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The problem with this DLC is that it feels like a bunch of stuff hastly thrown together after which they plastered "official DLC" onto it. It's just not there...

No 9 single player missions?

So the store page promised me 9 single player missions. Small problem: I can't find 'm. In fact... when I click on the "DLC icon" (bottom left corner of the main title page) I get an error that I "used restricted contents" and that I should: "press left-shift+p to enter the store".

I see you thinking, and rightfully so: botched download? Did I verify file integrity? Am I sure this isn't a fluke or a glitch?

Unfortunately (no sarcasm here!) I am 100% sure, hence my opening. Riddle me this: why can I access the new map without any issues? Why do I see 'new' contents in the Eden editor (also marked as part of this DLC). Yet the one thing I don't get to see are the 9 single player missions nor the official "DLC page" (= clicking on the DLC icon in the lower left corner... you should try that sometime!).

(update)

It appears that I've became spoiled from playing "other" official DLC because those expansions provided me with actual single player missions. As it turns out this DLC places all of their missions under "scenarios", thus treating them as some kind of 3rd party mission which you could have downloaded from the Steam workshop.

"Weird", but I guess I'll work it out.


Yah, unfortunately though... I've played workshop missions that were way better than this. Heck, I dare say that I've made better missions than this!

Take for example the first mission in which you're instructed to attack the town of Parnek. You have 3 tasks: secure the armory, secure the enemies HQ and then clear out the remaining troops.

My team enters the town and before I get to do anything all the enemies end up dead. ok.... So I walk over to the town center and low and behold... I've "secured" the armory. Now, because my weapon is kinda "so so" I decided to try and raid said armory in hopes of getting better weapons. That doesn't work because the armory is actually... just an empty building with a few enemy soldiers in front of it.

It gets worse... soon after I "secured" the armory the game immediately decides that I've now also secured HQ. I didn't do a single thing! And "HQ" is 2 blocks away from me!

Next we're ambushed! Enemy tanks are rolling in from the west. Fortunately reinforcements have also arrived. Just too bad that those armored vehicles are more busy trying to run into a building (I am not kidding here!) instead of actually defending my troops. Heck... they almost ran over 'm!

This is where I exited the game, I'm going to play some of my own scenarios to get the taste from this mess out of my system.

What about it?

Oh, wait, my bad ;) Yeah, sometimes we did get a "controversial" optional DLC in Arma which ... may not have been too superb where game props and missions were concerned, but omg... the map! Unfortunately.... The map is ... well ... a map. A forrest with a road and houses in it (where the use of houses is even noticeably repeated here and there) and that's roughly it.

Yes, there are some other areas in this map as well, and some of them look somewhat interesting but .... sorry: easily ignored. See, an Arma 3 map is not about "a few interesting places" and seeing a map which looks like a generated forrest with a few buildings copy & pasted into it does not match my narritave of a good Arma map.

Did I already mention that I personally think this DLC is total garbage? Just making sure...


Get any other optional DLC from the same publisher (time of writing!) and you won't regret it.

Buy this... and you may want a refund. I know I do, but I can't anymore because I waited too long; I imagined that this DLC could never be that bad (I enjoyed and recommended "Global Mobilization" despite the mixed reviews at that time....).

Turn around, close this tab... hit control-alt-delete... whatever: RUN!!!!

"This is not the DLC you're looking for"

Yah, while I do somewhat apologize for my harsh wording I also don't think I could have gotten my opinion across in any other way. When even the map itself disappoints... for a paid DLC... then something just isn't right.

So yes... don't assume all optional DLC is going to be good, let this be an example of the garbage that needs to be taken out. Preferably out of Steam for all I care in order to avoid other players getting disappointed.

If there's anything which this game has going for itself it's the overall atmosphere: it is amazing and can often invoke pure excitement while playing or when following / analyzing a game. When I started with this game I was easily overwhelemed and it didn't take long before I was fully caught up in my first match. I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to do, and here also surfaces one of the many issues with the game, but at the same time I also couldn't care less because I was seriously enjoying myself.

From the realistic sound of the kickoff, to the cheers of the crowd when I (accidentally) managed to move my team up ahead a few yards and thus prevented the offensive team from scoring a quick touchdown early on in the game.

