3 Times I beat this game, and it never gets old
Anyways, here it goes.
This game is surprisingly underrated despite being so original.
The good:
The lightening is great, almost on par with direct x 10.
The graphics are insanely well-rendered: the walls, the ground, the floor, the weapons, the sky, the faces of monsters and hominids, the overall bleak atmosphere makes you want to turn a jesus freak just to be slightly psychically alleviated from this non-stop 10 hour or so journey through the darkest pages of the Bible. In my opinion, they have perfectly shown the horrors of living forever and not ever being able to die, to make matters worse they show just how scary it is to contemplate being condemned to eternal existence in escape-proof physical and mental prison. So pay close attention to NPC's that you encounter in the game. I think they may have a some good philosophical tips to ponder about.
It is amazing how this game was able to bring the old archaic Bible fables to life and to the gruesome reality.
The game brings the new innovative way to play six characters at almost any point in the game. Each character has his and her own regular and mystical abilities. And you need to use each one to get through certain points in the game. Each character also has charisma, with the exception of the Albino maybe, but otherwise, the conversation between the characters isn't always cliche and it is guaranteed to put a smirk on your face once in a while.
I think the strongest point of the game is the actual story, the actual journey through time and alternate realities filled with dystopia and hopelessness. The funny thing is that, aside from seeing some footage of our reality for about 15 seconds at the beginning of the game, you don't really see any of our own world. Which only means that by the time you play half the game and get your fair share of scares and gruesome scenes and situations, you really start to wonder if the whole world is worth saving or if you really should give a damn about your own existence in this maze withing maze within maze of a journey, or whether the reality you left behind exists anymore. So your only way is going forward, and the odds are certainly against you. It's like watching Inception for the first time and trying to figure out where they are sleeping and if so, which level of dream they are in. The game has similar kind of feel to it.
The architecture in some levels is on par with Assassin's Creed II in my opinion.
There's also a fair amount of interesting, non-frustrating bosses and mini-bosses, each with some good dialogues and some sort of a background that we all may have heard about.
The firefights are pretty good too, your friendly NPC's do a fair amount of shooting and killing themselves, although you will still remain the one with most kills. The enemy AI isn't so bad either. Many enemies rush at you yet they also evade your bullets, plus you can find yourself encircled pretty easily when some enemies pop out behind you. Plus you may suffer gravely if the kamikaze enemies approach you.
The ambient sound is stunning. There isn't a single thing they missed with the sound, they captured every little far away shriek sound and every sound produced by a drop of blood from ceilings.
The gore, there's plenty of it and it's damn good.
The game is pretty linear with the exception of having the option to concentrate on playing different characters for varied gameplay. BUT, and the scripted events and in-game footage cut scenes ARE informing and often bring unexpected results.
Each and single enemy has its own best way of getting killed. And each time you beat the game, you can concentrate on each of the six characters and try to play as that character the most. Of course I am not saying that all characters are equally balanced, but what's really balanced in life?
One of the best points for me in *minor spoiler" is how the game has the minerals to kill off a couple of your characters in one sweep. This truly shows some unconventional line of thinking wherein there doesn't have to be a perfect happy ending for everyone, where is no outside force to come in and save the day where there's no soul salvation for those who died. Not only that, as you play the game, it slowly dawns upon you that the main character you played from the start (the one that actually teleports from one character to another to take control of them) has no happy ending no matter what. It's hard to explain, nor would I want to spoil anything, but you do get a feeling that your main character lives on overtly borrowed time. It's like someone from a zombie movie who managed to outlive the time when you turn into a walking dead long after he or she were bitten. So, it slowly dawns on you that as your hurl towards your final goal in the game, there may be no happy ending, but a utilitarian-kind of sacrifice. Not only may the thought not cause some pessimistic thoughts, but it may also "test" your inner self to make you ponder what you would do in a particular situation. I may be looking too deep into a game, but what the hell.
There's plenty of background info to unlock regarding your friendly NPC's, enemies, bosses, events and locations as you play the game. It's pretty rewarding since you don't know much about the characters or ftw is going on at the beginning for that matter.
The bad:
1) I don't like the whole concept of the automatic download of ammo. It's not really the "infinite ammo" concept per se, but it's something close to it.
2) There's no co-op mode. A co-op mode for this game would probably earn a solid 9.5 from me.
3) The game ends.
Anyways, this game gets a solid 9.0 from me.
I can only advise to beat this game in one sitting for complete immersion. Choose a good Saturday or Sunday, wake up at 12pm and try to finish the game by the end of the day to fully dip yourself in a great, and albeit, underrated journey through the hellish nightmare.