Chaos Raiden
Avid Gamer & Reviewer
I had the review completed last year, but I was unable to post if because I lost all of my text files containing many of my game reviews. Oh well, luckily I found my old file again, and I managed to post the review today.
Storyline
Garcia Hotspur is a demon hunter that works with his demon partner, Johnson, to save his girlfriend, Paula from the hands of demonic lord, Fleming.
Garcia Hotspur is a demon hunter that hunts demons for sport. He met Johnson, a demon that can transforms into a variety of weapons and objects to help in his demon hunting activities. One day, Garcia's girlfriend was kidnapped by Fleming, the lord of the demon world. Garcia went to the demon world to save his girlfriend, along with his trusted weapon and friend, Johnson.
The story is creatively written, with quite few of surprises. I love the game's storyline, because it is really good. Garcia's and Johnson's bickerings in the game are quite funny, although most of it are mature-related contents. Enemies' backstory can be read by reading large books that can be found while playing the game. Each book tells the tale of a boss that you will encounter in every Act, with most of it are absolutely funnily recited by Johnson. Garcia also reads one, and his recitation of the book is incredibly epic funny.
The characters in the game are well developed, especially Garcia and Johnson. The characters have enough exposure that their roles are easily memorable, like the bosses.
Gameplay
Believe it or not, but the flaming torch Johnson can transform into many things, such as guns and a motorcycle.
The game is a third person shooter game. Personally, this game plays similarly to Dead Space games, but with some minor differences. In this game, you only have access to three main weapons, and each weapon will be upgraded by progressing the storyline. Firstly, you have a revolver, which is a balanced firearm to deal minor demons. You also have a machine gun, as well as a shotgun. Each weapon have their own pros and cons, and should be experimented as to which one is the best to tackle a dire situation. You can run or walk in this game, as well as sprinting. You can also dodge roll to any direction, which is a useful maneuver to avoid dangerous attacks.
Creative and imaginative puzzles.
Garcia has access to several other moves, which are melee attack and and Light Shot move. You can use melee attack to defeat enemies close by, such as bashing them in front of you, or stomp them when they are lying down on the ground. Light Shot is an ability to light up objects, as well as destroy a demon's darkness barrier. When a demon is covered by a darkness, it is impervious to any gunfire until it is destroyed by a Light Shot. Since you will fight many demons at certain places in the game, it is advisable to kill the ones who are covered with the darkness.
The Light Shot is also important to solve many of the game's puzzles, such as lighting a goat's head to illuminate the area, lighting a creature's head to progress, and etc. Other puzzles in the game also require some thinking to complete, although they are not tough to do so. Each stage in this game features a variety of objectives, andyou won't feel bored easily when playing the whole game, since there is plenty of variety of gameplay sections included in the game, such as 2D side scrolling shooter chapters, etc.
Buy Red Gems, ammo, and healing items from this weird merchant.
When you defeated enemies or exploring, you will encounter White Gems. White Gems act as currency in this game, and can be used to buy Red Gems, healing items, and ammo. Red Gems are used to upgrade a stat for Garcia, such as his Boner's attack stat, his Health, and etc. One stat requires one Red Gem. Red Gems can be also found while exploring in the game, although many of it are hidden to avoid easy searching. Healing items can be bought from a merchant found throughout the game, or can be bought from a vending machine. Healing items can be used instantly by pressing the L2 button, allows instant recovery. Ammo can be found throughout the game or when you have killed enemies. If you are short on ammo, you can always buy some from the merchant as well.
Intense boss fights.
You will fight a variety of demons in the game, and you will fight a lot of them at the same time when exploring in the game. Most smaller demons can be easily dispatched by using your guns, other larger demons require more specific strategy to kill them, such as shooting a large demon's power sources on his back.
Bosses are pretty challenging in the game, but can be brought down easily be exploiting their weaknesses. All bosses have unique designs and attack patterns, and most of them have dangerous attacks that can kill Garcia. One thing you should know that all bosses have the same weaknesses, which is a bright red part on their bodies. Exploiting their weaknesses will make them fall easily, although many bosses in the game requires a lot of ammo to kill.
I don't have much complaint of the gameplay itself, other than it's lack of New Game Plus and lack of extra features. Also, the game does not have Chapter Select, forcing you to play a New Game if you want to find something that you have missed in the game. Also, all bosses have easy to exploit weaknesses, toning down their challenge in the game. If you are playing the Legion Hunter mode, fighting bosses are slightly more difficult, as you have to take care to avoid damage since enemies can deal higher damage to you.
Graphics
Good looking characters and dark environment, but marred by some noticeable graphical issues.
Simply said, this game has nice graphics, with great looking characters and monsters. The dark and hellish environment is simply creative and awesome. Unfortunately, there are some graphical issues in the game, such as minor off lip-syncing and minor screentearing. Not gamebreaking, but noticeable problems. During playing, Garcia has some unnatural movement animations, such as when running and stuff.
Sound
Spectacular soundtrack, and amazing voice acting.
The voice acting is great, with great performances by Steven Blum as Garcia and Greg Ellis as Johnson. Their conversations are pretty damn funny, as well as great performances during reading storybooks in the game. Others also did great job as well, such as Paul Mercier as the main antagonist Fleming, the ruler of demons.
The soundtrack is pretty much of ambient and rock tracks, with the former forms the bulk of the soundtrack. The ambient themes fit the mood and atmosphere the game perfectly, and the rock tracks are pretty good. Unfortunately, I wish there are more rock tracks in the game, such as in boss fights. The vocal theme by Troy Baker and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is simply epic and awesome, and I recommend anyone who is a fan of Akira Yamaoka soundtracks to listen it on Youtube.
Replay Value
Low replay value, unless you want to play the game in harder difficulties.
Unfortunately, this game has very low replay value. Since the game has no New Game Plus and no Chapter Select, you have to start the game all over again without any upgrades for a new playthrough. Playing the game with harder difficulty modes such as Legion Hunter mode might give you a challenge while playing, but won't give you much trouble if you are a veteran third person shooter player.
Conclusion
A great game, but marred by some serious issues.
If you look past some of it's graphical issues and the lack of New Game Plus, this game offers great experience to players who are looking forward to some crazy, creative, and imaginative demonic world as well as intense battles against demons. It is sad to see that this game does not sell well upon release, probably because lack of hype and no promotion of the game itself by E.A.. The concept and style of the game is very unique, although it lacks real and unique gameplay features that make it stands out from other third person shooter games, as well as having very low replay value. This game is good to play, but have missed many opportunities that makes the game so much better.
Score
Story - 9/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 9/10
Final Score: 8.25/10 or 33/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Imaginative and creative visuals as well as demonic world.
- Humourous conversations between Garcia and Johnson.
- Excellent light and darkness system.
- Great voice acting.
- Good soundtrack.
- Great character and monsters designs.
- Intense and exhilarating boss fights.
- Good level design.
- Many variety of gameplay sections.
Cons
- Noticeable minor screentearing while playing the game and when watching certain cutscenes.
- No New Game Plus.
- Low replay value.
- Minor off lip syncing during cutscenes.
- All bosses's weaknesses are too easy to exploit.
- Minor camera issues.
- No unlockables and extra features.
