You have to clear your police officer sister from a murder she didn't commit. That sets the tone for how stock the characters and story are
and it doesn't even have resolution, it doesn't end, just
stop. After 6 hours(or less, for others) that feel too long.
This has you maneuvering corporate buildings, streets, alleys, and sometimes(so it remains fresh) rooftops, by jumping, wall-running, zip-lining and the like. Heck, you move down more than one active train tunnel! At its best, it's immersive and exhilarating. More often, it's annoying, worse, boring, at times even frustrating. Many have given up on this, and it's no wonder why. There are a number of glitches where you won't grab a ledge or the like even though you did it right. This grinds to a halt far too often, where you have to shimmy, crawl through a vent, or, worst of all, wait for an elevator. Sometimes both before it arrives and as it takes you to another floor. Why not have it as something that you have to run into, as it slides closed and/or travels whether you're on it or not? Opening regular doors in this is done on the move, heck, almost everything is. So why stop?
If you find this appealing, I would redirect you to UbiSoft's TMNT. That doesn't slow down your rush or break the tension, it actually has replayability, and it has more complex gameplay, in part because of more options in mêlée. Here, that feels "off", you have to wait a little too long and be overly close, and you're engaging in flying kicks and such from afar, and if you don't hit just right, as with everything else in this, it's awkward. You may have to run circles around the SWAT that hunt you for roughly a third of this, luring them apart and such, even if you make the mistake of engaging in the poor gun-play. You have to disarm an enemy, and even then have no extra clips, and whatever you wield, it will slow you down by a factor corresponding to how heavy the firearm is. The supposed tension of them trying to shoot you becomes white noise as you try to find out where you're even going.
This requires you to build and maintain momentum – if you don't have enough for a leap, you'll fall short. Why isn't there a version of this for the Wii? This keeps you moving and has you not slow down as you parkour around. There are 3 difficulty settings, and it's challenging even on Easy, and right from the start. This does feature some satisfying, hard won victories. Then again, too often, you accidentally go a little too far or short and fall off, in part because you cannot see your hands or feet, and thus don't know if you are at the edge, if you can grab on, etc. There's a reason this sort of thing is usually from a third, and not first, person perspective. It's made worse by the very Assassin's Creed traits of a key sometimes doing something you didn't expect it to, response times being an issue, and you failing without understanding why. There not being a HUD, outside of the reticle, is well-done, and health loss is shown by the few colors of the visually striking city losing saturation
so why not have subtle hints like that for when you're in position to do something unusual?
The animated cutscenes clash with the regular look. Why not stick purely with what your avatar can see? Half-Life and F.E.A.R. make that work well, and when this goes for that, it's great – if there wasn't the quick white fade to let you know, you might sit and wait for it to let you helm the controls again. This has a real Tokyo, Japan look and architecture – it is sometimes reminiscent of Aeon Flux the film, or UltraViolet, and comes off as a game of the original Matrix. This is full of trial and error, you try out the different paths until you find the right one. It gets tedious to try over and over, and doesn't save often enough. You only learn by dying, failing. It has been placed by some in the racing genre, which makes sense, but this is not capitalized on with obvious co-op or multiplayer. Instead, the only replayability lies in the one type of collectible(the lack of customization does mean you focus on getting further, not looking for something or assigning points), and the Time Attack Mode. 23 small levels, earned either by completing the chapter it's from or doing well on one of them. You can grind these with the online leaderboards.
The thankfully short and skippable tutorial is restrictive, unforgiving and doesn't tell you what you did wrong. It's of the type that only trains you to pass the test, rather than teaching you how to play the game. It starts and stops, constantly. Retrying doesn't put you very far back, in case you wanted to. Why not let the player follow the trainer while moving, since the rest of this, you're supposed to keep moving(worse even, they do that early on, anyway, so they did know how to do it!). You do not get what would actually help, which is an area where you can practice and learn at your own pace. This is one of those where Every step of the way, the guy on the radio is *talking*. Meaning, he doesn't just pitch in every so often with "head to x", no, he snarks at you constantly, even when you're making progress! This was so much better in Enter The Matrix, where the character is funny, likable, and isn't yelling at you like a scolding parent.
There is some disturbing and violent content in this. I recommend this to the very patient – otherwise, a Let's Play of it will be more enjoyable. 5/10