But I still didn't have a clue what I was supposed to go. Oh, and it got ridiculous really quick too: eventually I managed to actually catch a ball with a player which I also actually controlled. Great! Onto the 10yard line! I ran / sprinted there and noticed the lack of any "Touchdown!" cheers. I clicked on my controller, my character now threw away the ball which was quickly picked up by an opponent and their touchdown was a fact. Wait, wha?!

See... when you get pulled into your first game right at the beginning EA does place some general gameplay tips and tricks into the upper right corner of your screen to help you get going. The problem here should be obvious: why would you assume that players look onto the screen for some boring theory when there's an exciting game unfolding right in front of their eyes?


Despite my two thumbs up (see the conclusion at the end of this review) I'll also be the first to state that this game has some serious issues going as well, and some of them can be quite irritating. Here I was: taking on an actual somewhat simulated game based on a game that was actually going to take place for real. Don't take my word for it: I actually looked it up on the NFL website (and posted a screenshot too). If you enjoy American Football you're going to love this feature, because what can be more fun than taking a look for yourself at how things might progress in a sports event you're also going to watch for real?

Yah..... but it gets frustrating if you look things up online (using the Steam overlay) and when you get back to the game your selection box is suddenly gone! No where to be seen anymore. You can still move your selections back and forth, but you'll have no idea anymore what you're actually going to select.

There's also the issue of starting with this game: instead of taking you into the main menu the game actually starts by asking you to create an avatar (which makes sense) and then drags you straight into a game while you have no idea what you're supposed to do. To make matters worse the game also doesn't explain things in full and obvious details, it only shows some very easily missed "hint boxes". Now, I didn't mind this at all because I was having a really good time, but I can also easily imagine that some players may want to customize their game before actually playing. You know... graphics settings, difficulty settings, etc.?

This game definitely isn't perfect, absolutely not, but having said that....

Please hear me out!

See, to begin with there's going to be a huge difference in the gaming experience between veteran players (= players who have played previous titles from the Madden series) and those like myself: players who are completely new to the Madden franchise. Just look at some of the other Steam reviews and notice how most negative reviews base themselves on their prior experiences, so not necessarily on this game alone but in comparison to previous titles.

I'm not saying those are invalid arguments, absolutely not, but I do think that they don't apply to all Madden players. And that's something you should keep in mind.


What I appreciate the most about Madden '22 is that it truly provides you with a "full experience" (as I like to call it). And you can take things as far and deep or shallow ("arcadish") as you'd like. Putting up 2 teams based on real statistics against each other? That's doable. Or what about putting up your favorite team against the other but this time you're going to show the "dumb quarterback" how things should be done... yah, doable. Or maybe... another player type? Or maybe... setting up your dream team with all your favorite players?

American Football is way more than you may think at first: it goes much deeper than a bunch of large men running and clashing into each other while "mindlessly" running after a ball. No offense intended, but this was once my honest opinion / impression about the sport (but then again... I live in the Netherlands (Europe) and it's not exactly mainstream here). Yah, little did I realize the strategy involved in this game, and sometimes that goes really deep. From simple things like tricking your opponents into making them believe that "Player B" got the ball while in fact it got slipped to "Player C" who is now throwing it to "an end" further down the field. OR... having some knowledge about the players you're going up against and, for example, if they are known for their brute (blocking) strenght then... maybe put up a backer who can outrun them?

All of those aspects are fully rolled into the game. Not only that... you can set up practice runs and fully work out these kinds of strategies, where the game itself will even show you overviews on where your players are headed and what possible threats you should look out for or may be overlooking.

Education

Now... I don't recommend picking up this game if you know nothing about American Football because then you may become bored (or worse: annoyed!) really quick. This game will not teach you the basics about the sports (edit: I stand corrected on this one!). What it can also do is to help you learn more about the strategies involved and to deeply experiment with those. Why not put up some completely ridiculous formations just to see what they do and why that combination will or won't work? (for example: putting both teams into a "defensive" formation and then try to win a few yards?). It'll take time & effort, but it's also going to be very rewarding and educational.

Simulation

I haven't played this part myself yet but you can even take on the role as a team owner thus instead of focussing on the sport itself you're now involved with the overall issues of the franchise. Recruit new team members, decide on saleries, work out stadium and playing costs and of course: merchansizing and ticket sales! ;-) I really enjoyed what I saw so far.

You can even do your own "superbowl run", so... pitting your own team (or an existing one) into the competition to see if you can manage to end up headlining the superbowl.


