This is without a doubt the worst game I have ever played in my life, and the people that made it should be ashamed! I love Parasite Eve 2 and still play it today, but Third Birthday is not a worthy successor. The story is fine, so is the character design; but the gameplay is just awful.
The biggest problem with this game is its auto targeting. You can't target the closest enemies-especially when they are behind you! You have to manually switch targets to the closest one. This is especially annoying and stupid when you equip the sniper rifle; you have to stop and manually turn the camera in the direction you want to face, and only then can you fire. Why can't the character just aim the rifle in the direction she's facing!? When looking through the scope; Aya gets brain damaged and turns into the world's slowest marksman, she finds the target very very slowly; the scope view moves like a snail traveling backwards through time. What chimpanzee designed this!?
Grenades take ages to throw and bounce back off of barricades; because apparently Aya Brea is now an idiot, and cannot throw them over waist high barriers.
There is never enough ammo for any of your guns; except your handgun which for some reason has infinite ammo! The handgun has very limited range and is not a good weapon. Very rarely does the game give you additional ammo; especially during boss fights; who are ridiculously powerful btw. Parasite Eve 2 at least gave you parasite energy and a mana gauge to help you fight; this game just lets you possess people, while your ammo remains the same.
There is even an unbeatable enemy/boss at the beginning of the game. This "reaper" chases you around and the only way to escape fast enough is by rolling. There is no sprint mechanic in the game-so why the hell would you create a level like this?! To annoy people!? The "reaper" traps you in a red barrier sandwich if you aren't fast enough and kills you instantly with a game over. What even!?
Guns now have to be leveled up and upgraded. How do you even level up a gun!? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Some of the gun upgrades make the gun weaker...
The DNA parasite upgrades are never explained! There isn't a tutorial that tells you what the hell it does or how it works.
The game chiefly relies on a mechanic called overdive; which lets you possess/teleport into the bodies and locations of nearby friendly soldier units. The problem is that most times these idiots get killed easily and you end up spraying and praying all alone. And since you have limited ammo; you soon run out. This makes the game increasingly frustrating to play; not only are your allies weak and completely unreliable; but when they die you lose the only other ability you have to rely on besides your gun. Said NPC helpers have terrible A. I and don't even do a good job of backing you up; mostly they just stand there, they don't follow you into battle. The mechanic is a failure.
If you're wondering weather to buy, download or play this game; my advice to you is to stay away. It's not worth the frustration.
