The sandbox, parkour game about New York being infected, yeah, that ol' cliche.
STORY
You play as Alex Mercer, a shape-shifting, amnesiac who wakes up on a morgue slab in the basement of GENTEK, a large and influential genetic engineering company. After an encounter with several armed soldiers, Alex escapes and sets out to recover his memory and find out exactly what occurred. He soon discovers he now possesses powerful shape-shifting abilities that grant him tremendous strength, speed, weaponry and the ability to "consume" people to gain their memories, skills and appearance. With no memory of his previous life, Alex is forced to track down and consume those related to the conspiracy in order to uncover the truth.
During his quest, Alex faces two factions, one is the military, composed primarily of Marines fronting a ruthless
black operations unit known only as Blackwatch. Blackwatch is a
Fork Derrick special forces unit dedicated to combating biological warfare. Captain Cross, a Blackwatch officer, is specifically given orders to find and contain Alex. As Manhattan slowly begins to fall apart, Alex also faces the Infected, consisting of civilians who have contracted a strange virus and powerful monsters known as Hunters. Now then, Alex meets up with his sister, Dana, who throughout the game helps Alex out and plays that "HQ-intelligence" character. Now, when I was playing this, the story never really drew me in. I always wanted to skip the cutscenes (which are incredible long) and get on with the killing, which, really is most of the game. 7.5
GAMEPLAY
Now, the gameplay is broken into two parts, 1) Parkour and 2) Combat. 1) Parkour feats Alex can perform are running up the sides of skyscrapers, jumping hundreds of meters at a time, gliding through the air and sprinting at extreme speed indefinitely. Falls do not damage the player no matter the height, but greater ones will visibly deform the ground. 2) Alex may use various weapons, seize and control military vehicles including helicopters, perform various melee
attacks without shapeshifting, as well as more gymnastic moves such as air combos, sliding along the ground using an enemy's body as a skateboard and a flying high-speed rolling cannonball attack. Alex can regain health by consuming biomass, though over time he can regenerate to a limited degree out of combat. Alex's primary superpower is his ability to shapeshift, transforming parts of his body into a selection of martial implements acquired over the course of the game, either as purchased 'upgrades' or being given them. Offensive powers include the large and powerful Blade, fast razor-sharp Claws (which can also erupt large spikes from the ground), the telescoping Whipfist, Musclemass that augments brute physical strength and the dense club-like Hammerfists. Defensive options consist of a large Shield that needs to regenerate after excessive damage, and a full-body Armor that exchanges agility and speed for sheer toughness; both will allow Alex to plow through most obstacles when active. Vision modes include Thermal
, which allows Alex to see enemies through smoke and other obstacles, and Infected, which cuts out sound and highlights the Infected, though leeches away Alex's health if he uses it too long. Any combination of one defensive and offensive power each may be active, but will give away Alex's presence and drop a disguise if any is in use. The most powerful attacks are the Devastators, requiring Alex to be in Critical Mass - either a state of near-death or having excess stored biomass. These include the Tendril Barrage, which fires impaling tendrils from his body in all directions, the Groundspike Graveyard, which erupts massive spikes from the ground all around Alex and the Critical Pain, which fires a single beam of hardened biomass from his hands to cause damage on a single target.
Back in there I mentioned 'upgrades'. These take experience to buy, and can be bought for either combat or parkour. But, throughout the game, I've been having flashbacks to my earlier gaming days, SpiderMan games. The hauntingly frustrating games of SpiderMan. Most of the time, it feels like they slapped on more gore on a SpiderMan game. The gliding feels like web-slinging, both can climb NEW YORK buildings, and the combat feels strangely familiar... 7.9
PRESENTATION
Everything in the game is dull, simply. Facial animations and appearance, buildings, and the color palette is very one dimensional. It doesn't look like a 2009 game. I mean, there's not really anything else to say... 6.3
FINAL NOTE
Yes, the game has redeeming points, but not redeeming enough. If it looks really good to you, rent it. Don't buy it. 7.2
