Man I remember not really feeling the game over the years, but only now have I realized none of this really... meant anything to me.

I'm gonna be blunt, I don't think Yager Development really had an idea as to what they wanted to make here until the last minute of development time. I have absolutely no concrete evidence for this, but between the stretch of development period starting in 07 and releasing in 2012, the random assortment of influences ranging from Heart Of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Deer Hunter, and stuff like Tower Of Babel and psycho-horror having uneven presence, and the random assortment of thematic elements bouncing between anti-war, the hunger and cyclical downfall of man for violence, the effects of PTSD - which granted, at least manages to stay a bit consistent once it does pop up - thereby having these revelations come out with little fanfare whenever it's demanded instead of organically being planted or earned, it's hard to really like, get an idea as to what one should even dissect from this.

In fact, I'd argue the game doesn't even become infamous for its heavy-handed nature until around Chapter 5, being subtle for the most part beforehand with unfunny albeit disconnected and off-centered dialog between Lugo, Martin, and Adams, outside the obnoxious eyeroll that is Jimi Hendrix's Star-Spangled Banner guitar cover being played in the menu with the upside down American flag being shown. It isn't until that specific chapter where things just... sorta unravel in weird directions. Despite the numerous decisions and choices presented upon you, none of them really carry the weight they're supposed cause they still reach the same endgoal and berating of "ooooo why did you do thaaaaaat". I don't mind the heavy-handed beatdown of the themes or even, lately, the illusion of choice within gaming, but SOTL doesn't really feel deep or impactful enough to justify the former, and the latter fails since the subtext and wrap-around implication of what they're supposed to represent don't amount to much, if at all. The Trojan Horse Gameplay, as a counter-argument, crumbles apart since that's literally what you're doing the entire time as well, feeling as if can't let the player stop and take a rest, soaking up what has happened within the story. It's probably why gunfights happen immediately following up these brief pauses and story moments, something even COD games during this time at least sort of managed. One could argue that, because of the way the narrative plays out, it has to have this many encounters in order to justify it, which to me doesn't sit right at all since there's an abundant amount of loading screens that read like a pathetic attempt at garnering introspection, almost as if Yager just wanted to make sure the audience knows what to feel. The game's linear as-is anyway, what's to stop them from including a chapter or two who's entire motif is just walking, building up all these identifiable elements instead of just keeping them shallow?

Actually, on that note, the gameplay is something I've rarely see anyone talk about just how it actually functions, getting pined as "generic" before one moves on to praise or insult criticizes the rest of the package. It actually has some ideas to set itself apart but not enough application to really do so. Playing this on Hard meant I had to actually use commands for Lugo and Adams to take care of enemies, as well as pop off grenades or shoot something in order for sand to crop up and appear. Both are neat systems (even if the former is just an aggressive streamline of mechanics and encounters you'd see from tactical shooters like Rainbow Six and SWAT4), though unfortunately enemy behavior made it so that usually funnel between short-mid range within quasi-open circles or linear corridors, which means you'll rarely find the ample time to shoot off glass or vents in order to let sand sweep up and incapacitate the enemies. The friendly AI is also very, very mundane, half the time I opted to just shoot my targeted enemy since the other two, even when having plenty of time to do so, don't ever knock them out. As for how Hard itself works, it opts for that boring damage output modifyer approach, get a grenade near you and you're dead no matter what, as well as only taking 3-4 bullets before you're grey-zoned out and have to backpedal between the numerous amount of cover that happen to be nearby. Even then, it doesn't particularly get bothersome until that halfway point, where opponents ramp up and both positioning and the type of gun you use start to matter more... which basically amounts to "shotguns are no longer a viable option" and having to fall back on rifles and pistols, which was what I was already doing to begin with. The guns sound adequate enough, though some like the machine guns and SMGs need more oomph to them, and despite what the game will warn you, you're rarely gonna find a situation in where your ammo pool isn't gonna be enough to carry you through. Do wish the checkpoint system was better in some regard, each time I thought there was enough room for it to activate, it never did, and it also never saves after a choice was made, meaning I had to see the same scene with Chapter 7's choice that precedes the firefight multiple times due to deaths. Blech.

The presentation, I'm surprised, doesn't get mentioned much either even though I have some serious problems with it. Perhaps it's the PC port being Not Good, but the shadow rendering is bad, often times creating this annoying aliased, jaggy look on the character models. I also just, flat-out despise how many effects are being used, bloom especially since it leads into those "towards the light!" moments that gets reused more times than necessary. Combine that with the dull, sepia-like color tone covering up some actually nicely colored and lighted areas and setpieces, and it just hurts the look. The licensed soundtrack's pretty good, but that's mainly cause I already liked the licensed artists like Black Angels, aforementioned Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Mogwai, and Alice In Chains to name a few, but hey, at least they managed to get the juxtaposition and tone-setting right considering psych/post-rock and grunge music's backstories. The actual soundtrack though, I doubt I'm actually gonna remember by the time the game leaves my headspace.

So with all these problems, why in the hell did I give it a 2/5? Mainly cause I don't find like, anything actually offensive about it. I ragged on Yager and made that egregious claim way earlier, but I also don't think they really attempted to try and well, BE any smarter than others, that's just the runoff effect of the hyperzealous fans that aren't even that commonplace now. Plus, some of the moments sprinkled across did at least work, I mentioned the first half but I also like Chapter 10 and 12 too. Really, I like all the quiet, bittersweet moments in general, it's some of the very few times it hones in on what it set out to achieve in its messy, messy ventures. Not to mention, compared to other games that get mocked and ridiculed for being, and I say this as someone that abstains from saying this nowadays, "pseudointellectual" cringe, it's nowhere near as bad as those despite whatever the detractors say, though I don't particularly blame them to some degree since again, this doesn't really have a set idea as to what it wants to do.

All that said, I do find the amount of people that try really, really hard to unravel some supposed double standard people have with this by using nonequivalent examples instead of the easy target of Metal Gear or even an out-there yet fundamentally similar target like Far Cry, where 3 came out the same year even, really funny. Yea bro, call out the people trying to act smart by doing the same action, just on the opposite end, that'll show them... oh shit now I'm doing that, fuck!