A fun time through, discovering the mysteries at hand and discovering how this shaped those within the zone. My save file had about 18 hours after visiting pretty much every point of interest on every map though the game can be beaten much much quicker if you were to focus the primary ending (There's an achievement for beating it in under 5).

I think the combat will be what makes or breaks this game for you, its serviceable for this kind of game. Stealth is extremely limited having a skill tree dedicated to it and a weapon category but due to how hiding is only really viable in tall grass it felt limited where I could make use of it. As such I just ended up avoiding stealth and going out guns blazing.

I played on the recommended difficulty, the second highest, and the play-style I found myself adopting was one of heavy precision shooting. The revolver ended up being my most used weapon and most fights boiled down to me trying to head-shot every enemy before it became a problem. Part of this comes from how powerful ranged enemies are, doing a good percent of my health even when stacking painkillers.

Its this same reason I felt pushed away from melee eventually not even binding a weapon slot to it, most enemies close up are deadly and a shotgun works better. Getting into a melee fight always felt dangerous due to how much enemies hitting you built heart rate making melee combat even harder. Throw the ranged enemies on top and it felt best avoided on the recommended difficulty.

Though despite all that, I enjoyed the game. Exploring the English country side and seeing how it was shaped by this disaster was interesting enough for me. And once I landed on my playstyle I felt comfortable getting through longer combat sections without difficulty. If you are looking for a first person narrative shooter, with an emphasis on narrative then I think you will find something here for you to enjoy.

Not many other games deliver on the experience of managing to make you feel like a giant unkillable god among mortal men, whilst also feeling incredibly out of your depth with every engagement requiring your full attention else you add to the Tyranid swarm.

An engaging is topped with surprisingly fun PvP and repayable missions with some light progression mean you will more than your moneys worth.