If you're into American Football then this is something to seriously consider. When looking at this game "as-is" then I really think you can have the time of your life here. Almost everything about this sports is included. From actually playing in the field, working out the overall game strategies (or coming up with new ones) and even managing whole teams!

And because this is an official title the game even picks up on real official NFS statistics and the season playing agenda. So.... are you perhaps looking for an upcoming match? Then you'll be able to find that match in this games season agenda, allowing you to try out the match for yourself to see what might happen.

Yes, the game has issues. But what game doesn't?

2 big thumbs up!

Before I continue... while the game is tagged with "mature", "nudity" and "sexual content" fact of the matter is that you'll get some 'fan service' at best but nothing over the top. Don't expect full nudity in here, it's simply not there. Which is also why this game isn't marked as adult only. Yes, there are patches but I'm not a fan of those because changing the game could land you in trouble if you want to upload certain screenshots.

What do you get if you combine a visual novel with RPG elements and then add a "candy crush -alike" game to it? Mirror!

You can play through several adventures which feature a specific girl who you'd like to, ahem, conquor or defeat. You can do this by playing a "candy crush" like game which is actually way more strategic than the original.

Strategy is everything

See, the game field has 4 specific items which all represent a specific attack or defense. You have physical and magic attacks, healing potions and "rage boosters". Of course as one should expect: the physical attacks also have a chance to damage the girls clothing. 'Rage' is an indicator which determines how effective your attacks or defenses are going to be: the more rage you gained, the more damage you'll inflict (or... the more health you'll gain when healing yourself).

You can change the specifics of each attack type before playing out a story so that you can do more or different damage.

Fanservice at its best

As mentioned before there's no full nudity in here, so expect to see specific parts hidden. But the way this was done is still quite interesting in my opinion. I'm actually quite impressed with the overal quality of all the sceneries and the models, some really look plain out cute and gorgeous. Remember: you don't need full nudity in order to provide a good erotic scenery.


Now, I'll be reviewing the DLC seperately of course but there is some really cool stuff here. From new girls ("Lost shards"), an OST and extra music right down to an extra collection of (unused) artwork ("Enchanting reflections") and... a cosplay album? Yah, some Chinese girls cosplayed as their favorite characters and that became a DLC of its own.

Can it get any better? For sure: the developer even released a "Mirror editor" which will allow you to make your own stories with your own music and artwork, all based on the original Mirror game!

Note: all of those extra's are just that: extra purchases, these are not included with the base game, but... Steam bundles anyone? :-)


This game is awesome!

Yes, the English translations may leave something to desire here and there but... that's for nitpickers. This is a really cool game which features cute girls for you to battle in order to get them de-robed. No nudity, but still quite satisfying.

Two thumbs up from me, and you can expect more reviews about the individual DLC (and the editor) as well. This is good stuff(tm).

I am a sporadic yet also dedicated Arma player and still quite a fan. Because I'm actually enjoying the single player campaigns quite a bit (this had a bit of a rough start for me) I also decided to pick up on some more (optional) DLC. Also because most DLC provides you with a lot of new props which can be used within the Eden editor (which is also a huge favorite of mine).

The good

This DLC plays out in Vietnam and fully reflects on the Vietnam war. Well, the atmosphere is truly something else. This begins when you start the game: the whole menu is changed and makes Arma appear as if it was a regular wargame, something which really helps to set the mood I think.

And then there's the map... well, in my opinion there should be little doubt as to why this DLC was officially accepted; it's gorgeous. Vast, large and exactly what you'd expect: dense jungles, dirt roads and small villages which are very hard to spot from a distance. And it also includes more official landmarks, perpare to do a tour of Saigon in order to try and stop an uprising.

While the map (Cam Lao Nam) is definitely a huge selling point you should also not forget about the quality of all the different missions and of course, all the assets which you can use in Eden.

The bad

But this also brings me to the downside to this optional DLC... Unlike with Contact (which was also optional) the maps of optional DLC's do not unlock with you purchasing the DLC, instead you need to actually load them. Which then also changes the menu again (when talking about this DLC) and while it can set an atmosphere while you're playing, it can become an annoyance when you're trying to build some scenarios yourself.

For example... why is 'Eden' moved away from the main menu and put into a submenu? It's a small detail for sure, but one that can become an annoyance over time. Also if you stop to think about... how would you combine multiple DLC's this way? Activate them all and hope the least annoying menu pops up?

Now, of course, this is not something you can (nor should!) hold against the DLC itself but... it's still something to consider.


