I was out of town in the weekend so I am way behind, I am in the middle of chapter 3 and really loving it so far. It feels like the Silent Hill I always wanted with some TLOU elements to it. I'm starting to gain new skills and the options for killing are getting more creative. At first I was afraid of everything, two hits kills you. Now I am learning how to do crowd control and kill enemies with one or two shots, seeing that the match is gone from the first I had to find a substitute. I do stealth as much as I can and that aspect is an improvement on the first. So far it's been optional so I like that I can go into action mode if I want.
This open section is great cause like Uncharted LL it's not huge and because of that it allows this world to be filled with unique interesting situations. I don't feel like I am just chasing icons on a map. I enter a house and all sorts of crazy shit occurs. I've been loving the random situations and enemy encounters that pop up.
The problem with open world is always how do you make the encounters feel as good as a linear game. As great as chapter 3 has been if I compare it to the equivalent chapter in the first game with the village, I have to say no moment in TEW2 has been as well designed, intense or as fun to play as that section in TEW1. But I gained exploration and the uncertainty of what's in that house to replace the really well crafted area of the first. What do you value more, I tend to side with the better designed linear sections.
Combat feels about the same but again tighter encounter design made the first game feel better, especially with all the traps. It still has a bit of a janky feel to it all and that might be the upgrade system, purposefully making shooting and stealth weak until you improve it. I still compare all TPS to RE4 and it's amazing how perfect those controls and reactions to every action were. I could shoot a knife off a guys hand, shoot a leg, run up knock them down and headshot them all so easy and smoothly. Try that here and while it's possible to do some of that it's like a mission. There are also some weird animation stuff happening when climbing objects, again I go back to RE4 and how perfect movement was to get up on objects, and how enemies would react when climbing shit and getting shot. Here I have seen enemies get hung up trying to climb something, I've seen bullets do nothing to someone climbing over a fence, I've had sebastain like sort of float on an enemies head. I guess this whole paragraph is just me venting about why hasn't anything felt as good as RE4.
I'm hooked exploring every nook and cranny. I feel the upgrades are all valuable which really helps with the exploration because it matters. The story has been eh so far and I don't like how sebastian is so confused about everything. Overall though, I'm very pleased.
