rich
Posts: 4132
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Neo Kobe
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It's been a long time coming, but Rockstar delivers a massively gratifying action experience with a wide variety of locations, and a large number of ways to destroy them whilst throwing yourself around in slow motion. Concerns over the character design prove to be unwarranted thanks to the story and where it takes our pill crunching hero, and while the plot is a fairly basic crime drama underneath all the mystery elements it still delivers a number of satisying emotional beats - Max may even be a little more human than before thanks to both the writing and the solid voice work by James McCaffrey (now also on mo-cap duties) even if the monologues about being drunk, angry and burnt out are perhaps a few too many.
It does however fail to include any real ties to the first two Remedy titles despite two flashback sequences, and their twisted sense of humour, quirky characters and comic book noir are greatly missed - there are no big nods to Norse mythology here, and Sam Lake's trademark style has been removed completely (side note - replay Alan Wake). Still, saying that, there are actually a few surreal moments and TV shows scattered around in several missions even when the nightmare drug overdose levels have been ousted, and it makes up for it in pure firepower. On a technical level it's a great looking game, detail levels in each environment are high with a few nice easter-eggs hidden around, and the examination of clues to be found adds to both the story and the retired detective elements of the chacter.
The physics engine may have you hitting the scenery after a signature bullet time dive, but does allow for some good scenery destruction and overall the gameplay is better than ever with extreme slow-mo kill cams, and new "last man standing" moments punctuating the violence. The artificial lense distortion effects and scan lines can be a little distracting at first but soon become less intrusive, and this is definately a game worth pausing to check the view during a choice muzzle flash. Also as is now to be expected from the folks who gave us Red Dead Redemption, the soundtrack is excellent providing some memorable moments during the duel weilding madness; the score by electronic group Health is well worth a look. This is also a title in which replay value is high, not only thanks to the gameplay style which allows for varied play throughs but also due to the inclusion of the challenges set by both mission time trial New York Minute and the high score point scoring Arcade mode. I also found myself hunting for upgrade Golden Gun pieces during the story, even if they are damn ugly. Multiplayer is an added bonus.
Closing comments - the terrible shirts and South American underworld vibes may be lacking any of the charm which would be expected for a sequel in this series, but the ultra violence and synth soundtrack mix is rather a good one, well worth a look for action fans and dubious of the art direction or the new developers.
Overall score - 4/5
< Message edited by rich -- 20/7/2012 11:07:23 PM >
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