Great Game 11/10...First off I just want to say that this is one of the best games I currently own for the PS3.
The game was created by Volition inc., published by THQ and released in June 2009. Apparently it sold 1 million units but I only heard of it 2010. It is a third person Sandbox or open world game which uses the Havok Physics Engine and Geo-Mod 2.0 game engine.
I think that the story could have been more effective if the brother would have been infected be a deadly virus or something along those lines. This type of platform works because the player connects better with visual objects rather the analogue. There could also be periodic awakenings where Mason and his brother have a heart to hear. This is also a good platform to learn about their past and how they came to be in this mess. Again playing with emotions is the key here.
The NPC or the lack there of. Sure there are plenty of them around but they all look the same. Same height, same clothing, same sized heads. You know what I mean? Fact of life is that no one person is the same. Also the NPC feel as if they are just spawned at random and have no connection to the place at all. I tested this by killing off an entire section of NPC and when I came back at a later time they returned as if nothing happen. I think that the creators aimed abit too high with incorporating NPC in this game.
The game play is very well thought through and works very well. Not only do you get to destroy everything with your trusty hammer but you get to fire a number of weapons. The weapons that I could find are automatic assault rifle, enforcer, grinder, shotgun, arc welder, nano rifle, pacekeeper, standard pistol, rocket launcher, sniper rifle and demolition charges so you can bring down huge infrastructure. Bringing down EDF properties will give the player a higher salvage count and depending on the size of the property one could cause million of dollars worth of damage.
Another cool thing about the game is the integration of the Havok engine. For those who are not familiar with Havok, it is a real world physics engine.
The physics in this game is to die for. To give you an idea of how cool this engine is we'll take the pickup truck scenario. Let's say you and two of your buddies go on a EDF base assault and only two people can fit in the front. The third person will have to ride on the flat bed in the back of the pickup truck. If you make your jumps to high the person in the back will be thrown right off and killed. Another good example is the demolition of EDF properties. Standard light armored buildings behave very different then the thick walled barracks of the EDF. Also if you take out the structure supporting beams then the building will collapse and fall to the ground.
The only annoying thing about the game is driving the vehicles. At the very beginning of the game driving the vehicles is fun. The terrain is very well thought thorough and very well planned. When running away from EDF you can lose them by taking sharp corners and doing some aggressive driving. But as I progress through the game driving different vehicles becomes an annoyance. A good example is the last town. Everything is cramped in so close that the roads become alleyways and when driving at high speeds you can't help but hit the walls. The Vehicle design and animation is some of the best I have seen. They are all drivable with their own physics and you can also blow them up. The EDF armored vehicles are to die for. I give props to the designers.
Another issue I found is the hammer. The hammer was meant, at least in my vision, as a symbol of the game. I came to respect it as a symbol and got attached to it. But as I progressed and discovered new weapons the hammer and even his demolition charges become forgotten. This is where I think the game failed big time. The hammer and his demolition charges are his trademark and they should have been focused on more.
I think they missed the boat on this one. The Hammer and Demolition charges are the trademarks of a miner. Just like Wolverine has adamantium claws. Without his claws here is nothing but a man. Same idea works here. They should have made the hammer more the ICON of the game.
Also it is also not a good idea to take an engine that was used in other game and modify it it to fit another.
Overall this game exceeded my expectation and if you look beyond the weak story and other small flaws this game is great. I am definitely going to play it again.