Before you go on, I came back to edit my review and rating. I originally rated 2 stars. After beating the game, I'm changing the rating to 1 star. Because you have to pay for a f---ing DLC to get the end of the game. NO THANKS.
I cannot tell you how many times I played Dead Space and all it's sequels. I heard the same folks were making this game. I was excited! But I was broke, so I decided to wait. And then, lo and behold, it's free as monthly PSN game in Oct, 2023. Less than a year after it came out. Ruh-roh...
BUT this game is not Dead Space.
And there's your blurb, folks. This game is not Dead Space because it's bad, and Dead Space was good.
But seriously. If you haven't seen the negative reviews, check em out, they're pretty accurate.
I'm no slouch at "twitch" games - fast response type things like any Soulsborne-like game - and yet I find myself just scratching my head in combat. When there is any.
The dodge system is so weird - it's stick-based on console - so you have to hold your stick left/right and you dodge. Yay! You did it! Only that stick is also what you use to aim/look with so your camera is always at a weird angle, and woops, now the character is in a corner, dying, and you're sitting at home, literally, twiddling your stick.
The weapon change mechanic is bad. Assigned to a weird button that makes you scroll to the weapon you want. Doesn't sound bad, right? They also make you confirm your selection and then force you through an animation of switching modules. Cuz all your weapons fire off the same base. For... Reasons. (It's kinda Dead Space-y tech, but worse.)
Healing is a chore. Others have said it - you can NOT heal during a fight. The animation for it is about 15 or 20 seconds long. For... Reasons.
Then there's the actual gameplay - I have spent more time crawling through ducts, and shimmying through cracks than I have anything else. Except for cut scenes. Dead Space started to suffer from this as well, but they didn't go this hard.
And that gets me to the main crux of my complaint about this game: It. Is. Slow.
Everything takes forever. Crouching has an over-elaborate animation; walking is mind numbing, and running is mind numbing but faster (kinda), and takes a full 1.5 seconds to wind up to that tortoise pace. If the game weren't made up mostly of crawling and shimmying, it wouldn't be so bad, but that's the bulk of the exploration.
And frankly, I blame Josh Duhmel for this part, but oh my f---ing god, the dude makes all of 2 grunting noises for literally every effort the character makes.
Picture it, the pilot is crawling through a vent (which takes you 2 minutes to do) and you have a grown man in your headphones going "Huhhh, hnng. Huhhh, hnng. Huhhh, hnng. Huhh, hnng." Get the idea? The character is hit you get either a "Huhhh," or a "Hngg" - and I dk t mean they're similar. This is them cheaping out on their "big name" talent. No one wanted Duhmel in this. No one. No one asked for him.
I want, SO badly to like this game. But there's even more bad to it that I didn't even get into (hello death animations leading to a loading screen for the loading screen - seriously, I would die, and the screen would be black with a red tinge for a solid minute before the loading screen comes.
So, the fact that is free less than a year after it came out? That should have been a red flag.
And then there's the "plot...."
I cannot tell you how many times I played Dead Space and all it's sequels. I heard the same folks were making this game. I was excited! But I was broke, so I decided to wait. And then, lo and behold, it's free as monthly PSN game in Oct, 2023. Less than a year after it came out. Ruh-roh...
BUT this game is not Dead Space.
And there's your blurb, folks. This game is not Dead Space because it's bad, and Dead Space was good.
But seriously. If you haven't seen the negative reviews, check em out, they're pretty accurate.
I'm no slouch at "twitch" games - fast response type things like any Soulsborne-like game - and yet I find myself just scratching my head in combat. When there is any.
The dodge system is so weird - it's stick-based on console - so you have to hold your stick left/right and you dodge. Yay! You did it! Only that stick is also what you use to aim/look with so your camera is always at a weird angle, and woops, now the character is in a corner, dying, and you're sitting at home, literally, twiddling your stick.
The weapon change mechanic is bad. Assigned to a weird button that makes you scroll to the weapon you want. Doesn't sound bad, right? They also make you confirm your selection and then force you through an animation of switching modules. Cuz all your weapons fire off the same base. For... Reasons. (It's kinda Dead Space-y tech, but worse.)
Healing is a chore. Others have said it - you can NOT heal during a fight. The animation for it is about 15 or 20 seconds long. For... Reasons.
Then there's the actual gameplay - I have spent more time crawling through ducts, and shimmying through cracks than I have anything else. Except for cut scenes. Dead Space started to suffer from this as well, but they didn't go this hard.
And that gets me to the main crux of my complaint about this game: It. Is. Slow.
Everything takes forever. Crouching has an over-elaborate animation; walking is mind numbing, and running is mind numbing but faster (kinda), and takes a full 1.5 seconds to wind up to that tortoise pace. If the game weren't made up mostly of crawling and shimmying, it wouldn't be so bad, but that's the bulk of the exploration.
And frankly, I blame Josh Duhmel for this part, but oh my f---ing god, the dude makes all of 2 grunting noises for literally every effort the character makes.
Picture it, the pilot is crawling through a vent (which takes you 2 minutes to do) and you have a grown man in your headphones going "Huhhh, hnng. Huhhh, hnng. Huhhh, hnng. Huhh, hnng." Get the idea? The character is hit you get either a "Huhhh," or a "Hngg" - and I dk t mean they're similar. This is them cheaping out on their "big name" talent. No one wanted Duhmel in this. No one. No one asked for him.
I want, SO badly to like this game. But there's even more bad to it that I didn't even get into (hello death animations leading to a loading screen for the loading screen - seriously, I would die, and the screen would be black with a red tinge for a solid minute before the loading screen comes.
So, the fact that is free less than a year after it came out? That should have been a red flag.
And then there's the "plot...."