What is this game? Well, it is every playstation game:
Third Person action game, open world, basic boring stealth elements, a bow that instantly kills enemies if you headshot them, basic good enough story, basic good enough combat and a big budget presentation.
It is an ok game. The combat is what entertained me the most during my time with the game. It not only feels cool, but looks cool. Finishing enemies is so satisfying because the animations are so stylish and feel good to control. This is why the boss fights are the best part of the game. They require you to learn their moveset and actually beat them with your reflexes and skill (like how boss fights are supposed to), instead of having cheap tactics available like the smoke bomb and so on. The biggest problem with the combat are the enemies and the posture system. The enemy variety is LOW. You'll be fighting the same enemy types over and over again and to defeat them you need to use thee corresponding posture. Truthfully, you don't need to use it, but if you dont, it feels artificially harder to break the enemy's guard, turning the combat into rock paper scissors or relying on cheap tactics to kill them in a more efficient, but boring, manner.
None of the open world activities are particularly compelling. It's just go here, press this button, done. Go to the next one. The world is GORGEOUS and I mean it. However, I see no reason for this game to be an open world. I think resources could have been better spent elsewhere.... more enemy types and boss fights for example.
The story is ok and nothing more. It gets cool near the end but it is never satisfying enough. The beginning is especially dreadful and the story is SO predictable at times. It is easy to guess what's gonna happen between the characters from the moment you meet them. That one? WIll betray you. The other one? Will die. This one? You will have a fallout with said character. And so on.
The presentation can be really good at times, even though it is clear that it is lower budget than a lot of other sony exclusives. Certain animations, certain textures, how the cutscenes are laid out sometimes. It is obvious, but I do not mean this as an insult. Quite the opposite. Most games nowadays have clearly overinflated budgets and I think this is more and enough. Not everything has to look as good as the latest spider-man game, which did not look that much better than the first one and this game does not look that much worse. Art direction wins over big budget. That has been proven time and time again.
There is nothing terribly wrong with this game, but there's also nothing great about it. It exists. It functions and it can be fun. Really fun sometimes. It is at is best when it is linear and focused on its missions. It just makes me wish they had focused their time on things that are not open world crap. More enemy variety, more mission types and objectives, better platforming challenges. Because this people have done it before.
If you like PS First party games, you will love this game. If you like AC you will like this game. If you're interested in other types of games and are getting a bit tired of PS Exclusive formula, like me, you will probably not enjoy this game as much, I still gave it a chance because of the team behind it and while I don't think it is bad, it was not as good as I wanted it to be. It is ok and that's ok.
Third Person action game, open world, basic boring stealth elements, a bow that instantly kills enemies if you headshot them, basic good enough story, basic good enough combat and a big budget presentation.
It is an ok game. The combat is what entertained me the most during my time with the game. It not only feels cool, but looks cool. Finishing enemies is so satisfying because the animations are so stylish and feel good to control. This is why the boss fights are the best part of the game. They require you to learn their moveset and actually beat them with your reflexes and skill (like how boss fights are supposed to), instead of having cheap tactics available like the smoke bomb and so on. The biggest problem with the combat are the enemies and the posture system. The enemy variety is LOW. You'll be fighting the same enemy types over and over again and to defeat them you need to use thee corresponding posture. Truthfully, you don't need to use it, but if you dont, it feels artificially harder to break the enemy's guard, turning the combat into rock paper scissors or relying on cheap tactics to kill them in a more efficient, but boring, manner.
None of the open world activities are particularly compelling. It's just go here, press this button, done. Go to the next one. The world is GORGEOUS and I mean it. However, I see no reason for this game to be an open world. I think resources could have been better spent elsewhere.... more enemy types and boss fights for example.
The story is ok and nothing more. It gets cool near the end but it is never satisfying enough. The beginning is especially dreadful and the story is SO predictable at times. It is easy to guess what's gonna happen between the characters from the moment you meet them. That one? WIll betray you. The other one? Will die. This one? You will have a fallout with said character. And so on.
The presentation can be really good at times, even though it is clear that it is lower budget than a lot of other sony exclusives. Certain animations, certain textures, how the cutscenes are laid out sometimes. It is obvious, but I do not mean this as an insult. Quite the opposite. Most games nowadays have clearly overinflated budgets and I think this is more and enough. Not everything has to look as good as the latest spider-man game, which did not look that much better than the first one and this game does not look that much worse. Art direction wins over big budget. That has been proven time and time again.
There is nothing terribly wrong with this game, but there's also nothing great about it. It exists. It functions and it can be fun. Really fun sometimes. It is at is best when it is linear and focused on its missions. It just makes me wish they had focused their time on things that are not open world crap. More enemy variety, more mission types and objectives, better platforming challenges. Because this people have done it before.
If you like PS First party games, you will love this game. If you like AC you will like this game. If you're interested in other types of games and are getting a bit tired of PS Exclusive formula, like me, you will probably not enjoy this game as much, I still gave it a chance because of the team behind it and while I don't think it is bad, it was not as good as I wanted it to be. It is ok and that's ok.