You are dropped into the midst of the story, using one of the best gaming and indeed all kinds of narrative gimmicks. Having lost your memory. Edward is being held captive along with a priest named Theo, the baddies seem to have already achieved what they want i.e. having you both captive. The head bad guy is named Crowley, which must be a reference to Alastair Crowley, famous author of similar tales. Funny that, I thought the Alone in the dark series was based more on H.P. Lovecraft. Maybe this new iteration is borrowing more from Crowley. Crowley sends you off with a henchman to be killed, since it seems we are no longer useful.
As we are being taken to the roof living cracks in the walls appear and suck the henchman in with a fountain of his own blood left as the only trace. The whole building comes apart and it's a race to escape it and the deadly cracks. The dead start to come back posessed by a creature that tells us that Edward was once also possessed by it and is now free much to it's disgust. It wants him back, naturally Edward wants to get as far away as possible.
Meeting up with a woman called Sarah and Theo again the trio escape by car through a New York that is exploding around them to central park. Once there the mysteries behind the demon and central park itself are explored. Edward finds out about his past, which is much more than meets the eye. Demons are battled and sacrifices are made, but will it be enough to stop Hell from breaking out all over the world?
The story is adequate for the most part, it does seem confused at times, with various elements that I will not go into for fear of spoilers, adding a murky confusion. I was never sure about the demon in the stone's identity. The Templar's intentions in building the secret of central park, or Hermes's intentions. Was edward being played for a fool by everyone involved? Did he save the day or bring about armageddon?
I just can't be sure, I can think what I want to think, but the story just wasn't explained enough for me to be one hundred percent sure of the outcome. Which reeks of sloppy storytelling. Also most of the plot is given in info dumps by side characters via telephone or face to face cut scenes. There are some nice shock moments and some good dialogue between characters. The first time Edward is confronted by a possessed girl he was helping earlier was genuinely creepy. There is an interesting point where a ghost helps you. Also it has to be said there is a fair amount of cheesy dialogue. I was never sure where the bat monsters and crab things were coming from, also the cocoons and eggs. Where did they spring from?
For a story based adventure the story was rather murky and confused.
The controls for this game are at first very complicated. You can switch between first person and third person view at will. At first it doesn't seem apparent but the first person view is only really for exploring flat open areas and fighting. While the third person view is for the more tomb raider style puzzles. Though both can be used according to your own taste and play style.
If you are failing in a certain area it probably is a good idea to try it in the alternate view.
The inventory system is based on real world physics. You can only carry a certain amount of items, which are displayed in pockets inside your jacket. There are a range of items in the game which can be used to combine with others. For example a bottle of flammable liquid can be combined with a rag to make a molotov cocktail. Bullets can be dipped in flammable liquid to make incendiary bullets. Molotov cocktails can be combined with tape to make sticky bombs. The problem with the inventory system is that the game does not pause while you access it. While this is lifelike, it means you end up rooting in your pockets and struggling with the interface while a monster chews your head.
To save the day there is a favorites system, which allows you to map four buttons to a set of actions. This is invaluable to your progress, I can't stress this enough, I was becoming frustrated with the game until I realized that getting your bullets and dipping them in flammable liquid and loading the gun could be mapped to one button press. It made a particular section that I was finding game breaking easy, and set the tone for the rest of the game.
The problem with the controls is that the game is almost finished by the time you work out all the nuances and actually get good at it. Once I was at the end of the game I was actually ready to play. If I was to play again I would probably enjoy the game much more. The problem is that there is no real replay value here.
Combat is complicated with many ways of dispatching the enemy. Fire is the only way to finish them for good however, if you batter them to the floor with a blunt object they will just get up again. Setting them alight or shooting the cracks on their body with flame bullets is the only way to finish them for good. At first you have to batter them around the head a bit by swinging objects. You hold the object and use an analogue stick to swing it in the desired direction, a novel approach although in practice it's not as fun as it sounds. As you progress you get more equipment and can throw sticky Molotov's at the bad guys or just shoot them with flame bullets which I found the best approach. At first I found that picking up a certain object amongst others was a hit or miss affair, however it comes with practice.
The collapsing building is well done with some tomb raider style jumping and grabbing puzzles. It feels similar to the opening of Half life with the whole place falling apart around us and a cast of extras being bumped off horribly.
The game allows you to get into cars and drive around. There is an open world section inside central park, and another race through the city as it falls apart. The driving is satisfactory, the car handles well, but sometimes you get stuck on scenery that you might think you wouldn't. The drive through the city is frustrating as you have to learn your way through the chaos and sometimes other cars just get in your way at random making death unavoidable and not your fault.
Once into the park though driving is mainly for getting from point to point quickly, cars are also a source of consumable objects.
There are a few tomb raider style sequences. One especially under central park could be ripped from a tomb raider game lock stock and smoking barrel. In these sections you have weighted puzzles, moving blocks, switching off flaming pipes, avoiding electricity, laser trip beams, simple puzzles with bugs following a set pattern, etc.
In some areas there is a black oil on the floor that seems to eat you if you stand on it. You can shine your torch on it and it sizzles and moves away, this allows you to drop flaming objects or glow-sticks around the area and make a safe path. There is also a boss battle with Crowley that sees him flying in a helicopter above you shining the spotlight beam down giving you a safe path to stand in, however the cruel devil makes you dance around for your life for about two minutes before leading you to safety. Apart from a few showdowns with Crowley there is only two other boss fights one with a tentacle made up of thousands of bats and another with a spider centaur demon.