Considering the major impact which the Vietnam war had I think it should go without saying that this is a must-have for Arma fans. It has a gorgeous map, solid atmosphere and of course a ton of props which you can use within Eden.

Editorial (brief!)

You know the problem with modern gaming? Self-entitlement is what. As well as hypocrisy. Reason I mention this is because I bought this game for all the wrong reasons (and I believe in transparency): I saw threads on Steam which I perceived as a hate campaign. And when I was sure about my opinion (this is all it is) I decided to buy this game, "because". In my opinion my assumptions about the hate campaign got confirmed: apparently the developer changed something in the VR version of this game, and yet people deem it necessary to negatively address the situation here, reviews of the non-VR version. For me that was yet another motivator to buy this game full price: I stand up to bullies (if I can) with my wallet.


Amazingly (surprising) mechanics!

This game manages to combine FPS ("First Person Shooter") with strategy in a way I would not have imagined myself. It is brilliant and yet so easy if you think about it (which is why most briliant stuff is easy... ... in hindsight). So, you are a person and you get into a hostile setup. The one rule: time (as a whole) moves when you do. Sounds simple enough, and then you run towards your attackers, "cleverly" avoiding their firing and then you wonder... "how am I gonna beat these guys?". THEN you notice a pistol behind you, run up to it while forgetting the global rule and.....

Developer seems to honor nostalgia

I lived the 80's and 90's, then I grew up ;) Seriously: I love the way the developer made this look like you just started a different OS and you're actually messing around in / with "superhot.exe". So simple, so obvious and that's what makes this experience so awesome.

No story, no morale, just... shooting bad guys

That really is all there is to it. HOW to do that? Timing. Remember: when you move so does in-game time. Therefor: if you see someone running towards your left... maybe fire somewhat left of them, then move around (back & forwards behind cover is a thing) and... see what happens?


Last time I pulled a stunt like this (= buying a game "because") I was happy but didn't play it as much as I'd like. The new Steam Deck is most definitely going to change that. But this game? You need to predict the enemies movements and you have... well... all the time in the [s]world[/s] game to work it out at your own pace. Sounds easy enough? It is ... at first.

2 thumbs up. This game is something else.

While I definitely agree that the price seems a little steep for a sound track I also believe that it is important to realize that you're getting 39 tracks (!) of high quality music scores where some of them are really outstanding. Also also (no typo): you get a high quality version as well, and the difference between that and the regular version is noticeable.

I copied some tracks onto my phone this weekend and today one of them came up during my ride on the train. I don't know which track it was but I do know that I was pleasantly surprised, it sounded awesome.

So having said that I can definitely recommend the expansion. If you enjoy instrumental music from time to time then this can be a solid purchase. If there's one thing which Elite always got right it was the sound and music, and this is no different. However, do keep in mind that I got this expansion for 'free' because I got myself the Odyssey deluxe package.

Finally I can recommend this DLC in full honesty. In case you're wondering: this DLC didn't start out too well, which is also why you'll see many negative reviews. But after 10 updates since its first release things have changed. And bugs or not: one way or the other this DLC was fun to play with from the getgo, though it would get frustrating after crashing for the 4th time in a row during one session.

The newest DLC for Elite Dangerous after the release of 'Horizons' (which is now part of the base game). Horizons gave us planets which we could land on, and it provided us with the Scarab SRV: a small land based vehicle which you could use to explore planets with.

Odyssey takes it one step further and gives us the option to exit our vessels (space ships and SRV's alike) so that we can explore our surroundings on foot. In addition all space stations now have a "Concourse" which you can visit where you can pick up new mission types and do a lot of new things (more on this in a moment), several planets which were inaccessible in Horizons can now be landed on and in almost every inhabited system can you now encounter so called "settlements": these are planetary structures where many different aspects are being worked out: from hospitals to chemical labs and refineries.

And in addition to that we now also have atmospheric planets. We still can't land on the so called "Earth-like" planets (nor on Earth itself) but these new atmospheric planets definitely add a whole new atmosphere to the game (some pun intended ;)).

To get out of your ship you're going to need a decent spacesuit, and to perform certain specific activities you're going to need one of the three specialized suits for these tasks:

• Artemis suit: this is build for exploration purposes, it's signature tool is the genetic sampler used to scan plant life which you can sometimes find on atmospheric planets. These samples can then be sold on the concourse of a space station.
  
