With the passing of nearly a decade, the events and growth of The Fall are forgotten by the developers, with a retcon allowing for a retread: the death of his family tortures Max(McAffrey doing great with decent material), who disappears into a bottle. He is recruited by Raul(Dean, charming) for a job in Sao Paolo(which is authentic and detailed... you get to go around in it, visiting, among others, a nightclub, a mansion, and most engaging and threatening, the favela), bodyguarding rich socialite brats. When someone under his care is abducted, he tries to get them back(as unlikeable as they, and most characters in this, are).
You can already see some of the problems. While a new setting is fine(and kudos for the choice to have most locals talk Portuguese, without translation - we feel his isolation, the foreign nature of his surroundings), and it is explained why he ends up there, it has no connection to him, he feels placed in someone else's story. It's no longer personal, and there's no new fleshing out of him as a person.
In many ways, this feels like Kane & Lynch. With it being him instead of them, it doesn't make that much sense. And once one has drawn that comparison, here's where those work(I'll put those parts in parentheses at the end of sentences), and this fails: what you'll realize in this is that whether you've played this for minutes or hours, what's happening will be the same. Nothing is getting accomplished, so what's your motivation to keep playing(as opposed to small, and sickening victories - you're doing what you have to, and no progress is pleasant, it's merely getting you towards the peace and hopefully closure of the conclusion)? Cutscenes(with choppy, hand-held cinematography and color blurring, evoking the sense of being there, and being overpowered by what's going on around you - with the panels so replaced, what was a retelling is now an inescapable reality) take control from you(immediately breaking up your getting into it... and this happens within minutes of each other, there may be as much time just watching as playing; it will leave you in a bad position, with the worst weapon ready, no reloading and you not having time to do so yourself - and the foes typically already know where you are) and lead you to the next shooting gallery, rinse and repeat(rather than the more varied game-play, particularly in the '07 original where you assault somewhere, complete something vital, and then exfiltrate, trying and failing to do so without causing damage and hurting those you don't mean to).
You simply can't choose the approach(it even chooses to spawn more opponents, early on it may even do so in your blind spot, preventing you from getting your bearings - and then expects you to gather ammo, as well as painkillers, that thankfully mean you have to work for health), for the first time in these, and exploration is all but gone. At least this does do many fun set-pieces where you're leaping through the air, on a vehicle or the like, where you aim and fire. The drunkenness might explain the sluggish, unresponsive controls that cause needless frustration - it'll rush ahead or stop in its tracks with no warning, and instead of preventing you from going that close, proximity to walls will make you point your gun up - again, suddenly, and taking time to get back out of that mess. I guess Assassin's Creed is not the only victim of such. Vaulting over something is what you have instead of jumping - and you can't always tell what you can "climb".
Yes, areas are very small, and action is heavily scripted. Replayability(other than 5 difficulty settings) is present via the unlockables(some of them also for SP, and all of them benefit both modes), such as finding Golden versions of what's in your arsenal(with a more realistic approach, it's now limited to one two-handed, like a rifle or grenade/rocket launcher, and two one-handed ones, any of the latter can be dual-wielded, doesn't even have to be 2 of the same type - not even only pistols, also a sawn-off and Micro Uzis!) that will improve their stats, and Arcade. Yes, New York Minute returns, and it's joined by two other ways to redo SP: Score Attack where any kills and vehicle/similar destruction counts towards a possible medal, and Challenge, where you are given specific, tough tasks, such as "make all your 8 rounds headshots", "blow up guys by taking out the car they're standing by"(meanwhile, they're going straight for you!).
The cover system is the most basic I've seen since before that trait caught on... the roll is present, yet can't be used to go from one of these bits to another, nor can you round corners. Disengaging from it leaves you a sitting duck, even if you're crouched! It also appears that those who worked on that(the whole minute they spent doing so) were not on speaking terms with those working on the dodge move. Neither can launch comfortably into the other(and certainly they don't complement the other... this offers nearly no innovation in this area). Bullet-time is glorious as always, and you can now slow down the Last Enemy Killed camera, as you, if you so choose, empty your clips into them. If you are nearly dead, you get a grace period, in slo-mo, to take out the one who wounded you.
Multiplayer has TDM, Deathmatch and, when people play, Last Man Standing. Gang Wars has players fight with one of the up to 5 Crews they've joined, five objective-based rounds in a row, where the winner of one will determine who is in the better position for the next - fail an assassination? Escape!
