Can't edit my review! it self-posted before I was finished! Short version: Other elements that are excellent are sound design and music. The original theme song doesn't seem to be anywhere, but the music in the game is heavily inspired by it and fits right in. Voice work is great, as others have pointed out.
Platinum Games and Activision get a bit of a free pass here: Had this been a sequel to an existing G1 franchise, it wouldn't be worth your time. Hopefully more budget will go into the environments next time around. It would have been much more pleasant to drive around wider streets, and have different areas like residential, commercial, etc. Fighting around Hydro dams, The Ark, on the space station, thwarting 3 or 4 decepticon plots along the way would have made for a much better experience, and a game that would have been much easier to recommend to people who haven't lined up on October 6th to buy it.
@guydude3412: Because you pre-ordered the X1 version, I assume? Otherwise, if you mean any other version, the retailer will honour selling the physical copy at $19.99.
Basic cable here costs at least 30$ per month, having a movies option is a little more expensive and the on demand is paid content. For what you get, Netflox is dirt cheap. Also, keeping the rights to stream the entire backlog of movies and shows must be getting real expensive.
@DaGoyaMan: I hear you. Though, I much rather be an adult and have all the responsibilities and impact the world somehow, than stay at home playing videogames. That said, I sometimes wish I could have 4 straight hours a week with nothing to do so I can immerse myself in games like the Witcher. Right now I'm playing Transformers Devastation.
You know, looking at the hand drawn artwork vs 3d Model makes me wish for a hand drawn FF game. It would be absolutely stunning. I guess Bravely Default kind of goes for that look... Oh, and it happened to be an unexpected hit!
@kazeswen: I had never really seen it that way, but I do understand how it's debt financing and how it spells trouble for the industry. I'd be interested in seeing stats for finished games and whether or not there were profits past the 'break even' scenario of debt financing through additional digital / physical copies sold past those originally paid for in advance by backers.
@kazeswen: That's an interesting point. There is a flip side of the coin here: creative control of the property through self publishing.
Crowdfunding is a means of removing the need for a publisher entirely as well as gauging public demand for your concept before production begins, limiting the risk for the developer. There can be additional sales of the game post launch if the game is successfully made.
Budget management is the culprit for all the failures. Artists want to make the best thing ever and sometimes spend resources on trivialities, or sometimes the original concept has to change and the publisher can inject more funds to make the project happen anyway.
With no publisher, if Shenmue needs twice as much funding, say 20 million, which is a very small budget for an open world AAA game, production stops and chances are the game is never finished and backers are burned.
@yukushi: Half a game compared to what? Current games have way more content than those of 15 years ago, and cost relatively the same to buy with inflation factored into the equation, but cost way more to make. The only DLC I ever purchased was one for Prince of Persia, and another for Mario Kart 8. I've purchased many of the biggest titles and have yet to feel short changed by developers.
@Scruffin_it: Even looking at previous kickstarter campaigns, many talented developers never finish despite much more funding than they advertised. Partly because they probably ask for less to get more donations, and partly because they've never had to manage budgets before.
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