• Dominator suit: fully designed for combat, it allows you to carry two primary weapons instead of one.
  
• Maverick suit: this one is fully equipped to help you force entry into settlement buildings and the internal structure of several vehicles alike; all of these now have red protective platings which can be cut open using the arc cutter, which is the signature tool of the Maverick suit.
  
• Flight suit: last but not least our trusty flight suit from the previous games is still available to us. It doesn't do much but can still be fun to wear.

Engineering also makes its way into Odyssey: all suits except for the flight suit can be upgraded for a maximum of 5 levels and each upgrade allows for a special modification which can only be applied by an engineer. And just like with Horizons you're going to need to collect the required materials to perform those upgrades and/or customizations. These can be found across settlements. Fortunately some planetary outposts also sell upgraded suits, and very sporadically even with an engineered customization applied.

Also noteworthy: the new suits can also be fully customized on their looks. So you can apply different helmets, different torso clothing, boots and even apply specific attachments to your characters arms and legs to make things look more realistic. By default you'll get access to some outfitting packs, but as was to be expected more packs can be bought using ARX. So basically we can buy cosmetics for both our ships and spacesuits.

Next we also have a new SRV: the Scorpion. This is a combat variant of the previous Scarab SRV, it can transport 2 commanders, can collect up to two canisters of cargo and is armed with both a turret as well as a rocket launcher. In addition previously mentioned Scarab can now transport four canisters of cargo instead of two.

Missions
You can take find new missions on the concourse or within settlements using either the terminals or by talking directly to some "mission NPC's". Missions from terminals have a fixed reward, but talking to NPC's will also allow you to haggle a bit, depending on your reputation you may be able to persuade them into paying more for your services.

Missions vary from transporting cargo, fixing settlements (by restoring their power for example) and there are also combat missions. Sometimes you may even need to fight certain enemies even when you're merely going to pick up some cargo.

To that end there are also a wide variety of weapons available, from laser and plasma rifles, sniper rifles and several pistols as well as grenades. Heck, there's even a missile launcher available. Combat roughly works the same way as with ships: first you need to drain someone's shields before you can get some more damage in.

Even so it's important to note that there won't be much 'overlap' between "regular" missions (those which you can select from your spaceship) and Odyssey missions (those where you need to go out on foot).

Activities
Just like with the regular game of Elite Dangerous you can also take on non-official activities. For example, you could visit a settlement, try to gain access to its power centre and then shut the whole place down by stealing their power regulator. Or look out for crash sites which can sometimes attract scavengers who are more than willing to fight you for the loot.

Or maybe some exploration... planets which have an atmosphere often have plantlife. Use the detailed surface scanner to locate the areas where biological activies are detected and go find it so you can take some samples.

Ever bought a new ship and kept the one you already had? Then you may recognize the next issue: which one are you going to fly back to your home base? Because one way or the other, it's going to cost you tens of thousands of credits to have your ship transported. Or... maybe you still have some small ships available which don't cost as much?

Well, those troubles can be a thing of the past thanks to the Apex Interstellar shuttle service. On a concourse you can simple walk up to the desk and request a shuttle, which isn't free of charge of course. Either you book a local shuttle which can take you to somewhere in your current system, or you can book a long range shuttle to go somewhere else.

It may take a little while for the pilot to get you somewhere, but it will also be significantly cheaper to do so!

Other than adding new things to do Odyssey also improves and/or changes a lot of the existing game. The galaxy and system maps for example now provide easier access to bookmarks: these are now divided between systems, bodies, stations and settlements. You can set a route to one of the entries by merely clicking on it and then keeping your mouse button pressed for a few seconds, this is really a lot quicker than it was in Horizons.

That same galaxy map now also gives you a direct overview of your fleet, so if you need to collect a specific ship then you can simply select it as mentioned before to set a route towards its location.

All planets in the game have undergone a complete metamorphosis and now look a lot more realistic than before. The downside to this is that some planets which looked very intruiging in Horizons now may look a lot more bland in Odyssey, but despite that Odyssey still provides plenty of good looking planets with interesting sceneries to explore. And don't get me started on how things can look on atmospheric planets... that's really something else.

This DLC isn't the trainwreck it once was and has become a fine addition for the E.D. universe.

Thanks for reading!

You know what I enjoy about playing "adult" games? Most don't take themselves too seriously so that you can just have some fun. And I'm not necessarily referring to b00bs and such (though that's an important part too of course) but just the overall gameplay.

