The game feels a bit better than "Being railroaded through a 14th century The Last of Us riff" makes it out to be, but even at a measly 11 hours it was such a slog that I couldn't see it through.
It teases you with gorgeous, bleak, gothic set pieces that you want to explore, and an intriguing dark fantasy story with a solid ground in history.
But then crushes you with the realization that none of the set pieces are exploreable, and in fact have a giant honking red line through them that you must follow. And that story? You'll have to get through hours of some of the worst designed stealth sections in video game history to see it.
At one point in the middle of the game, you go through an escape mission where an NPC tells you every 👏 goddamn👏 thing👏 you need to do - when to run and when to hide, what buttons to push, how to deal with enemies - the whole thing. This is, once again, not a tutorial, it's a level good 4 hours into the game.
It is such an early 2010s feeling game in everything but graphics, that I'm honestly shocked that it was released in 2019. This style of cinematic adventure "game" that completely neglects to develop its game elements should have stayed in that era, but somehow it's still chugging along.
It teases you with gorgeous, bleak, gothic set pieces that you want to explore, and an intriguing dark fantasy story with a solid ground in history.
But then crushes you with the realization that none of the set pieces are exploreable, and in fact have a giant honking red line through them that you must follow. And that story? You'll have to get through hours of some of the worst designed stealth sections in video game history to see it.
At one point in the middle of the game, you go through an escape mission where an NPC tells you every 👏 goddamn👏 thing👏 you need to do - when to run and when to hide, what buttons to push, how to deal with enemies - the whole thing. This is, once again, not a tutorial, it's a level good 4 hours into the game.
It is such an early 2010s feeling game in everything but graphics, that I'm honestly shocked that it was released in 2019. This style of cinematic adventure "game" that completely neglects to develop its game elements should have stayed in that era, but somehow it's still chugging along.