So far I feel like the comercial reviewers have got this game spot on while alot of people are complaining and marking it down for, from what I can see, no reason.
So far I've played about 8 hours of this game and gotten past the first operation in Saudi and have progressed onto the stage where you have 3 operations to choose from. I've enjoyed it so far and I'm looking forward to see how it opens up but I just thought I'd take the time to provide my honest review of the game.
Just as a note, I've been using an xbox 360 controller so some aspects maybe slightly different for me than people who souly use the mouse and keyboard.
I chose my Micheal Thornton to be a Recruit with Normal difficult on, so the experiance for me was supposidly harder.
Anyway, The Good things about AP:
Storyline, so far, has been pritty good. I like the flashback storytelling which is a nice touch.
Leveling system. The skills you can specialise in are well thought out and do give you an edge over the enemy without truely unbalancing the game itself.
Dialogue system. I've really liked how this works so far and the writing for the actual dialogue produced is good too.
Freedom to choose which missions to do, in whichever order.
The fact that doing stuff in previous missions effects things in later missions. For example, taking out a group of Elite bodyguards in one mission meant they weren't present in another one, making it easier.
The customisation of weapons and armour, as well as actually customising Mike's appearance.
I'm actually going to praise the Hacking minigame. With the Xbox controller its great, fun and easy to do.
The Graphics. Yes, the graphics... They're good, not brillient and definately not what we've been used to with games recent games like Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2, but still good. When conversing with other characters you can see the level of detail that went into it and it's great. Its just that within the main action orientated sections that the graphics tend to look dated.
And now, the bad things:
The AI. Its very random in its intelligence. One moment I could be sneaking around, snapping necks and cracking skulls then suddenly, while I'm in perfect cover, some AI grunt bastard from 20 feet away spots me, throws a grenade at my feet and runs off to tell his buddies. The AI has the brains of a retarded Rhino but the eyes of a Hawk...
Level design. Its all very linier, or at least, so far it has been. You can't even jump onto/over/off objects unless theres a certain que to tell you to.
Inability to customise Mike's casual clothing. I don't nessecarily want to be tooled up with super heavy and loud armour and I prefer the look of the Casual clothing to alot of the armour I've purcased so far. Being able to customise the look of the casual clothing would of been great.
Those are my opinions on the game so far. I think that Obsidian did a good job and this game has alot of untapped potential if a different studio were to take it on, such as Edios, if they're still around, as what this game really needed was the immense level design and freedom of the Hitman games.
Personally, I believe that with slightly more updated graphics and animations, just a few more customisation options on Mike's appearance and clothing as well as the level design and freedom that went into many of the Hitman Blood Money levels this would of been GOTY hands down.
As it stands, its mearly an average game that's worth a look if you're interested in the RPG and Spy genre but I still feel it has alot of potential that was left untapped...
Overall I agree with the comercial reviewers and give it a 7.5/10
