THE GOOD:
Graphics [Water effects most especially]
Co-op is decent. It provides a good bit of fun provided you have a competent team-mate.
Weapon customization is cool. This is perhaps the best point in the game. With a bevy of options for almost all the guns, you can really make a gun yours.
THE BAD:
Gameplay: It is slow and very linear. often being funneled into a single path gets annoying.
Short, linear, slow, scripted campaign.
Sound
Voice acting
Replay-ability
AI: The AI in this game, though decent, lacks and true ability and will fall before you like leaves in a strong wind.
SUMMARY:
This game has a cool idea. An elite unit of two buddies, handing the world its ass on a silver platter.
It has a mediocre execution, however. The gameplay is decent the first time you play through it. Cool ideas like totally customizable guns, and masks give the impression of a deep game. In reality, it is pretty shallow.
The story is disjointed in the telling, with the time line spanning years but the characters go through the in-game "investigation", as if it was taking place over days. This leads us to the dialog, which is lack luster, and profanity filled. With the exception of the cut-scenes, all lines are delivered with a cheesy quality and less conviction than a sheepish mouse.
One of the main characters, Clyde, is a psychotic person who is over done. Big time, his lines are the most profane I have heard, his actions are over the top cartoon-ish. He won't DIE!
The sound design is also lacking, with guns having their own unique ring to them, but sounding generic overall. Though some good is to be found, in general bullets hitting around you sound good and overall, the sound design is decent.
The one vehicle you get to drive in this game is a hover craft, it was a sweet idea. But god did they botch the driving, it is totally un-controllable, and had no model for you to steer it. It was just slapped together, leaving you with a horrible experience try to drive it.
Speaking of slapped together. the AI needs major attention. As mentioned in the "bad" section, the AI needs work. With enemies often charging into the open, and taking truly horrid cover positions, it is like a duck hunt with a M134 Gatling gun. This can also be applied to the partner AI. it is decent, and is better than the enemy AI, but it is not as good as other games partner AI. Games such as Rainbow six, Gears of War and GRAW 2, have smarter partner AI. This is a major failing, considering this is supposed to be an Advanced AI system.
Also, the noticeable lack of any real cover system screams to me like this game was only half baked. You run up behind something, squat down, and shoot. It makes for a more free moving fire fight experience, but it just doesn't feel right. This also leads to some "WTF!?" moments. When you see your character lift a 120 pound mini-gun with ONE hand and aim it like a sniper rifle. This is just not right. Though the gameplay mechanics are not that far off. the characters rolling was handled badly. But the sliding mechanic proved to be a useful thing when you don't want to die.
Another falling point is the difficulty settings. They do nothing to make the AI smarter, they simply make you more fragile. And the enemies to more damage, and shoot more accurately. You will find yourself dieing fro ma shot landed onto you arm, on Professional. It is simply horrible.
The gameplay was fun for a bit, but in the end it showed that this game was designed for a one path approach. This is shown when you reach a Chinese village. And if you try to walk in the water, you hit an invisible wall. You will find these rarely, but when they are that obvious, it is painfully last gen.
In the overall picture, this game is a rent, if even that. The only redeeming factor is the "agro" system, but this cannot pale the other problems. My advice, stay clear. This game won't give you anything beyond one play through, two, tops. The linear nature kills any chance at tactical gameplay, and the often vague dialog can really hamper you. Likewise the horrible easy to complete objectives will cause you to feel like a god at first, but it is a lot like getting what you want every time. It gets boring.
So to re-iterate, this is not a game to buy. Maybe not even rent. It just isn't worth it. it really isn't
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2.75/5.0
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