So I finished this up today and I sort of enjoyed it in the end I don't know if I'd call it a "good" game.
The RTS system was fun, but it seemed pretty broken because of the solos. The first time I did the one real RTS battle in the game and was controlling the middle fan vents, building up an army, maxing my stage level, etc...I lost. The next time when I just ran up to the other stage with a bunch of starting units and cast "you can't summon units" I killed them since they couldn't do anything and I just kept rallying more and more units to my flag point at the enemy stage.
One the biggest issues I had with the RTS bit was it was too chaotic. Between all the units, all the solos, double team attacks, car driving, flags, zepplins, giving orders. It was just too much. I think if the camera was pulled back to a normal PC style rts it would be an interesting rts game with neat units and hero spells. But the way it is, especially in these small arenas was just too much to handle. Those tips at the loading screen about what each unit does on all sides seem like a waste because in the chaos of the battles it was basically LOT O' BADDIES suddenly running up to you and you counter with LOT O' GOODIES and solos and that was that.
The combat system was not very fun imo. You had very few moves and the lock-on/rolling was awful. It just didn't feel fluid at all. The final fight was not much fun because of this. I'm glad you really didn't have to fight much in the game. It almost feels thrown in, since the focus was on the RTS game.
Driving was a lot of fun. The races were neat, taking jumps everywhere was great. Installing weapons and blowing stuff up...thumbs up
The world was definitely a cool one, though the end portion feels underused. I felt like you spend so much time in the first half of the world with missions all over and the second half is either just a linear path (ice area/jungle) or a big setpiece with only a mission or two (the final area).
Loved the music. Overall a good selection and especially when songs were used for specific game parts/scenes they fit very well.
The hunter quests were lame. At first I liked them because of their usefulness in summons and being able to accomplish them while doing other stuff. But at some point they just require too many and it drags. I finished the game in about 10-11 hours at 90%+ completion with everything done besides a lot of bound serpents/jumps and I was still not anywhere close to the finishing the hunting quest. I thought by the time I reached the end of the game I would've finished it by just normally killing stuff while driving around doing other things. It was the reaper steeds that required 15 where I got really behind. I think I did everything in the entire black tears area by the time I killed the 15th.
Story was eh, ok. The worldview created from driving around and watching the Legends was great. They really crafted a cool history of a fantasy land based around metal. The characters were ok, not bad, but not particularly great. I thought the bus driver ended up being the best character, or at least had the best facial expressions. The plot was not bad in itself, the problem was that it was super generic, simple and short. It didn't feel like a Tim Schafer plot. The worldview did, but the current story taking place felt like it could've been done by any videogame writer these days. The more I think about it, the more I think the "Legend" bits were the best part of the game. The art murals for each one were really, reaaaaally good and the writing/narration along with them was fantastic and created a cool story.
Graphics were good art, good looking character models, time of day lighting and weather was very nice. but ARGH the framerate. One of the choppiest games I've played in a while. I wish they had done a PC version so you could play it at 60fps. Plus there might've been room for some cool mods.
Every part of the game felt fun to some degree, yet every part of the game felt flawed to some degree as well. It was worth playing through and I'd hesitantly recommend it to others, but it felt like one of those 7/10 "good" games that you put up or tune out a lot in order to lose yourself in the fun stuff.
Also I thought it was really bad taste to put the goofy fun stuff like costumes, Rasputin mountain heads, and new weapons for your car in $$$ DLC. Ok, maybe extra car weapons is ok for that, but goofy fun bonus stuff should be unlockables, not require $5 to wear a funny costume. The whole point of that stuff is just bonus fun.
oh and I tried a multiplayer game against the AI (because there weren't any people online playing the PS3 version in ranked matches at the time). I tried playing as one of the other factions and it seemed like the arenas were a lot bigger size than the SP rts battles. Was kind of confused by all the different spells and unit types that were totally different than Ironheade. Dunno if I'll be playing anymore MP. Seems like it'd take a good amount of dedication to learn how to play the other factions and since no one is playing anymore....yeah.