There is constant strong language, a lot of disturbing content, brutal, bloody gore and sexuality in this. I recommend this purely to big fans of Rockstar and current shooters. 7/10
You can already see some of the problems. While a new setting is fine(and kudos for the choice to have most locals talk Portuguese, without translation - we feel his isolation, the foreign nature of his surroundings), and it is explained why he ends up there, it has no connection to him, he feels placed in someone else's story. It's no longer personal, and there's no new fleshing out of him as a person.
In many ways, this feels like Kane & Lynch. With it being him instead of them, it doesn't make that much sense. And once one has drawn that comparison, here's where those work(I'll put those parts in parentheses at the end of sentences), and this fails: what you'll realize in this is that whether you've played this for minutes or hours, what's happening will be the same. Nothing is getting accomplished, so what's your motivation to keep playing(as opposed to small, and sickening victories - you're doing what you have to, and no progress is pleasant, it's merely getting you towards the peace and hopefully closure of the conclusion)? Cutscenes(with choppy, hand-held cinematography and color blurring, evoking the sense of being there, and being overpowered by what's going on around you - with the panels so replaced, what was a retelling is now an inescapable reality) take control from you(immediately breaking up your getting into it... and this happens within minutes of each other, there may be as much time just watching as playing; it will leave you in a bad position, with the worst weapon ready, no reloading and you not having time to do so yourself - and the foes typically already know where you are) and lead you to the next shooting gallery, rinse and repeat(rather than the more varied game-play, particularly in the '07 original where you assault somewhere, complete something vital, and then exfiltrate, trying and failing to do so without causing damage and hurting those you don't mean to).
You simply can't choose the approach(it even chooses to spawn more opponents, early on it may even do so in your blind spot, preventing you from getting your bearings - and then expects you to gather ammo, as well as painkillers, that thankfully mean you have to work for health), for the first time in these, and exploration is all but gone. At least this does do many fun set-pieces where you're leaping through the air, on a vehicle or the like, where you aim and fire. The drunkenness might explain the sluggish, unresponsive controls that cause needless frustration - it'll rush ahead or stop in its tracks with no warning, and instead of preventing you from going that close, proximity to walls will make you point your gun up - again, suddenly, and taking time to get back out of that mess. I guess Assassin's Creed is not the only victim of such. Vaulting over something is what you have instead of jumping - and you can't always tell what you can "climb".
Yes, areas are very small, and action is heavily scripted. Replayability(other than 5 difficulty settings) is present via the unlockables(some of them also for SP, and all of them benefit both modes), such as finding Golden versions of what's in your arsenal(with a more realistic approach, it's now limited to one two-handed, like a rifle or grenade/rocket launcher, and two one-handed ones, any of the latter can be dual-wielded, doesn't even have to be 2 of the same type - not even only pistols, also a sawn-off and Micro Uzis!) that will improve their stats, and Arcade. Yes, New York Minute returns, and it's joined by two other ways to redo SP: Score Attack where any kills and vehicle/similar destruction counts towards a possible medal, and Challenge, where you are given specific, tough tasks, such as "make all your 8 rounds headshots", "blow up guys by taking out the car they're standing by"(meanwhile, they're going straight for you!).
The cover system is the most basic I've seen since before that trait caught on... the roll is present, yet can't be used to go from one of these bits to another, nor can you round corners. Disengaging from it leaves you a sitting duck, even if you're crouched! It also appears that those who worked on that(the whole minute they spent doing so) were not on speaking terms with those working on the dodge move. Neither can launch comfortably into the other(and certainly they don't complement the other... this offers nearly no innovation in this area). Bullet-time is glorious as always, and you can now slow down the Last Enemy Killed camera, as you, if you so choose, empty your clips into them. If you are nearly dead, you get a grace period, in slo-mo, to take out the one who wounded you.
Multiplayer has TDM, Deathmatch and, when people play, Last Man Standing. Gang Wars has players fight with one of the up to 5 Crews they've joined, five objective-based rounds in a row, where the winner of one will determine who is in the better position for the next - fail an assassination? Escape!
There is constant strong language, a lot of disturbing content, brutal, bloody gore and sexuality in this. I recommend this purely to big fans of Rockstar and current shooters. 7/10