And this game has "silliness" written all over it, and that really sets a fun atmosphere!


So you play the role as "Dwayne", you won a contest which allows you to visit "Cockwork industries" (lol!) which is a top secret company that specializes in enhancing the human body. And what do you know... most of the employees are female, and not just that... No, because the company specializes in beauty enhancements the companies dresscode is to look as sexy as possible! 👀 You could say that most employees have a serious erotics fascination.

I really laughed out loud (and went WTF?!) when I talked to Kyoko (the company secretary).. she mentioned that she thought one of her colleagues was hot. So the next moment you suddenly see her scissoring with that colleague in a daydream. Wow, I didn't expect to get full nudity scenes that quickly in the game! 😊

Sexy mode!

It gets even better... If you look around the area you may find items that will unlock another (even more revealing!) outfit for the different characters, and it can also change their dialogue. Once again I couldn't help but grinning when talking to Maia (the bar lady) who told me that she was a little embarrassed with having to wear such revealing clothes. But since I had already unlocked her sexy uniform... well... those clothes weren't that much revealing anymore because most of her clothes had now gone completely!


And that really covers the game a bit... you walk around the place and get to see different screens where you can interact a bit with the environment (picking things up for example) and talk to the people there. You can talk to them which will show a text box for you to read and some encounters also have a few sound effects. It's not that special but most definitely a lot of fun.

The models look very sexy and are well designed. And the story itself... is just crazy but that makes it so much fun! Of course you walk in on the gardener just when she's pleasuring herself with a cucumber ;) And then obviously blames you for peeping ;)

2 thumbs up from me. If you're into erotic games then I strongly suggest that you give this one a try.

NieR is a hack&slash game with some RPG elements mixed into it. And I'm going to tell you right now that the game atmosphere and overal level design is absolutely gorgeous. You start by leading an aerial assault but unfortunately enough all your team mates get shot down, and eventually you too find yourself crashing. Crashing, but surviving!

You will need to make your way to your target through a bit of a maze during which you'll encounter several enemies and will also find some loot scattered around. It takes getting used to but the camera view can quickly shift from your casual 3D perspective to a sideways 2D platform view. And in some cases you even get to view things from above, which can make for an interesting take on combat, but... are we sure they didn't do this just to make things harder on us?

5 minutes in and I already love the main characters. 2B (the female android) is just bad ass and looks really convincing, though maybe also a bit peculiar. Why wear a dress during combat missions if you're all soo serious and such? Her partner (9S I think?) is also interesting, well voiced I think, and.. do I spot a bit of a romance in the making there?

And then the music... oh dear the music. Beautiful. Provides just the right mixture between tension and relaxation and even changes based on your location in the game. It's really good.

Unfortunately though... the game falls apart for me on one very crucial aspect...


When you start playing the game warns you: "No autosaving". Strange, but it's something I can handle; you just need to remind yourself to stop and save at times. Yah... if only... You can't save at all in this game unless you manage to find specific save points. Areas which will even be guarded so... there's that. But it gets worse: there's no such save point at all in the entire opening mission! A mission which will easily take you over one hour to finish!

🤦‍♂️ <facepalm>

Sorry, but that kind of game mechanic is in my opinion totally inexcusable in todays day and age, what have the developers been smoking I wonder to consider this a good idea? It's absolutely mind blowing and totally absurd. Inexcusable for a AA rated game. Plain out stupid!

Yes, the game looks amazing, the atmosphere and the characters easy to get into and I truly think it's brilliant in the overall. But that's also the problem: will you still think so positively if the game forces you to re-play a whole hour if you don't manage to make it through the level?

In conclusion

I really like this title for what it is and I honestly see myself playing it more often in the future. But I simply cannot recommend it to others; an AA title which doesn't provide a decent saving mechanic is simply bad. A game that might force you to play for over a whole hour again just because they didn't bother to add a decent saving mechanic... it's just ridiculous.

The general atmosphere of this game is pretty awesome but the story itself is very shallow, in my opinion plain out clichéd, and in my opinion it shows. It looks good on the outside but when you start to think about some stuff then things simply fall apart. It begins with the opening, you see some 'android advertising' while the game optimizes itself. Several androids are recommended for security, but at the same time the disclaimer makes it clear that they cannot intervene against humans nor can they carry weapons. So what good would they be to provide security? Who in their right mind would buy a security android which is limited from actually providing security by keeping other humans away from you? It doesn't add up if you stop to think about it. Should they protect you from other androids perhaps? Why? If yours can't engage humans why would you assume others can? It doesn't add up.

