+ I like Kat as a character. Cute and Witty without being forced.
+ The emphasis on vertical scale is awesome. You really feel small is these environments.
+ Challenges are what kept me coming back. I have no issue with saying they are the highlights of the game (minus 1). They simply train you to get better at handling Kat. The first time I tried the race challenge I was like, "ole boy", but after doing other challenges and going back to the race types I did them with no issue.
+ This is a dumb Platinum. Borderline boring. Just play the game and over 80% of trophies will be yours. Getting the gold rank on all 20 challenges is probably going to be wall... that is only knee high. Leveling Kat only makes these easier!
+ You can tell that Team ICO members worked on this. Same focus on vertical scale, same fictional language from ICO/SoTC/TLG, the Nevi look like the Shadow creatures from ICO/SoTC, hell one of the Nevi types looks like exactly like the 13th Colossus.
- Nevi are lame ass enemies. Visually and mechanically I find them to be very uninteresting.
- The lock on needs work. Pressing the gravity button (R1) puts Kat in gravity mode and from here you can use the on screen reticle to launch Kat in the desired direction by tapping the R1 button again. Pressing Square works the same way, but instead Kat will use a Diving Kick at whatever you are aiming at. Normally it works fine, but if the enemy even slightly moves to the right or left Kat does very little to adjust her trajectory. I had a time where I used a super long range dive kick at nevi and at the very last moment it jumped and Kat went flying into a bunch of boxes/barrels and shit. Funny but Irritating. Good luck with flying or perpetually moving enemies!
- Main mission objectives are absolutely lame. This game can not seem do anything beyond defeat this amount of Nevi. I hate missions that have nothing to do Nevi... that end up with you fighting Nevi as if they need to fill some quota. It would not be so bad if there were more than like a dozen type of Nevi that they send at you over and over again. They get worse as some missions like to rob you of your powers making it some slow boring platformer. Reason I say the challenges are the main draw here. Best Mission is the one where you free fall.
- Kat has a variety of gravity based skills but they lack fluidity between each other; they all require Kat to stop in place. My big wish is that you can launch Kat around in a sequence. The way it works now is you press R1 -> Gravity mode -> aim > RI to launch and repeat when you hit the destinantion. When you hit the destination maybe a quick fling option becomes available where time slows just to allow you to adjust destination and immediately launch. That 1 challenge I alluded to up above is where this would have been very useful.
- Camera can be wonky at times. Usually happens when Kat is in gravity mode as she can walk on any surface as if it was the ground and the camera will adjust itself to reflect that. Sometimes the way the camera swings into place can be disorienting especially when you did not intend for her to stick to a surface.
- The story, setting and characters minus Kat and Gabe are so forgettable that this is all the words I will spare them.
I like the game. I plated the game, but I have no desire to play the sequel. Weird feeling to have(does not mean I wont eventually though).
7/10
