The game has only the framework of a narrative to keep the player moving from scene to scene. The characters are all so dreadfully bland, with the worst offender being the protagonist himself - Gabriel. He rarely says anything, and when he does you'd wish he hadn't. I've never heard a voice actor sound this uninterested in their own work before.
The game starts strong with regular boss fights and new scenery for each level, but at the back of my mind I kept wondering "how long are they gonna keep this variety up before it starts just recycling what's already been used?" The answer is: not long at all. The game is strong for the first couple hours, and quickly descends into tedium from there as the levels start to blend together visually and the same three enemies make up all the combat encounters. Online sources say the same is 18 hours long, which is actually criminal. You're getting your money's worth, I guess, but that is far beyond what a game of this scale should be. There's a reason all the old God of Wars (the games this is clearly influenced by) are all done in 5-8 hours.
The game feel here is also not great. The combat has some good ideas - I like the crystal system that makes you choose between healing and dealing extra damage - but it just feels bad to play. And no amount of good ideas can save a game that just isn't fun to control. If it wasn't clear, I didn't finish this one. It became too tedious and eventually at one point the plot contrived me to have to go and collect some keys or something for the dozenth time and I gave up bothering.
The game starts strong with regular boss fights and new scenery for each level, but at the back of my mind I kept wondering "how long are they gonna keep this variety up before it starts just recycling what's already been used?" The answer is: not long at all. The game is strong for the first couple hours, and quickly descends into tedium from there as the levels start to blend together visually and the same three enemies make up all the combat encounters. Online sources say the same is 18 hours long, which is actually criminal. You're getting your money's worth, I guess, but that is far beyond what a game of this scale should be. There's a reason all the old God of Wars (the games this is clearly influenced by) are all done in 5-8 hours.
The game feel here is also not great. The combat has some good ideas - I like the crystal system that makes you choose between healing and dealing extra damage - but it just feels bad to play. And no amount of good ideas can save a game that just isn't fun to control. If it wasn't clear, I didn't finish this one. It became too tedious and eventually at one point the plot contrived me to have to go and collect some keys or something for the dozenth time and I gave up bothering.