This game is spectacular. It has a somewhat interesting tutorial, which is the best to hope for in a tutorial usually. It is an innovative, fun game that truly is very challenging if you play on hard mode and set the focus on manual or semi-auto on extra hard. Most gamers choose auto or semi-auto focus and it's practically cheating(the game aims the gun at the enemy for you), but if you want to play it through quickly the first time for the story, then it's perfect and if you want a harder game, then changing the focus setting's a click away in the settings menu. The second time I played through, there is challenge and excellent replayability. In addition,anyone who would call this game easy or unchallenging has not played it on extra hard and has not finished the extra missions, some of them will take you hours(even though the time limit is only three to five minutes on some of them. Three minute extra mission for four hours: do the math. It adds up to challenging. I threw my controller at the floor many, many times during the extra missions, in a good way, like you've really accomplished something. Helpful hint(not spoiler): when upgrading the machine gun, make sure to choose the upgrade that gives you a larger magazine. Just trust me on this one. It helps on the extra mission: Misslebreaker Deathmatch. I have encountered a lot of so-called pros claiming to be "hardcore FF7 players" dissing this game, but I think it's because it's not a true RPG. Seriously, I have many friends that love and still talk about FF7 and they loved this game too. The game is third person action( a la Tomb Raider Legend)/first person shooter( a la Halo) with some RPG elements. The game lets you use 1st person mode with three stylized, upgradeable weapons(what fun is a pistol without a really long barrel, or a machine gun without a sniper scope?)or 3rd person mode for hand-to-hand combat. The only real problems with the game itself is the lack of super-agility in Vincent(Known for superhuman speed and agility in advent children and dirge of Cerberus, but lacking here in gameplay. Honestly, this game would've been a ten, if it had been modeled after the effort made in Spiderman 2 for Xbox, but it still a great game nonetheless) and lack of variety in the enemies you fight(while this isn't unusual for action or FPS games, considering the huge bestiary found in FF7, I would have liked to see a Malboro, or at the very least, the infamous Midgar Zolom, classic enemies found in the 1997 RPG and where all the chocobos. Did they die? Where are they? To make up for this, there are a lot of new enemies to go along with a few classic enemies. The story doesn't really mess with the FF7 or Advent Children story lines and actually is really cool. For years, fans wanted more of the story lines regarding Vincent(mostly) and Yuffie as well as a sequel to FF7(read the internet chat and you'll find this true). The one drawback to the story is the voice acting by some of the characters and the direction of the voice acting. The voices are great but the way they come across can be really stale, but I believe the direction of the voice acting is at fault and not the actors, because the voice actors chosen were perfectly chosen. It is a joy to move seamlessly from 1st to 3rd person and back. Hit the kick button and move into 3rd person, push in the sniper scope toggle and you're in 1st. Yep, that easy. It's great. The story is solid and is told in an interesting and stunningly visual way that makes you want to keep playing to the end. It shows so much about Vincent's past that you truly sympathize with him, maybe for the first time, and understand how he became the man he is today. The music perfectly sets the mood, no matter what is going on in the story, and the graphics are truly beautiful in gameplay and the movie segments. The game is challenging unless you play it at the easiest level possible, and the tutorial actually recommends a difficulty level based on how good you are or how much you suck. Ignore the haters and buy or rent this game and revel in this late, great sequel to the masterpiece RPG FF7, and the movie Advent Children.
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
(2006 Video Game)
I loved this game, played it twice through without pausing(much)
27 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers