Probably the best one in a while, as a game. I liked the new battles when I realised that the action bits are just to get an advantage (or blitz through weak enemies - always a good part of these games). The characters are good as well, particularly the new main character. He's not that different from Rean, who I ended up hating, but he's a lot better tuned in areas that the Sen series missed a lot: his voice actor is a lot better, he's a lot more self aware, he knows what's going on, he's effective and intelligent and he's got history with key players in the series. As a result you go from a guy just sliding around and winning at random to a character who sets out deliberate plans which then save your bacon. The game also has an ending!
On the flip side, the technical half of this game is absolutely dreadful. We've gone from close to 4K at a solid 60fps in the previous game to barely above 1080p at 30 and with some hideous loading times. I'm talking 15 seconds for some loads on a PS5 - including loads during story sections! On multiple occasions the game will spend ten seconds or more loading a scene with one character who says maybe three lines and then it spends another ten loading the scene it was just in. The actual writing is still as rote as it always was, with pet phrases appearing all over the place and the writer of a scene just getting mental blinkers and using the same weird phrasing for something multiple times in a row. I found the soundtrack a bit disappointing with a lot of repetition and only a few tracks I really liked. And that wasn't helped at all by the fact that it's just too long. I know it's a new character and a new setting but I don't think it needed over 120 hours to get there.
I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the next one but they really, really need a PS5 patch and an engine upgrade. I don't think it's acceptable in a videogame to have not only objects pop in over a second or so when a camera angle changes, but also lights and shadows. No joke, the camera will change to a dark area which will then slowly light up because of the street lights in the scene.
On the flip side, the technical half of this game is absolutely dreadful. We've gone from close to 4K at a solid 60fps in the previous game to barely above 1080p at 30 and with some hideous loading times. I'm talking 15 seconds for some loads on a PS5 - including loads during story sections! On multiple occasions the game will spend ten seconds or more loading a scene with one character who says maybe three lines and then it spends another ten loading the scene it was just in. The actual writing is still as rote as it always was, with pet phrases appearing all over the place and the writer of a scene just getting mental blinkers and using the same weird phrasing for something multiple times in a row. I found the soundtrack a bit disappointing with a lot of repetition and only a few tracks I really liked. And that wasn't helped at all by the fact that it's just too long. I know it's a new character and a new setting but I don't think it needed over 120 hours to get there.
I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the next one but they really, really need a PS5 patch and an engine upgrade. I don't think it's acceptable in a videogame to have not only objects pop in over a second or so when a camera angle changes, but also lights and shadows. No joke, the camera will change to a dark area which will then slowly light up because of the street lights in the scene.