A rough hidden gem.
When I first laid my eyes on the game I could not believe the sight - the graphics were so horrendous that I died a little inside. I went on to adjust brightness and contrast to no avail; I could barely see any difference or improvement. The anti-aliasing in this game is about -2x or -4x, that's right MINUS. The jaggies are all over the place. The water is a mess. The textures are also extremely dated. I can't take screenshots on my PS3 (I could if the game was on Steam thank you very much) so I started taking photos with my phone and sharing it with my friend. He could not believe it either. Call me a spoiled PC gamer but the graphics really killed off a portion of immersion for me right off the bat. The graphics are below average, I am sure most console gamers will agree with me.
However, one hour into the game and I was hooked. The civilization lays in ruins following a series of cataclysmic earthquakes and tsunamis; it's probably a pole shift. You arrive at the city in the search for your family with nothing but your back, some supplies, a flashlight and a camcorder (which is used for the cut scenes). Eventually get a machete, a gun, a shotgun and a bow. The game itself plays like a good survival movie. I've personally missed that genre for quite some time.
If you venture too far out into the dust-filled streets your stamina and health will slowly drain so you always have to make sure that you have enough supplies to replenish your stamina and health lest you suffocate and die. About that dust...It's been a year since the event and the dust still hasn't settled. So on one hand it's intriguing to not be able to see further than 6 feet away and struggle to get your bearings but on the other hand this trick can be viewed as a cop out on the part of the developers since they obviously haven't put much effort into graphics. The sound is good though. I played without the music. I liked the dead silence of the dead city.
You get to meet a total of 20 survivors in the game and help them out with supplies and other miscellaneous items so I advise you to save your supplies till the last and not use them until you meet someone who needs them. Helping every survivor will grant you an additional retry. This feature is helpful if you are playing on the survival mode which I heavily recommend for maximum immersion. Basically if you play on survival then you will be extremely cautions. And that's one of the biggest things that glued me to the game. It's that there is no trial and error here, you really have to think your moves ahead. I once got stranded on the other side of the mall and it took me my last two retries, most of my supplies and two pitons (used to rest while climbing) to find my way out. All in all, I spent about 30 minutes trying to find my way back in order to avoid starting the episode all over again.
I am actually surprised that the devs managed to make climbing interesting. Uncharted was probably the first game to do so but this game implements much more realism and puzzle solving when it comes to that. You can play as Nathan Drake, hang on the ledge and then go make yourself a veggie sandwich. By the time you come back Drake will still be here, hanging on a cliff above the abyss. That won't happen in this game. There is a small cliffhanger almost every time you climb somewhere. You have to make out the path in your head and figure out if you'll have enough stamina to climb to your destination. Your stamina will start draining, the ominous music will set it and your palms might start getting sweaty in real life.
As for the gameplay itself, well it delivers. When you aim you get the biggest, most ablest auto-aim I have ever seen in a video game. When you face the enemies you either have the choice of running, facing them head on, fooling them by attempting to do a surprise kill or subduing them by killing the leader of the gang. It's kind of like a checkers game. If you kill that one, then the two will rush you, if you kill that one then maybe you'll survive. If you try to rush the guy who has a gun with your machete then you will die. There are also a couple of stealth kills in the game. I have also exploited this trick to have the enemy AI shoot one of their own accidentally if you align yourself correctly. It worked every time and I saved myself health and ammo. About that ammo, yeah, the most bullets I was able to muster at one time in the game was 7 bullets.
A few more things that hampered the immersion for me. You don't talk back to the survivors, ever, you just stand there and listen. The bodies of the slain enemies disappear unfortunately. Some food items mysteriously reappear in some locations. Many AI (a guy with harry potter glasses) reappear in the game. For a total of 50 something enemies they could easily made more AI models. You can also kill some peaceful civilians without any repercussions. Upon their imminent death they will likely curse you for taking their life when they meant you no harm. At one point in the game you may actually kill a kid's parents by mistake. The story was okay and I liked the bleak melancholic ending.
All in all in took me 8 hours to beat the game, not bad for a
$15.00 price tag. The whole game takes place around only 4-6 square city blocks. The game also only occupies 2GB of hard drive space. Ubisoft could have really turned this into a franchise. They could easily make a sequel or a prequel but I guess it's not on their priority list.