This game built itself up with extremely interesting teasers and showcases featuring bizarre architecture, strange mechanical devices, and the promise of a wild and deep mystery. On one hand, the game delivers. Every lab or underground lair you visit has this bizarre twinge of brutal devices carrying out strange tasks, seemingly nonsensical scientific experiments, and wild technology that seems almost like magic. Unfortunately, the game ruins all of this because it just cannot keep its ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mouth shut

Every single time you encounter one of these wonderful and horrible creations or experiments your companion character immediately explains exactly what's going on and the purpose of what you're looking at. You'll enter a room with giant, rotating platforms, strange mannequins strewn about, and a bizarre floating goo, and instead of letting you take time to digest what you're looking at and try to puzzle out what all this could be for, your companion will butt in and say "oh this is just how we test rockets," which makes what your looking at paradoxically banal and unbelievable. I enjoy a good technical explanation of strange technology in settings like Mass Effect, Warhammer 40k, or Death Stranding, but in a game that hinges on mystery and the bizarre, this ruins the effect immediately.

Speaking of mystery, there isn't one. You immediately know who the villain and what you'll be fighting, and the only twists this game comes up with come completely out of nowhere and are either inconsequential or completely unbelievable. None of the characters come off as compelling, mostly just one-note actors going through motives we can't really relate to because they're either complete monsters or just idiots. A character like Andrew Ryan can be a complete monster but you learn enough about him to make him interesting, to really learn his points of view. Despite how much this game talks about the main villain and his views, I never felt I really knew who I was fighting, just some card-carrying villain who had to be shot.

As for the gameplay, the reason it took me so long to get to it is because it's largely just fine. The weapons are fun and customizable in ways that suit your playstyle, and a lot of them are satisfying with a good punch. The powers are serviceable but never feel that substation, and the enemy variety is slightly lacking but decent enough. None of it ever felt tactical however. Most AI will typically just rush you down with little thought, or hang slightly back to shoot at you. I never had moments where an AI would try to go around and flank me or try to retreat for a better opportunity, it all felt very basic. In addition, with how many healing supplies you can carry and how prolific supplies are, I never truly felt challenged.

This game also has no reason to be open world. The only collectable upgrades or items you can get are located in specific bonus buildings. There's never any reason to go off and explore or see what's over the next hill, no side quests or interesting locations, just a bunch of copy-pasted buildings and mindless driving that quickly becomes little more than a commute.

Overall I really did want to like this game, and it just so borders on being good. If there was ever a mod released that completely cut out any of the over-explanatory dialogue, that would probably push this game to a recommend, but as it stands, it kills any sense of mystery the moment it happens and doesn't have a plot strong enough to carry its decent but inconsistent and simple gameplay.

[h1]A Game that Ruins Itself by Talking Too Much[/h1] This game built itself up with extremely interesting teasers and showcases featuring bizarre architecture, strange mechanical devices, and the promise of a wild and deep mystery. On one hand, the game delivers. Every lab or underground lair you visit has this bizarre twinge of brutal devices carrying out strange tasks, seemingly nonsensical scientific experiments, and wild technology that seems almost like magic. Unfortunately, the game ruins all of this because [i]it just cannot keep its goddamn mouth shut[/i] Every single time you encounter one of these wonderful and horrible creations or experiments your companion character immediately explains exactly what's going on and the purpose of what you're looking at. You'll enter a room with giant, rotating platforms, strange mannequins strewn about, and a bizarre floating goo, and instead of letting you take time to digest what you're looking at and try to puzzle out what all this could be for, your companion will butt in and say "oh this is just how we test rockets," which makes what your looking at paradoxically banal and unbelievable. I enjoy a good technical explanation of strange technology in settings like Mass Effect, Warhammer 40k, or Death Stranding, but in a game that hinges on mystery and the bizarre, this ruins the effect immediately. Speaking of mystery, there isn't one. You immediately know who the villain and what you'll be fighting, and the only twists this game comes up with come completely out of nowhere and are either inconsequential or completely unbelievable. None of the characters come off as compelling, mostly just one-note actors going through motives we can't really relate to because they're either complete monsters or just idiots. A character like Andrew Ryan can be a complete monster but you learn enough about him to make him interesting, to really learn his points of view. Despite how much this game talks about the main villain and his views, I never felt I really knew who I was fighting, just some card-carrying villain who had to be shot. As for the gameplay, the reason it took me so long to get to it is because it's largely just fine. The weapons are fun and customizable in ways that suit your playstyle, and a lot of them are satisfying with a good punch. The powers are serviceable but never feel that substation, and the enemy variety is slightly lacking but decent enough. None of it ever felt tactical however. Most AI will typically just rush you down with little thought, or hang slightly back to shoot at you. I never had moments where an AI would try to go around and flank me or try to retreat for a better opportunity, it all felt very basic. In addition, with how many healing supplies you can carry and how prolific supplies are, I never truly felt challenged. This game also has no reason to be open world. The only collectable upgrades or items you can get are located in specific bonus buildings. There's never any reason to go off and explore or see what's over the next hill, no side quests or interesting locations, just a bunch of copy-pasted buildings and mindless driving that quickly becomes little more than a commute. Overall I really did want to like this game, and it just so borders on being good. If there was ever a mod released that completely cut out any of the over-explanatory dialogue, that would probably push this game to a recommend, but as it stands, it kills any sense of mystery the moment it happens and doesn't have a plot strong enough to carry its decent but inconsistent and simple gameplay.