I didn't see this one coming: bioshock meets modern warfare with a touch of dead space.
When my friend told me he had purchased it, I felt a little sad. I thought he was going to buy red dead and I was looking forward to playing it with him online. But he is a FPS aficionado, so he bought this one instead, at FULL retail price. Nobody was talking about this game. I thought to myself "what a waste of money". Boy, was I wrong.
Like I said, I haven't played the game long enough to discuss all the details, but I'd like to tell you what I thought of it so far.
Graphics: It doesn't look as sharp as other games of this generation, and since the major inspiration for this one is undoubtedly "Bioshock", I believe this game is much darker than 2k's masterpiece, which translates to an overall lesser experience, eye-candy wise, but awe-inspiring nonetheless. Besides, it relies more on horror than anything else, kinda like dead space, so the darker tones and colors do bring a feeling of desolation and anxiety all too fitting. Having said that, let's just put it like this: it looks good enough. Plus, as I've read somewhere, the unreal engine, which was used in this game, is starting to show its age, and judging from splinter cell: conviction, I believe that to be true.
Story: For the first half hour I was playing it, I wasn't impressed. It just felt and looked so much like Bioshock. The overabundance of audio logs and written notes, messages, and videos were all too familiar. There is this little history contextualization in the beginning, then an explosion, then you are stuck on an island in the middle of the pacific called Katorga-12. The Russian had been tampering in the 50's with a new element that led to the development of things like time traveling and such. But things go wrong and hello time-traveling zombies! So you actually travel through time, right from the beginning. It all has to do with the "singularity", apparently a place full of machines/ time machines?, I haven't figured it out yet. I haven't played long enough to get the bioshock-like powers of time manipulation, but I will get to it soon. I've gathered e-99, the name of the element, but no power yet. Just guns. Big as* guns. And that's when we get to game play.
Game play: No powers yet, but the gun play is really satisfying. That is where the similarities with Bioshock should start to fade away. You shoot monsters in the face. Fast moving zombie-like monsters. At times, though, it feels like they hadn't decided which game they would really try to make, so you have got modern warfare moments like when you meet up with the rest of your crew (one guy) and fight the horde of monsters together only to get to a hut full of ammo where you will fight the Russian military using rifles, shotguns and sniper rifles. You run with your buddy as in co-op, but you leave him alone because you need to hear an audio log. While you listen to it, he is just waiting there. Then you go near him and it's "run for your life" as if a helicopter was hovering around and you had to jump onto it, escaping just in the nick of time under heavy fire. It is amusing to see how the game play changes drastically from fighting zombie to fighting human. Through the zombie hunting (you) sections, the ammo is never scarce, but the pistol doesn't hold that much of it, leading to a moment when you will run out and a message, "out of ammo", will be your new reticule. Few seconds later you will find a rifle, plenty of ammo, and the zombies become paper, easy to shred. Then a shotgun, making it even easier. Ammo, lots of it and a sniper rifle. When the military attack, you understand the reason for all of that. So they stripe you of your wepons, you have another modern warfare moment running away from the bad guys, and it's back to fighting the monsters with a pistol. That is where I am now. Fighting time-traveling monsters with a pistol, and running out of ammo. Did I mention the rip off of the dead space weapon upgrade booth? No? I thought I did...
(This change of pace is actually welcome, it keeps things fresh and nice all the way).
Sound: Fluctuates from dead space-like scaring sound of zombies nearby (very effective) to cheesy pointless music; but overall it is very good. The monsters do scare, the silence at times does bring a unique feel of desolation, the sound of the rain is light and in the distance, the explosions are ok.
Presentation: The game takes itself too seriously, so you gotta laugh sometimes. Even the videos you find scattered around in projectors are laughable. You could never in a million years imagine the Russian military producing such a bioshock-inspired video. Cartoons showing the evil America trying to control the east are really funny. The way they infantilize the whole thing, it is really good; but no connection whatsoever with reality. Stalin would get his zombie as* out of his tomb and kill the developers if he ever heard about it. And, judging by the first contact you have with the game, the videos contextualizing you historically, it just surprises you with the level of nonsense it can reach. It is simply silly. Then again, time traveling: you can never take it too seriously, even if you try very, very hard.
Well, to sum up, if you can have a laugh with a scare and still enjoy yourself, if immersion was always something more connected to interesting game play than intelligent storytelling for you, I believe you will have a blast. Otherwise, stay clear of it. I don't know about the multiplayer yet, and the powers are only a prospect this far on the game play, so don't take my rate into consideration just yet. As for me, I feel I am already hooked. I'm probably buying it this week. Then I can update my review.