Girl Gamer

The purpose of the game is simple – Survive. But how you accomplish this goal is what makes this game a beauty.

The co-op play dynamic in the game allows you to use co-op moves at anytime. Scan, set up a type of “planning” scheme to flank enemies and take them by surprise…it was quite a surprise in itself to see just how well this actually worked.

One of my favorite parts near the beginning of play is when you first “mock surrender” to a group of PMCs that appear to be hunting you down due to the beacons you had just set up. When they announced the order to get rid of us, I quickly drew my secondary weapon (though you could have drawn your weapon at anytime or even bypassed the mock surrender and just jumped right into a fight) and went up to one of the three and just did these beautiful shots in the face…Pow pah pow pow pow! And courtesy of the game, as I executed this, the game went into a slow-mo so that I could better appreciate the kill.

(Lead Editor slowly backs away from GG-Joylia…)

The game also gives players the opportunity to make decisions that “test your morality.”

Do you off the annoying drone soldier or tie them up and let them live another day? Is the contact who has helped you thus far, worthy of being spared? Or does the call of money beckon you to pull the trigger? For many of these choices, the outcome is then shown in the form of comic panels that were created by comic artists Chris Bachalo and Mark Simpson, a.k.a Jock.

The game also allows you to not just pick up weapons that lay next to the fresh lifeless bodies of those who stood in your way, but you are also able to buy additional weapons and customize these weapons with a variety of parts – ranging from the size of the clip, to the barrel, stock, scope and more. The only part of this that had me arching a brow was – “how does “pimping out” your weaponry – whether it is making it out of gold or having encrusted diamonds all about it – make it so much more better? You know that gold IS the most malleable and ductile of all metals, right?

The tutorial of the game was easy to follow and I felt worked exactly as a tutorial should work.

The timing and instruction were given at perfect times and it did not feel as if you were being just thrown out like a piece of meat to the hungry wolves to feast on. Graphics, sound, and at times, the feel of the game, kept reminding me of Far Cry 2. Though in Far Cry 2 (at least the PC version) – graphics were better, true, but just something about this game really had me going back a bit.

Overall, the first 20 minutes of the game were gorgeous, but had me questioning just how exciting the game would be overall. It does seem slow and a tad boring, but it does pick up and once it does, it just keeps on going and going and going.