Michael Dagastino said:
I liked the game. I liked the writing, and the atmosphere. Character design needed work. I agree with most of the complaints. One thing they should have changed is the health of the enemies, and work more on scaring the shit out of the player. If enemies had vastly varying amounts of health, even within the 3 or 4 classes of enemies they had, it would make it a lot more hectic.
I agree 100% on the enemy health; this is why myself and a few others are advocating that everyone play the game on Hard. Nightmare is even better, unfortunately it's not available right away. On Nightmare, the axe men have considerably more darkness and health. They take a long time to burn away and then it takes like 6+ bullets to kill them. They have plenty of darkness to move in on you, and the whole while the other Taken are flanking you. You still have the fast sickle guys that only take 2 bullets, but everyone else takes 4, 6, or more, with corresponding darkness protection as well. The result is that even a small group of 3 or 4 Taken, depending on your arsenal at the time, can be a hectic and anxious battle.
On a side note, the animations that show the guys coming I think worked great. When you get a gang of Taken coming for you, it's a little "oh shit" moment. But more importantly, it sets you up for the times when they *don't* announce their appearance. Sometimes you'll be running along and you suddenly realize there is another set of footsteps in the grass behind you and you panic and quickly dodge at the last moment. Awesome. But again, this only works because in the harder levels the enemies will actually fuck you up. In Normal, it would be like walking along and realizing there is a kitten following you home. So again, PLAY ON HARD. Remedy really screwed the pooch by making the game as easy as it did.
Too soon a replay makes almost any game kind of boring, because you know what happens next.
