When the action works, it's still great. You can feel the spirit of OG Xbox era Team Ninja trying to shine through, especially on Hard / JP Hard. "Mastering" the game feels pretty satisfying, as far as the jank allows you to. It looks like this got a combat overhaul patch at some point, so maybe it was way worse. Still some bugs, sadly.

It could've gone without the "modern" additions of a skill tree, and the cover shooter gunplay really doesn't work during the vast majority of the game. Less could've been more here.

The level design is nowhere near something like NG but fully functional. I quite liked the atmosphere of most maps.
Enemies were pretty bland for the most part, but the selection creates enough variety to stay engaging.
Some serious S-grade jank going on during parts of the combat, not everything clicks as well as it should. You can get destroyed for something out of your control, which is not good.

But the worst is the baffling VA cast and writing quality for a "regular" release, nearly torturous to witness. Stiff delivery, nonsensical lines, zero flow of anything story wise. I'm normally all for B-movie cheesiness but this was truly something.
Dare I use the word cringe, what were they thinking? They get an extra point for having a Divinyls cover play during a cutscene, though.

All other minor gameplay additions feel very tacked on and out of place, namely the minigames. But they also add to the wackiness of it all.

Not going to give this a thumbs down, it felt too special. But man does it feel like this could've been way better.

[h1]Jank infused future cult classic held back by almost everything other than the gameplay.[/h1] When the action works, it's still great. You can feel the spirit of OG Xbox era Team Ninja trying to shine through, especially on Hard / JP Hard. "Mastering" the game feels pretty satisfying, as far as the jank allows you to. It looks like this got a combat overhaul patch at some point, so maybe it was way worse. Still some bugs, sadly. It could've gone without the "modern" additions of a skill tree, and the cover shooter gunplay really doesn't work during the vast majority of the game. Less could've been more here. The level design is nowhere near something like NG but fully functional. I quite liked the atmosphere of most maps. Enemies were pretty bland for the most part, but the selection creates enough variety to stay engaging. Some serious S-grade jank going on during parts of the combat, not everything clicks as well as it should. You can get destroyed for something out of your control, which is not good. But the worst is the baffling VA cast and writing quality for a "regular" release, nearly torturous to witness. Stiff delivery, nonsensical lines, zero flow of anything story wise. I'm normally all for B-movie cheesiness but this was truly something. Dare I use the word cringe, what were they thinking? They get an extra point for having a Divinyls cover play during a cutscene, though. All other minor gameplay additions feel very tacked on and out of place, namely the minigames. But they also add to the wackiness of it all. Not going to give this a thumbs down, it felt too special. But [i]man[/i] does it feel like this could've been way better.