Too much happening at the same time

So you start out playing as a security android who needs to free a hostage. Then you're suddenly a household android and before you get any chance to become used to this you're switched to Kara. I remember her, I saw the awesome YouTube video back in my PS3 days. But there's so little happening in these scenes and the switches between the characters happen so often that I'm still not in the slightest bit invested in this game, not at all actually.

And I think the authors realize this all too well considering that after every chapter playthrough you get to see a flowchart of your actions where yours is shown and other possible options are kept hidden from you. So... they're basically fabricating a replay value. There's no real replay value at all here other than trying to fill up that storyboard.

This is also where I started to recognize familiar controls which I remembered from "Heavy Rain"; which happens to be another title from the same developer/publisher (I wasn't aware until now). The main difference being that Heavy Rain does provide replay value without bothering us with charts that can be filled up.

And when I realized the link I'm suddenly also not much impressed with the whole "several main characters in the same game" approach anymore because... it's basically somewhat of a repeat of their previous title. The only difference being that Heavy Rain went on when the plot became interesting and 'Detroit' easily cuts off the story to switch to another protagonist again "because". Seriously: the constant switching between characters in the beginning seriously annoys me because you don't get a chance to get to learn more about these characters which makes it really hard to invest in them.

Playing an (early) chapter in Heavy Rain can easily gobble up 5 - 8 minutes, in 'Detroit' you're sometimes done in 2. Of course with that dumb chart at the end trying to bait you into a replay to try and fill out the other items on the map. And the plotholes in the story only keep piling up.

Remember that rule I mentioned that androids can't intervene against humans? So all of a sudden you're playing an android which needs to pick up a package, and while doing so you can get harassed by humans. And you're completely powerless to do anything about it.

What person would - in their right mind - let an android pick up an expensive package when they can't even defend themselves from a human who may decide to steal said package? It makes absolutely no sense what so ever.

Oh, it gets worse. In the first scene you face another android and you can even gain their trust. But wouldn't an android out of all 'people' (term used loosely) know that another android would be perfectly capable of lying? Especially when they're simply following their programming?


So androids ("AI") exist and get treated like objects. Some apparently defect and rebel. That's what I learned in the first hours of playing this game. How many times have we seen this concept before already? Each to their own but in my opinion the classic anime "Time of Eve" worked out the concept a lot better than this game. I'm missing out on the subtleties, and that's probably also because of the heavy switching between characters.

Other than the amazing graphics and awesome atmosphere there's nothing here to invest in. It looks awesome, yes, but when you look beyond all that you'll come across plenty of issues.

(edit)

The reason I also mentioned "shallow" is because of the massive plotholes and the situations that are forced upon you; the game can't carry its own weight. So here I am serving dinner as an android and then I'm ordered to stop staring, so I go back to the kitchen. The next cutscene I'm magically transported back to the table because the story needed my character to be there to witness an outburst. That's shallow gameplay: the game doesn't account for my choices.

And this happens all over the place. The person involved here goes into a rage and heads upstairs while ordering me (the android) to remain in place. But even if I do so I still end up getting magically transported upstairs to witness them killing someone. Even though my programming would not have allowed me to go upstairs. The game even recognized this: "Does not become....", so why do I still end up upstairs? Answer: because the plot needed my character to be there in order for the main person to continue their rage and come after me. Once again the game completely ignored my choices because they did not fit the story.

That is called lineair gameplay which makes the flowchart with all the other options look totally ridiculous in my opinion. So many options and it doesn't even account for the most obvious ones? Who would have thought that a player playing an android would roleplay and actually follow their programming?

If the game needs your character to be somewhere because "plot" then your choices no longer matter. Which is what I consider shallow gameplay.

(/edit)


This is definitely not a bad game or anything, but I simply cannot recommend it myself. In my opinion it's a much more shallow version of "Heavy Rain". Something which I think the authors realized and thus they applied the "scoreboard" to try and persuade you to discover all the other possible outcomes of every chapter. But the moment you manage to deviate from that flowchart (which is actually quite easy) you can clearly see how much your choices really matter.

I simply prefer a game which can rely on its storyline to persuade players into playing it again. Strip away the flowchart and.. it's just not there in my opinion. Looks aren't everything.