Immersive gameplay, upgradable weapons, challenging enemies, cinematic presentation, good story and clever level design.
Gameplay -------------- ( 9 )
Graphics --------------- (10)
Sound ------------------- (10)
Value -------------------- ( 9 )
-------------------------------------
THE GOOD:
> Innovative over-the-shoulder view that gives a more immersive feel, because it's closer to action;
> The random button mechanic keeps the adrenaline at very high levels when fighting giant bosses or when watching the very cool cut-scenes;
> Four types of fire weapons, all upgradable in four different characteristics, along with grenades, knife and rockets, gives it a great variety of ways to kill different enemies in different situations;
> Fast paced moments, full of action and deadly enemies with superb A.I., where you have to think what's the best way to kill them without losing too much ammo or die;
> The ammo can't be bought, and it's placed in different location along the story, and it's so well placed that sometimes you will be with a little amount of ammo, rising the tension of not knowing what's behind the next door;
> The enemies feel even more scary because they can take your life in many different and deadly ways, even from a big distance, or from behind, because they really like to surround you;
> Quiet and suspenseful moments unsure the pace of the game is not as fast as regular action games, while maintaining the tension of not knowing when and from where will the next enemy attack;
> Beautiful and cinematic graphics and sounds, making you feel as if you are part of the best action-adventure horror themed Hollywood movie ever made;
> Big, strong and with superb animations, the bosses are scary before they even try to attack you;
> The game is bigger than most action-adventure games;
> When you finish the game, you can start over with all the weapons, or begin a new quest in "HARD", or even play in some very cool extras, that provide a allot of exciting fast paced action;
> Good storyline that keeps you guessing, with many very well designed characters, well written dialogue and great voice acting.
THE BAD:
> Turning and aiming is a bit slow, making the game harder than it should, and that results in a less re-playable game than it could have been, specially in the "Mercenaries" mode;
> You can't do side-walk, although this wouldn't be necessary if you could do a 90ยบ turn bit faster;
> It lacks a little bit of variety on some key areas: tasks, weapons, enemies -- it's not enough to prevent it from being very fun to play even after finishing it, but it's enough to give the feeling that, in the second half of the game, most enemies you kill are similar to the ones in the first half, but with a different look and in levels with a different design, because you kill them the same way;
> The infrared-scope is a neat idea, but it's very underused;
> The bosses, don't feel as hard or as scary as some parts of the game where you're surrounded by "ganados", because it's easy to figure how to kill them, and because the "random button" mechanic is a bit overused, making you feel that you can even turn your back to them, because as long as you press the buttons fast when they appear on the the screen, you won't lose energy;
> The puzzle-solving side of the game feels more like an afterthought, with simple, easy and few puzzles to solve;
FINAL WORDS:
Simply the most scary, intense, suspenseful and the same time action-packed, action-adventure horror themed game ever made. In other words: The Best Action-Adventure Horror Themed Game Ever Created.
But this game is not perfect, because for this game to be perfect it needed 2 things:
1) A little bit more variety in gameplay, enemies and weapons;
3) More content or to cost "~15 dollars" less when it was released.
Although that's only my opinion.
But if I had to give it a "Best Ever" award, I would give it in the "Best Use of Graphics and Sound Effects Ever" category.