Recent reviews by messanoir

This is my first review on here, so my apologies if I get a bit wordy. I will be making the review spoiler free, so while I may comment on the story overall, I will try not to get into specifics. Also, it should be noted that I did receive the game for no additional cost with the purchase of my Video Card.

So, let's get this out of the way, would I recommend the game? Yes...but I can't say in good conscience at it's current price. Now let's get to the fun part, the why's and whatsit's of my reasoning (Again sorry, I will be getting wordy and probably a bit pedantic at times.)

The good:

Visually, the game is great. While I played through the game on high settings with ray tracing off, I did play a bit with ray tracing on (and the game ran fine, albeit at a lower frame-rate, around 40-45fps instead of the normal 80-90fps for me at high) Animations were smooth, transitions between cut-scene and game-play were very smooth the majority of the time.
Lighting, color grading, shadow work, all was done very well, and definitely gives the game a cinematic look to it, even during the game-play sections.

Story: It was actually pretty good. I'll admit I went into it thinking "It's basically an homage to the Dead Space series, so I am pretty sure how the story will go"...and while I wasn't totally wrong, I was pleasantly surprised at how the story was told.
It was well enough written, and the flow and pacing was such that it could have been written by the original Dead Space writers. Overall, it made for a good Sci-Fi story.

Audio - What can I say, they nailed it. Getting the Skywalker Studio involved was the best idea. Not only does it set the atmosphere of the various parts of the story, but it transitions between the different moods of the game perfectly. You could take out the dialog, and the music and ambient audio would be fine for telling the story.

Combat: The combat, while a bit simplistic, is fluid and natural for the most part, and doesn't distract too much or break the immersion of the game. The selection of weapons is nice, each one being different enough to be interesting, and the melee weapon has a nice impact and weight to it.

Overall Game-play: Actually, the game played really well. I had fun with it, the story was engaging and paced really well, and while the actual completion time for the game may be shorter than some (I completed the game in about 18 hours, I've seen some do less) I felt that it did a great job at telling it's story.

But...

The Bad:

Visually: OK, so time to be pedantic. The main thing that would pull me out of the story, lessening the immersion, were the visual "bugs". The main ones being the various items and objects I came across that didn't have any or just improper collision.
I would, let's say, break some glass for items, maybe break open a box or two, and you get the sounds and effects you expect, then I turn around and hit a table, or rock, or a cabinet, or even some monster bodies...and my weapon passes right through them without a noise or visual effect. There were even a few occasions where swinging my weapon would cause me to lunge forward into the item (ending up standing in the middle of a table, for example.) Or, I would stomp on a body for an item, interact with one for another, then turn around and find out I've walked right into the middle of the next one.
Normally this would be something i'd overlook, but in a game this linear and short, It was just too often and apparent to ignore.
Lastly regarding visuals is that of enemy design. While the general design and detail of them is very good, it is in the actual number of different enemies that I felt was lacking. The base game having 8 different enemies. 6 "regular" enemies, 1 "mini-boss" model (used several times) and one "boss-creature". This was just, lacking, for me.

Story: For me it was an OK Sci-Fi story, but not really a Horror, or really even a Thriller/Mystery story. Maybe I've been spoiled by other horror games, stories, movies, etc. in the past, but it seams that the game was really relying heavily on the graphic gore/ "grossness" of the creatures, and jump-scares to carry it, and perhaps it's just me, but I don't find either of those "scary". Most of the jump-scares were even, in my opinion, pretty obviously telegraphed (As unfortunately was the ending), and there wasn't really any tension or suspenseful atmosphere. If this had been marketed as just a good Sci-Fi adventure game, no issue..but the obvious comparisons to Dead Space, the way it's teasers were made, I think they wanted it to be more, and it just wasn't quite there.
Now, it could be said that for a lot people Dead Space wasn't scary, and a lot of people could tell what the twist ending was, but then again, Dead Space was able to carry that suspenseful tension, and atmosphere for extended periods of time, and of course, Dead Space wasn't trying to directly play off of a previous game.

Combat: Lastly let's look at a few things here. While the simplicity of the combat system makes it easy to get the hang of, it also unfortunately renders the majority of weapons unnecessary. All but 2 enemies can be defeated with just the melee weapon and the dodge mechanic, meaning that all the cool ranged weapons are just there to sink whatever upgrade points you have leftover after maxing the melee out.
In Dead Space, ranged weapons were needed as removing the limbs from enemies was needed either to weaken the enemy so it could be killed, or to immobilize it long enough to kill with melee. However here, the ease of execution of the dodge and how it can be endlessly used, means that at no time from most enemies, are you ever really in danger of being hurt. Even being attacked by multiple enemies can be defeated by just moving the control stick left and right, or holding it back.
And the 2 enemies that you can't melee, well those don't require ranged either, since they are killed through QTE/Button presses.

I'll keep the conclusion simple...I liked the game, a lot actually, and I have to admit that a part of that is the fact that it came free along with my Video Card.

So I do recommend the game, I just say wait for a sale, or at least till the price comes down, or maybe you'll come across it elsewhere...just at this price point, I would suggest either get the official remake If your looking for something new ,or if you don't mind the bit of age (which can be corrected with mods) you can get the entire original trilogy for the same cost.