Ya know, this game looked really cool after seeing some previews for
it. Then I read giantbomb.com's review of it and they only gave it a 3
out of 5. So that meant ok, but not good or great. Sorta dimmed my
enthusiasm a bit. It was like, yea this game might not be some perfect
sphere of nirvana like Half-Life 2 or anything, but it's an innovative
new game concept that really tried to breathe new life into the FPS
genre, so why not give it the benefit of the doubt? Who else would
think to take EA's bags of money and make a first person parkour game
that almost totally avoids combat? That is the creation of either some
madness, or some genius.
So it came out and I started playing
it. And frankly, I dunno why giantbomb gave it a 3/5. This game is
fucking fun. The sense of speed and adenaline from running over
rooftops while sliding under pipes and walljumping from scaffolding is
just amazing. That's what this game excels at, making you feel like an
amazing athlete, some sort of freak Olympian who gets their kicks from
stealing stuff and running away. The parkour is easily accomplished
with the controls and viewing it from first person makes it much more
immersive then a traditional third person camera would have.
The
entire game has a nice sorta Ipod-ish aesthetic. It seems that in the
city of the future, everything is clean and white, with some splashes
of other colors. If you've ever watched the turd of a film called
"Ultraviolet", then you'll recognize its look here. Very sterilized and
cold... even the plants in the city are painted white for some reason
heh. I suppose it's a new take on the futuristic city aesthetic though,
compared to a lot of stuff in scifi games that're just ripped off from
Blade Runner and Aliens.
So while I'm enjoying the game a lot,
there are a few caveats. First off, I started playing the game last
night. At the end of the session, I had completed the first four
levels. There are nine levels in all. Yes, this game is not built for
longevity. It is short. And no multiplayer, so all that's left is doing
speed runs in the completed levels to try to top your last time.
Obviously a factor if you're gonna go and buy this game for 60 bucks or
whatever.
The combat's also lacking, since this isn't a game
where you're meant to run and gun. You can use guns, but you have to
first disarm a cop. Then, you'll only be able to shoot until the
magazine runs out, you can't reload. So shooting it out isn't really
encouraged. Also, your character Faith can only take a few shots, so
you'll definitely need to run behind cover and wait for opportune
moments to strike. If you do work at it, you can shoot it out with a
SWAT team though. Just isolate one guy, disarm him, run to another guy,
shoot him, grab his gun, and repeat, while trying not to catch too much
lead. It's not ideal, and it's certainly much harder then just running
for any exit, but it's doable. The hand to hand combat works for the
weak police, they'll drop after 2 or 3 punches. But the SWAT guys in
armor will just push you away, so hand to hand doesn't work on them.
All in all, if you're looking for some sorta Matrix-style martial arts
combat to match the game's parkour gameplay, you won't find it here.
Oh,
and yea... the game cutscenes do resemble the Esurance cartoon
commercials. But honestly... I always liked those commercials. Erin
Esurance was hot. So that's not really a complaint for me.
