First off, the graphics had some fairly serious issues. Texture quality and detail level just seems subpar to other titles released around the same time. Some games from last year even look better. There also seems to be a bug which makes certain sections of the game fail to load textures at all. It's tolerable but doesn't really do anything for the game's ability to immerse the player in it's world.
The story works decently well, but it suffers slightly from being too complicated for itself. Among other things the actions performed by the main character would be enough to generate several time paradoxes. I much prefer the "show, don't tell"-style of storytelling early on in the game as opposed to the more blatant "in your face"-style which seems to dominate later on.
Gameplay ranges from passable to good for the most part. Gunplay is smooth and only a few short segments really stand out as frustrating. The main problem in the weapons department is that half of the arsenal consists of gimmick weapons, which are only useful in a few situations where they are shoehorned onto the player. I think there would be a larger potential for variation and enjoyment out of the gameplay if these gimmick weapons were more widely applicable. The time manipulation powers turn out to work better. Although they too suffer from being somewhat gimmicky, they at least have a wider field of application.
Atmosphere in large parts of the game is what it does best. There seems to be something about creeping around in old Russian ruins that makes it impossible to fail at creating tension. In it's best moments I would almost put it on par with Metro 2033 in this aspect.
In summary, the plot, graphics and gameplay problems pull down the overall score quite a bit. Without these issues, maybe with a few innovative ideas added for good measure, this game had potential to be more than mediocre.
The story works decently well, but it suffers slightly from being too complicated for itself. Among other things the actions performed by the main character would be enough to generate several time paradoxes. I much prefer the "show, don't tell"-style of storytelling early on in the game as opposed to the more blatant "in your face"-style which seems to dominate later on.
Gameplay ranges from passable to good for the most part. Gunplay is smooth and only a few short segments really stand out as frustrating. The main problem in the weapons department is that half of the arsenal consists of gimmick weapons, which are only useful in a few situations where they are shoehorned onto the player. I think there would be a larger potential for variation and enjoyment out of the gameplay if these gimmick weapons were more widely applicable. The time manipulation powers turn out to work better. Although they too suffer from being somewhat gimmicky, they at least have a wider field of application.
Atmosphere in large parts of the game is what it does best. There seems to be something about creeping around in old Russian ruins that makes it impossible to fail at creating tension. In it's best moments I would almost put it on par with Metro 2033 in this aspect.
In summary, the plot, graphics and gameplay problems pull down the overall score quite a bit. Without these issues, maybe with a few innovative ideas added for good measure, this game had potential to be more than mediocre.