Joe Will

This game has all the pieces necessary to be a good game. In fact, with the insane overabundance of plot threads, character archetypes, philosophical viewpoints, and mysterious elements, it had enough material for two very good games. Maybe it was the fact that the game tried too hard to be "mysterious" about its story and plot points or maybe it was because every character is a very very VERY direct and bland portrayal of a cliched archetype, but this game makes getting through it's plots and it's level feel like you're doing a job. The gameplay and shooting is so fun and it's electrifying going through so many missions and destroying monsters so the actual gameplay is mostly good! But whenever certain story elements DEMAND that you play in a certain way or have overly drawn out obnoxious radio chatter in your ear as you try to complete and objective, you will hate it. This is the very first game that made me wish that I'd simply skipped cutscenes and muted dialogue. Directions and information on anything that isn't the basic gameplay is byzantine in nature. I didn't even know how to buy certain items in the game until after I'd beaten it because LITERALLY NOTHING EVER TOLD ME HOW TO. It wants to be mysterious and eluding and intelligent SO BAD that it actually made me very angry. This could have been a good game and an even better franchise if it didn't try to do so many good things poorly. It's a very solid 2/5 experience.