I really cannot say enough good things about the overall presentation the details in the city and character designs and animations are incredible, and it's clear that a lot of thought and care went into very specific aspects of the game. I have enjoyed the boss fights, however.Īs of right now it's one of those games that I enjoy playing in the moment, but have absolutely no desire to return to when I'm away from it. There's aspects of the combat I enjoy, and the limited synergies between Sam and John add some variety and quick thinking, but the upgrades don't seem particularly impactful nor does the combat feel all that great the gun in particular could use some more range or a reticle of some sort. The exploration and map design is decent with plenty of optional stuff, but suffers from the aforementioned world building while there's the requisite chests to find, a lot of the visual splendor you stumble upon is lessened by lacking absolutely any context and amounts to little more than a 'huh neat'. What little there has been is very inconsistent, and while I'm expecting things to come together at some point, so far there isn't much by way of hooks. The sprite work, music, and (most of) the writing is excellent, but a lot of the connective tissue just isn't quite there.įor as cool as the world is visually, there's been virtually no world building within the 8 or so hours I've played, which is sort of wild given how much dialogue is in the game. There are times where I'm amazed this game was made by three people, and then there's times where it's painfully obvious. There are only a few truly interesting boss encounters and puzzles, and they’re mostly found in the late game.I think this is one of those games that is so impressive in certain aspects that it's far more of a detriment to the rest of it. John and Sam are easy to control, both in and out of combat. Fortunately, most of these puzzles are easy to solve, but a few involve enemies attacking your characters while they are defenseless (forcing you to switch control between them) or time trials that drag on far too long. There are many puzzle segments in dungeons where the player must control the characters individually, moving them around to interact with the environment in order to get past elevators, overgrowth, and a variety of other obstacles. The combat is simplistic and unsatisfying throughout the game. Using energy blasts, Sam is able to manipulate the world, and she gains even more powerful energy attacks that must be charged up before they can be unleashed. After a rough start, John uses ranged weapons and a few types of bombs to break down walls and take on bosses.
As the story unfolds, you’ll be given the option to switch between characters on the fly to solve puzzles and fights, as well as a frying pan weapon that you can use to sneak around with.