks, it all flows into one, fluid gameplay system.

TL;DR, it’s not a fucking GoW clone or a cover shooter.

i fucking hate 7th gen xenophobia so much

it's a huge shame that this got immediately factored out en masse as a "gears of war clone" when the similarities are fundamental and superficial at best. initially it feels like a tongue-in-cheek parody of gears - right down to having some fodder, wannabe COG-like nobodies following you around - the whole identity shifts as soon as filena, syd's main partner, comes into the picture

as a tag team, the two of them do more damage with their arms and legs than their actual weapons. couple that with the ability to toss filena at enemies to stun 'em and you have a game that is very much an action hybrid of a shooter. similar to titles like vanquish and resident evil 6, if you're actively taking cover, you're playing the game wrong (especially considering syd can sprint, roll and melee while reloading.) if you're roadie-running, then you goddamn better be following it up with a haymaker

that's not to say the weapons themselves aren't kickass - in fact, some of them rank up with my favorites among all shooters. the rapid-fire grenade launcher, stun-locking plasma caster and wall-bouncing energy rifle immediately come to mind, but there's nothing that really feels like a peashooter. even the base rifle is a pretty reliable mainstay

also, i'd be remiss not to mention that this game often decides it wants to be a platformer. despite some jank in getting the hang of those mechanics (it can be unclear what you can/can't do at first) that generally works very well. certainly makes the set pieces feel a hell of a lot more organic than any dime a dozen tps with a helicopter turret sequence or whatever other nondistinctive gimmick the 7th gen found itself obsessed with

level design is pretty solid all around. more so than anything in the actual stages, my critiques aim at a few checkpoint placements. in particular, i have a personal message directed at the person who designed a certain lategame enemy gauntlet: what the fuck is wrong with you?

anyway, another thing that surprised me - more so than that gauntlet - was how gripping the narrative actually ended up being. cool backstory aside, syd and filena's chemistry is spot-on and the dub is fuckin' great. shoutout to steve blum especially for voicing syd's (keith ferguson, btw) main rival. i'll spare additional details and just say that the finale gets hype as fuck

if you've got a 7th gen system or a computer that can emulate it reliably enough, play this fucking game - preferably on hard mode - that way you'll be forced to utilize the combo mechanics instead of hiding behind cover constantly