I'm getting immediate deja vu from the first game here. The presentation is wonderful: funny clan memos, robot birds with quartermaster updates, and NPC banter - I feel bad for killing the female teen ninjas after their chatter about boys and over- bearing grandmothers! It looks and sounds really nice, too. You start by passing by an impressively rendered waterfall leading into a detailed Japanese village.
The stealth is already a bit irritating, though. I feel forced into combat situations and the boundaries feel foggy. I can change the difficulty on the fly, though, which is a blessing, and it's not been too bad so far.
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Yep, definite deja vu. This game is so irritating. I finally got out of the stealth section only to get plonked in a snowy and pointless hub area which was extremely difficult to navigate, made worse by the fact I had to do it on a snowmobile that handled like shit. Once I found the correct areas, I trudged around for a bit and put some explosives down. The stealth no longer seems to be the focus (although I ended up brute forcing my way through even when it was), but the shooting's not up to much, to be honest. I finally made my way back to the starting point, where I can't figure out how to get back over a fence that I ramped over from the other side. Maybe it's a different cabin I'm supposed to go back to?
I'll check a walk-through before I go back to this, but I have the very strong feeling it'll be a second case of "nice presentation, bad game". Doing a quick search and seeing the love this game gets also reminded me that I should at least try all the goofy weapons out - bananas, bear-traps etc - but it just never feels like the game is giving me the opportunity. It also feels like they're burying the lede substantially here - instead of starting off in swinging London with hench-mimes, there's a Japanese stealth level then a place-the-explosives snow level.
It's started bringing up a "client mfc application has stopped working" error regularly. I've tried a few things, but can't get it to stop crashing every few minutes. So I don't need to slog forward any further through this clumsy mix of first-person stealth and shooting, thankfully. Unless it completely changes up its mechanics/level design, I can't see a few mimes making it any more enjoyable. The stealth is extremely unforgiving, even on easy mode, and the layouts don't encourage any kind of experimentation.
Rating: Red
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