It's good, but it's definitely worse than the original.

Primary reason for it being: the level design.

The level design is noticeably worse (or just "different", depending on who you ask).
In comparison to the original there are waaaaay too many big open areas in majority of the levels. And sadly this negatively affects the gameplay in a major way.

So yeah, the level starts:

On the first few attempts, you'll get killed from off screen because you don't know enemy locations. Then you'll die some more because there's a million windows everywhere.
Okay, now you know where the enemies are and where the windows are. Well, the problem is, because these open areas are so big it's hard to "get onto an enemy". So unless you want to suffer by trying a dozen different strategies to approach and melee (and then find out that they don't work), you'll suffer because your gameplay will become:

See an enemy
Realize it's too far away for melee
Find the nearest corner/door and strafe in and out/around it until the enemy notices and runs to you
Repeat

which takes forever and isn't satisfying.

Quickly you'll realize that the solution is... just use melee as little as possible. Stick to guns for 90% of the encounters and basically glue your pinky to shift and you're good to go, for real.
Well, the issue with that is the fact that melee combat is the most satisfying part of the game, the gun play is not trash but it's definitely miles behind melee. There's a good variety of melee weapons (although i think less than in the original) and there's many different kill "animations".

So yeah, you're "forced" to use guns and that makes the gameplay feel worse. In the original i almost never felt the need to use guns.

And yes don't get me wrong, dying and trying is at the core of the game and it can be fun. But dying is just not fun when the gameplay consists of getting killed off screen and strafing left and right around a corner/door to get 1 enemy to chase you. You can clear all the levels with melee only but at times it'll be absolutely infuriating.

When it comes to the story, it is too convoluted for my taste. It is intriguing but either i'm too retarded or it's actually too hard to follow what's going on. In comparison to the first one which was also intriguing and a bit hard to follow at times, in this one you'll also constantly switch between plethora of characters which have different story lines and on top of that you'll be thrown around different time periods between 1985-1991. So having played through this game twice i still have no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue as to what happened, while the first one i think i kinda understood.


I've had a similar mildly negative opinion the first time i've played this game on release but having replayed both the original and this one back to back, it has definitely been greatly amplified (although i've played the game on hard this time around so that might've made me feel worse about the game).

Most of the levels in the original would consist of one house with multiple small rooms. You'd get in, murder everyone and get out in a span of 3 seconds and then you'd go to the next room. That felt extremely satisfying. This one in comparison just feels like a slog at times.

Nevertheless this is still worth playing, it's not a miserable experience the whole way through, there are sections which are as good as the original, just don't expect it to be good throughout the whole game, as was the original.

The soundtrack is really dope though, just like in the original and there's many more songs, so that's very nice.

It's good, but it's definitely worse than the original. Primary reason for it being: the level design. The level design is noticeably worse (or just "different", depending on who you ask). In comparison to the original there are waaaaay too many big open areas in majority of the levels. And sadly this negatively affects the gameplay in a major way. So yeah, the level starts: On the first few attempts, you'll get killed from off screen because you don't know enemy locations. Then you'll die some more because there's a million windows everywhere. Okay, now you know where the enemies are and where the windows are. Well, the problem is, because these open areas are so big it's hard to "get onto an enemy". So unless you want to suffer by trying a dozen different strategies to approach and melee (and then find out that they don't work), you'll suffer because your gameplay will become: See an enemy Realize it's too far away for melee Find the nearest corner/door and strafe in and out/around it until the enemy notices and runs to you Repeat which takes forever and isn't satisfying. Quickly you'll realize that the solution is... just use melee as little as possible. Stick to guns for 90% of the encounters and basically glue your pinky to shift and you're good to go, for real. Well, the issue with that is the fact that melee combat is the most satisfying part of the game, the gun play is not trash but it's definitely miles behind melee. There's a good variety of melee weapons (although i think less than in the original) and there's many different kill "animations". So yeah, you're "forced" to use guns and that makes the gameplay feel worse. In the original i almost never felt the need to use guns. And yes don't get me wrong, dying and trying is at the core of the game and it can be fun. But dying is just not fun when the gameplay consists of getting killed off screen and strafing left and right around a corner/door to get 1 enemy to chase you. You [b]can[/b] clear all the levels with melee only but at times it'll be absolutely infuriating. When it comes to the story, it is too convoluted for my taste. It is intriguing but either i'm too retarded or it's actually too hard to follow what's going on. In comparison to the first one which was also intriguing and a bit hard to follow at times, in this one you'll also constantly switch between plethora of characters which have different story lines and on top of that you'll be thrown around different time periods between 1985-1991. So having played through this game twice i still have no fucking clue as to what happened, while the first one i think i kinda understood. I've had a similar mildly negative opinion the first time i've played this game on release but having replayed both the original and this one back to back, it has definitely been greatly amplified (although i've played the game on hard this time around so that might've made me feel worse about the game). Most of the levels in the original would consist of one house with multiple small rooms. You'd get in, murder everyone and get out in a span of 3 seconds and then you'd go to the next room. That felt extremely satisfying. This one in comparison just feels like a slog at times. Nevertheless this [b]is[/b] still worth playing, it's not a miserable experience the whole way through, there are sections which are as good as the original, just don't expect it to be good throughout the whole game, as was the original. The soundtrack is really dope though, just like in the original and there's many more songs, so that's very nice.