Has both good and bad aspects, but good overall.
The game is easy to learn the controls of as there is a training exercise to learn all the control, which takes place inside the Shinra building as you play as a young Turk Vincent Valentine. The controls are simple: One button activates melee combat, and another shoots whichever gun is equipped. Movement is swift and simple, with roll, crouches, jumps and double jumps, although these can sometimes be awkward when the camera seems to stick behind a wall and you are left in the dark, not knowing whether there's an enemy coming towards you or not whilst you try and maneuver the camera around the wall.
When you start the game for real, you will meet some familiar faces, such as Yuffie and Cid, as well as visit places that you will remember well from the original FFVII game, such as Midgar, but obviously only the ruins of that was left after being destroyed. Even though you end up in familiar territory, it just isn't the same as it's just one brick wall after another, one street after another, none looking even the slightest bit interesting. To make the scenery even worse, most of the time it's all gray and silver and black, which obviously won't make anything stand out and appeal to you, unless brick and steel is your thing that is. And you get a real close up view of it when the camera gets stuck by one. Great.
The combat is simple yet effective: around 3 strategically placed gunshots will kill almost any enemy that you encounter, especially if you use the machine gun to plough them down as they just carry on running towards you whilst you shoot. It's almost like they're trying to help you get to the end of the game.
There are 3 guns overall: Cerberus, which is Vincent's main gun that he used in FFVII, a long range rifle and a heavy duty machine gun. All three of these guns can be toggled through to find the gun you need for that situation quickly and easily. Three basic Materia are also used: Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder. These are equipped to the guns are are used through them, as if firing the spell out of the shaft of the gun. The Materia is very effective whilst fighting multiple enemies at once.
Now for the music. I absolutely loved the music, mainly because the soundtrack was Redemption by a Japanese J-Rock singer, and former member of a band called Malice Mizer, Gackt. The song just suits Vincent's personality and his mysterious and dark past. The in-game music will get you geared up and ready to fight when a fight is involved, and will draw you in to a very intensely emotion-evoking cut scene...one of the many...
Finally, to sum the game up: Great game for the first FF shooter, but could have been longer with a better camera angle.