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First the least important two.
Graphics: A++. If you can play them on medium or high, expect a visual feast, the graphics are just astounding.
If your like me and don't have a supercomputer, the graphics are still quite good, even lowered. I played through the hole game on 2 gigs of ram, a geforce 6800 and an athalon, this is by todays standards a "low end" system, sadly upgrades cost money. I had to read some forums and download some tweaked INI files to make it playable but once I did, I got a good FPS.
Sound: A+. Sound is simply good. Great voice overs, lots of them.
Gameplay: A+. It is simply a GOOD FPS. Most FPS the last few years are tired rehashed cow flops. I won't say it is "revolutionary" because it is not, it has fairly few "new" features but it is evolutionary, it takes what a lot of earlier games did and just did it SO much better.
The pacing is great. The gameplay and combat is varied enough that you never really get bored of it, it changes to another form at JUST the right time, this game was clearly playtested to hell to find out how to pace it right.
The combat is really fun and most situations you really can choose between combat, stealth or both, really-this is not like most games with a stealth feature where you get "stealth" missions you must sneak through and you throw an alarm your boned. If you trip an alarm, well you'll have to fight extra bad guys but you don't summarily fail. It feels like an INTELLIGENT game because they create a lot of enviroments and obstacles which are simply well developed. For example, one of my favorite missions was on the fourth "level".
There is a long road leading to a base where you eventually must rescue hostages, with lots of trouble on the way. You can try to sneak through the jungle and avoid patrols(or kill them). Stick on the road and dodge jeeps and patrols. Try to sneak by the river which goes to the base but hope helicopter and speedboat patrols dont spot ya.
Or you can just run and gun through them all.
The base you get to it simply fantastically designed. Minefield on one, sniper towers, pillboxes, patrols inside.... and it is ENTIRLEY up to you how you want to tackle them.
Level Design: A+. It is simply superb.
AI: A+. The AI DOES NOT CHEAT. Really. It is not as smart as a human of course but it does not cheat. It is quite good in fact and gave me a run for my money more then once. Good AI which does not cheat is something I really like.
Super powers: I described the game to my friend saying that I felt like I was a super hero, but not invincible, situations were still challenging. I've since heard two other people tell me the exact same thing and also read the same thing on a review online. You have a "nano suit" with a limited power supply(which rapidly refills) which lets you either go really fast, go invisible, have extra armor or have super strength(which makes your punches hurt, helps to clear obstacles, super jump, extra melee damage). They allow you to clean up the enemy but they will never allow you to simply steamroll them, very well designed.
Length/ending: Length is important to me. It is a litlte on the short side but it is not a short game. When I beat the endboss(which was a great fight), I did not realize it was the endboss, I thought THEN I was going off to the next part of the game... and expecting lots more left, so I was a tad let down there. Still the end fight was great. The last level was incredibly well polished, my favorite in the game.
The game is very very well polished and in every aspect is simply a "great" fps. I highly recommend it.
I played it through on "hard", the difficulty settings are easy, medium, hard and super. Hard was a perfect challenge, I recommend that or super for any FPS vets.
Multiplayer: I have not tried it yet, I cannot comment.
Graphics: A++. If you can play them on medium or high, expect a visual feast, the graphics are just astounding.
If your like me and don't have a supercomputer, the graphics are still quite good, even lowered. I played through the hole game on 2 gigs of ram, a geforce 6800 and an athalon, this is by todays standards a "low end" system, sadly upgrades cost money. I had to read some forums and download some tweaked INI files to make it playable but once I did, I got a good FPS.
Sound: A+. Sound is simply good. Great voice overs, lots of them.
Gameplay: A+. It is simply a GOOD FPS. Most FPS the last few years are tired rehashed cow flops. I won't say it is "revolutionary" because it is not, it has fairly few "new" features but it is evolutionary, it takes what a lot of earlier games did and just did it SO much better.
The pacing is great. The gameplay and combat is varied enough that you never really get bored of it, it changes to another form at JUST the right time, this game was clearly playtested to hell to find out how to pace it right.
The combat is really fun and most situations you really can choose between combat, stealth or both, really-this is not like most games with a stealth feature where you get "stealth" missions you must sneak through and you throw an alarm your boned. If you trip an alarm, well you'll have to fight extra bad guys but you don't summarily fail. It feels like an INTELLIGENT game because they create a lot of enviroments and obstacles which are simply well developed. For example, one of my favorite missions was on the fourth "level".
There is a long road leading to a base where you eventually must rescue hostages, with lots of trouble on the way. You can try to sneak through the jungle and avoid patrols(or kill them). Stick on the road and dodge jeeps and patrols. Try to sneak by the river which goes to the base but hope helicopter and speedboat patrols dont spot ya.
Or you can just run and gun through them all.
The base you get to it simply fantastically designed. Minefield on one, sniper towers, pillboxes, patrols inside.... and it is ENTIRLEY up to you how you want to tackle them.
Level Design: A+. It is simply superb.
AI: A+. The AI DOES NOT CHEAT. Really. It is not as smart as a human of course but it does not cheat. It is quite good in fact and gave me a run for my money more then once. Good AI which does not cheat is something I really like.
Super powers: I described the game to my friend saying that I felt like I was a super hero, but not invincible, situations were still challenging. I've since heard two other people tell me the exact same thing and also read the same thing on a review online. You have a "nano suit" with a limited power supply(which rapidly refills) which lets you either go really fast, go invisible, have extra armor or have super strength(which makes your punches hurt, helps to clear obstacles, super jump, extra melee damage). They allow you to clean up the enemy but they will never allow you to simply steamroll them, very well designed.
Length/ending: Length is important to me. It is a litlte on the short side but it is not a short game. When I beat the endboss(which was a great fight), I did not realize it was the endboss, I thought THEN I was going off to the next part of the game... and expecting lots more left, so I was a tad let down there. Still the end fight was great. The last level was incredibly well polished, my favorite in the game.
The game is very very well polished and in every aspect is simply a "great" fps. I highly recommend it.
I played it through on "hard", the difficulty settings are easy, medium, hard and super. Hard was a perfect challenge, I recommend that or super for any FPS vets.
Multiplayer: I have not tried it yet, I cannot comment.
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