There are some small details that make a difference, for example at some points you have to get lights or elevators working and have to juggle wires to get the connection right. This mechanic is also used to hot-wire the cars you find around central park.
At one point after having been separated from Sarah you struggle to save her only to find her cocooned in a huge monster, having got her out she has gone into cardiac arrest, you have to perform cpr using a sort of rhythm game. This was a nice touch although they got the medical details of the compression to breath ratio way off.
There is also a nice scene where a ghostly figure points in a room at things you need to understand. Although you can spend a while wondering what to do, i spent ages trying to blow open a door until I actually realized the the ghost was pointing to a newspapers clipping on the wall. If you zoom in on the clipping you get a cut scene. I know this might be a spoiler, but honestly it's one you will want to know to prevent half an hour of stumbling around grumbling to yourself getting frustrated.
Sometimes the puzzles can be a little glitchy, at one point when trying to get a forklift truck to raise a ramp i thought it wouldn't work, only to try again a few minutes later at a slightly different angle and have it work perfectly. The forklift is used for a few stacking box type puzzles also, which is variety at least.
One of the biggest sections of the game away from the main story-line is where you have to destroy some evil looking trees, which are called the roots of evil. You have to destroy a certain amount of them to lower a barrier to allow you to lob a Molotov at the beastie creating it. This lets you into an area to continue the plot. There are about 30 roots of evil. Though I think it's possible to complete the game by only doing half of them the score-whore in me did them all for the achievement.
Some are simply out in the open and need set on fire once you have killed all their guardians. Others have some fairly complex puzzling involving timing puzzles, driving puzzles and a bit of logic. A map shows you where each root of evil is on a big enough reconstruction of central park. By the end of the roots objects are getting sparse and there is a lot of backtracking to find firebomb materials.
You can also use your torch to shine through a lens which projects templar symbols onto walls, one big puzzle sees you exploring a castle filled with hazards and tomb raiding to light up all the symbols carved in the rock of the castle and open a door.
Inside the central park tomb area there are some fairly complex puzzles, and some are real lateral thinking headscratchers. Including crushing walls, dropping ceilings and burning wood to collapse masonry. A final driving scene against a tight clock is tense and nail-biting finale, probably more challenging than a boss battle.
Blinking must be given a mention, in several occurrences you must click an analogue stick to blink and clear Edward's vision. The first time this is introduced it's a novelty, by the time you have blinked green gloop out of your eyes for the hundredth time while fighting the scuttling monsters you will be wishing the developers had left out that idea.
Depending on your point of view about difficulty levels this game has no settings for difficulty. It is pitched as usual fairly easy to start with and hard at the end. I doubt adding difficulty levels would have been appropriate to the game, which is why they were probably left out.
The health system is a weird one. As Edward takes damage he is shown as having cuts and scrapes all over him. These affect him as when they get too much he limps a bit. If you are dealt serious damage a "bleeding out" wound is formed which will kill you inside a certain time unless you apply a bandage. Medical spray erases the smaller cuts and you inspect your own body and spray the spray on realistically.
For the most part you are on you own against puzzles and enviomental hazards. So the a.i. is not really a prominent feature. The monsters that are present simply come at you and bludgeon you to death for the most part. Some shoot at you, but they also try and hit you as well. Only firing when you get a set distance from them.
The a.i. would be classed as rubbish in a first person shooter or any other game that needed good a.i. For this game it's appropriate. There seemed to be no real glitches with the a.i. either. Zombie hordes are meant to be a bit dumb anyway, aren't they?
There were a few glitches or bugs that I noticed while playing, at one point my character froze and would not accept input from me, though strangely enough the game hadn't crashed, flames were still moving and i could go in and out of pause. At one point I jumped onto an area between forklift truck and wall and began floating in the air for a few seconds before dying for no reason. These bugs were few and far between however.
Graphics are adequate, Edward and the other characters are well done, The environment graphics aren't anything special. The physics engine is used extensively and at times impresses at other disappoints. The collapsing building is reasonably impressive graphically. The engine seems robust with everything ticking along at a reasonable if not earth shattering frame rate. The game wasn't meant to push graphical boundaries, only get the job done, and it does so well.
The level design is to be commended here, everything feels reasonably real world. I don't know how accurate the central park map is, never having been there, but it feels real enough. The hotel is well designed. The only level that feels like a game is the underground tombs, though since there are no real world counterparts then a comparison is unfair.
Sound is reasonable with some creepy music and sound effects to add atmosphere.
No multiplayer, this just isn't that kind of game, don't know if co-op would have worked. Might be worth a try for the sequel.
Checkpoints are spaced fairly well, I can't recall any unfair ones at least.
Achievements are handled well, They are mostly doled out for completing story related tasks and completing the game. I received 855 points during my time with the game which is to my mind a fair score. The remaining points are for finding and juggling around most of the objects in the game, only the handyman achievement needs serious work. For people hoping to get all 1000 points here it should be a breeze compared to some games.
Scoring
Graphics 7
Gameplay 7
Story 6
Level Design 7
A.i. 5
Total score 6.4
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