The game does some things right yet at the same time the extreme difficulty and no online co-op ruins the experience
The story is both good and pretty generic you are called the Dish washer and you wake up after being killed and you don't understand why you are still alive (since your heart is gone) and the world has been ruled by cyborgs and basically society has conformed and there is nothing unique in the world (yes its one of those don't conform to society be unique but these "conformity is bad" games seem to be more mainstreamed now and seem to be a little hypocritical (not that I don't agree with the message)...but anyway
GAMEPLAY
The game is a fast paced 2-D beat'em up with a decent length single player campaign and a ton of arcade levels and a challenge mode also the controls are pretty tight you can wall jump and pull off some nice combos also you have a decent arsenal of weapons like duel cleavers,uzi and shotgun combo, and the shadow sword which is one of the most unique weapon I have used in a long time the sword is a basic samurai sword yet if you hold the left trigger you have a special infinite shadow move it basically transports you all over the level you can move from spot to spot instantly and you are invincible and use it as long as you want it is cooler than it sounds and makes you feel like you have control of the battlefield..yet you seriously don't also there is a cool magic element to it but honestly there is nothing different about them there are 4 magical attacks and they all are green and basically each fire in a different direction
This brings it to my next topic the enemies and I have to say they are pretty cheap imagine all the cheap enemies from every game you played...ok now put them in this game and there you go the game is very difficult because the enemies will always get some type of cheap shot on you like either while they die they explode or one of my favorites a spec-ops character who grapple the ceiling and throw a grenade that has a massive explode radius and massive damage invisible enemies jet pack enemies and even the normal fodder enemies have some sort of challenge since there melee attack is powerful also every enemy always has a counter attack for you for example if you are far away they shoot you and when you get close they beat the crap out of you another reason the game is difficult is you don't have a block button..yes let me say that again there isn't a block button so it makes the game difficult you do have the shadow sword to dodge things but then you can't hit the enemies
Another thing is the health regaining ability this also makes the game difficult when you damage the enemies decent enough they become stunned and you have to hit a certain button to finish them off (either X or Y) and when you hit the correct button they drop both health and magic yet if you hit the wrong button (which happens more than you think in the heat of battle) you either get nothing or maybe a little health which to me is a bad idea
Another thing is you have 4 heart pieces that is your "lives" once you die four times game over and even then when you die and have a piece of heart left you have to redo the whole room that you fought in instead of continue from when you die there is a semi-cool upgrade system where all enemies drop coins and you use them when you find these little robots scattered throughout each level and you can upgrade your health, magic, buy health items, upgrade your weapons, and buy a whole heart yet everything is so expensive that it will take awhile also to access your inventory you actually have to pause the game and for this type of game breaks the flow or combos you perform
Finally the one thing I don't understand is you can play the single player campaign with another player but not online you need another controller and someone to sit next to you yet the arcade mode (a bunch of levels with certain challenges) you can play online and it doesn't make sense the story mode would be perfect for online Co-op
GRAPHICS
The graphics are pretty solid it has a unique artistic direction also the action is fast and fluid and there is rarely ever a slow down you can perform awesome combos with a decent number of enemies and once again the game doesn't even shudder and the menu system looks pretty good plus the cutscenes are in the form of a comic strip and it is presented very nicely yet some level designs are very bland and easy to get lost in since every corner looks the same
AUDIO
The sound is nothing special the enemies sound nice and there really isn't a clang with the swords that you would like and the music isn't that bad
PRO'S
Awesome action, decent graphics, has a ton of content, unique enemies, semi-decent story in the beginning , the shadow sword, for a 2-D game there is allot of moves to perform, arcade mode can be played online, decent music
CON'S
No block button, cheap hits, cheap enemies, when played longer the story seems to go down, story mode isn't playable online, some ridiculous boss battles, some level backgrounds are very similar, the specific button hitting to get health and magic is very annoying
OVERALL
Overall the game is pretty good its just too hard from stupid reasons like no blocking and specific button commands all in all there is allot of content in this game and when you finally beat the game on a harder difficulty (which is almost impossible) gives you a nice sense of accomplishment