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Fast-paced addictive action, combined with incredible artwork that attacks the senses and high quality voice acting makes this game nothing but top-notch.
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The gameplay is very addictive. Everytime you press a button, something cool happens - you are rewarded with some cool visuals and sounds. It's also very fast-paced and free-flowing. It's a lot of fun to play. It also is a new style of gameplay that hasn't been done before.
The game did many things to make you feel like you were there, and the you enjoy being there. The incredibe artwork, the scenery that changed as you went through the game, the plotline, the sounds, the stuff that you could smash in certain rooms, the quality voice-acting, the weapons the make you feel very powerful and reward you with a visual feast whenever you use them, and so on.
The plotline focused on both a struggle between the powers of good an evil, and a small romance between a girl and a guy. When plotlines are multilayered like that, it adds depth to the environment, and also does a better job of making you feel like you're there.
The extra powers and special characters that you can get if you beat the higher difficultly levels adds to replay value.
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This game is yet another victim of Rambo Syndrome. One man must take on an endless hoard of enemies. It does feel empowering to be more effiecient than the entire US armed forces, but it is a cheap thrill. It is also an experience that the main character does alone. So very alone. There are those brief moments during cutscenes when the characters interact, but that's something that the game does for you. The player never gets to do the interacting with the other characters, unless you count the fight between the good guy and the bad guy, where the player is given only one objective: kill. Killing and destroying is also how the player interacts with almost every other thing in the game. It makes the experience seem very one-dimensional - lacking in variety and robustness.
The plot did have some romance, but not really. The drama is just stapled in there. You're just moving along, hacking and slashing at enemies, and next thing you know you've got romantic feelings towards a girl that just showed up and looks like your mother. It makes so much sense...
The whole missions idea is kind of cool gameplay wise, but in terms of immersing yourself in another place it is very detrimental. There is less of a feeling of immersion, exploration, and being there.
The whole switching camera angle idea that started with Resident Evil is not so bad when you're exploring, but for fighting, especially when the battle involves using strategic attack patterns, it is very detrimental. Shinji still needs to fix this problem. He's been needing to fix it for the last six years!