Well here are my final impressions for the game, i'll review parts of the game in different categories , then the overall experience and summary.
I'll try to sum up everything as much as I can.
Graphics:
Technical marvel. True next-gen experience, on all fronts.
No loading times, super silky smooth frame rate (you all be surprised how smooth it is), no graphic glitches, amazing and consistent art all around.
A lot of times it's hard for you to grasp it's even a game running real time.
Black bars didn't really filled their job.
Making transitions back to gameplay already done better in games like MGS. They downgraded from the experience, from gameplay side and from art side.
Sound:
True 1886 era fitted music, amazing score and theme.
Voice acting is top notch all around.
Were moments I was surprised the developers added some of the sounds you usually don't hear while interacting with the environment.
The theme really works and sticks with you, other times though really good music kicks in but can be forgettable easily.
Menu and UI:
Menu is on the light side, something I like.
It's easy to navigate, and to understand and looks good.
Only thing that comes to mind on the bad side, is the weapon selection UI.
It's too big and centered in the middle of the screen, not very good while action is going.
No option to change button layouts is a big negative.
Pacing and story:
Starts really slow, the intro stays it's welcome way too much.
And on top of bad paced intro, it comes instead of good exposition that I felt lacking most of the game.
The story starts to pick up from late middle of the game, but when it does it grabs you so hard it makes you want to continue playing nonstop. Really emotional and good, something a lot of games having hard time to achieve.
Characters are really believable and make strong impact.
Sometimes the story kicks you to some places, which you wander what happened between the last cut scene to the next. I felt out of place when it happened, it felt unnatural to the flow of the game.
Sadly the game ends way too quick after the story really shines and makes you feel you deserved more.
Gameplay:
Odd design and gameplay decisions plague this game.
Basic cover and stealth mechanics makes a solid shooting encounters.
It also fails to explain in depth cover mechanics like camera bias (which is off by default) and corner cover switching, taking into account the game has a very long intro to introduce them.
You actually use some of the weapons once or twice the entire game. Made me wish I could use them more in the first time playing.
Setting up encounters in terms of level design and weapon placement can be better.
It's on par with KillZone SF right now.
QTE's in the game strike me as a failure from the gameplay design aspect for making better shooting encounters and "boos battles". Like Far Cry 3.
Overall:
Game is AAA with high production values, I don't think the negative outweighs the positive.
In a sense it's more of a journey, a really good and polished one we must endure till a sequel that will make good on gameplay without any black bars.
Is it worth the price of admission now? Yes.
There's nothing else like it on the market now, the wow factor is really big.
And if we put aside the wow factor, it's still a good polished story driven game with production values trough the roof.
Granted if you played uncharted or gears, there's a lot of room this game doesn't deliver, but overall it's something you can't allow yourself not to experience.
The order 1886, is really a new mascot for SONY. Just not too shiny.
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