Posted on: March 3, 2024
Burrito
Verified ownerGames: 1491 Reviews: 47
Almost outstanding
Pros : -Hotline Miami-like gameplay, focusing mostly on gun use. Almost on par with the first game in moment-to-moment play. -An 'unlock for later' vs 'benefit this run' currency system. You're constantly choosing between long term and short term gains. Engaging! -Choices for the special traits are variable, forcing the player to find emergent synergizing opportunities and switch up their play style to take advantage of the options on offer. -Upgrade currency is accelerated if you play aggressively, but it's easy to push into 'reckless' territory and overplay your hand. There's a 'just stealthy enough' sweet spot, and it feels good to ride that once you find it. Solid push-your-luck mechanics, where player skill is a major factor in how fast/far you can go. -You get to choose which weapons show up in any given run of the game, which adds great variability. All shotgun run? All silenced weapons? Just pistols? Legit options, but you're deciding on both your and your enemy's armaments. Unexpected, but wonderful! Cons: Just the one really: Every seven(ish?) levels there's a boss. This ruins the game, IMO. - Boss fights are open arenas. Tactical gameplay disappears - it's all DPS and timed dodge rolling. It's less 'HLM's final fight', more 'playing through Dragon's Lair with one quarter.' - Bosses are REALLY spongy. You generally hold down the fire key and maneuver for ages before taking one down. - Consecutive bosses get even spongier, with faster attack cycling, in smaller arenas, dealing more damage. - When you die because you mistimed two rolls three minutes into a fight an hour into the game, you go back to square one. On most levels, dying is because you had a failure cascade. During boss fights, it's cause you screwed up increasingly-nitpicky timing 3, 4 times. All your weapon choices and upgrade choices end up subsumed to raw DPS. Many interesting upgrades are worthless in boss fights, so they get ignored. It shoots the whole game in the foot.
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