Among many open world games, one game is always compared with "GTA" or superhero themes. However, its actual experience is different from the propaganda, especially in terms of the choice of "justice and evil", it does not have the decisive impact as expected.
Difficulty curve and growth feedback
When playing the game, choose the highest difficulty and you will immediately experience the subtleties of character growth. Even if you upgrade to the later stage, ordinary enemies can still easily pose a threat. Health and attack power are not the key to clearing the level. This design requires players to focus on combat skills and strategic use, rather than just relying on numerical crushing.
In the game, the growth of the enemy and ourselves is generally synchronized, and the numerical increase does not change the actual difficulty much. This leads to an interesting performance: when players look back to deal with the low-level tasks left over from the early stage, they will suddenly realize that they can easily deal with groups of enemies. This difference in power comparison between the previous and later periods intuitively reflects the character's growth, but does not destroy the core challenge.
Familiar sandbox framework
As far as the core gameplay is concerned, it builds a sandbox RPG structure that we seem to have seen before. Players undertake tasks, explore strongholds, and open areas on a vast map. This model is common in games in recent years. Its basic cycle does not have a revolutionary breakthrough.
In this case, what is its unique selling point? So where is the shortcoming? If we want to answer this questionable situation, we must break away from the framework of gameplay and carefully examine the other supporting things that shape the overall experience. Simply setting up the system based on the task list and upgrades, there is no way to make it show outstanding features in the same type of works.
Immersive visual presentation
One of the most striking features of this game is its extremely simple interface. The staff engaged in development work have greatly reduced the icons and related prompts on the screen. The purpose is to allow players to completely immerse themselves in the world created by the game. Such a deliberate "disappearance" makes the picture itself become the core information carrier.
In order to achieve this goal, the camera mode is set up in the game. This mode is powerful and provides adjustment options for many detailed parameters from aperture, graininess to lens angle. Players can pause at any time to capture the beautiful scenery in front of them. Although due to optimization considerations, the final version has reduced details compared with the early demos, its visual art style still creates a strong appeal.
A visually driven exploration loop
Because the graphics are extremely expressive, developers only need to set simple collection elements and area unlock rewards to effectively drive players to explore. Looking for shrines, climbing to high places, and discovering that the beautiful scenery itself becomes the motivation to continue playing. This driving method that relies on environmental narrative and visual rewards constitutes a unique addictive cycle.
There are even reports that in order to allow players enough time to read the prompt text and art settings in the loading screen, the development team specially made adjustments and slowed down the loading speed. This emphasis on rhythm and details confirms its determination to create a sense of immersion.
Shortcomings in sound effects and performance
While the visual experience meets high standards, the game's sound effects and performances are somewhat inferior. The facial expressions of characters in cutscenes occasionally appear stiff. Compared with some works that are known for their cinematic narratives, there is a gap that can be seen with the naked eye. This part may require more resources to be invested in future works to improve it.
In terms of sound effects, after experiencing the fine polishing of sword collision sounds in works such as "Sekiro", players' standards for such sound effects have been greatly improved. In this game, although the percussion sound effects are still passable, they lack impressive highlight moments, and the overall level is at a level of "no mistakes but no highlights either."
Combat experience and sense of repetition
The early stages of the game's combat are full of fun, and the first few dozen climbs and explorations are quite innovative. Coupled with a death mechanism that has almost no punishment, it ensures that the game flow is smooth and will not be interrupted due to frustration. This kind of design lowers the entry barrier and encourages players to boldly try.
However, once the player has figured out the combat routine and is able to use it skillfully, then in the later stages, when it comes to conquering strongholds and liberating areas, the combat can easily become monotonous. At the same time, the enemy AI lacks depth and tactics can be "abused". This makes the originally well-designed battlefield gradually lose the fun of challenge and exposes the problem of insufficient gameplay depth.
On the whole, the advantages of this game are as obvious as the disadvantages; it shows unique characteristics in terms of visual immersion and exploration drive; but it has made a certain degree of compromise in terms of narrative depth and long-term appeal of the combat system; such a development thinking has gains and losses. path, which ultimately led it to successfully create a new series with potential; do you think that in order to achieve the ultimate visual experience, and make concessions on some depth levels of the gameplay, is this a reasonable choice? You are welcome to share your views on this in the comment area.
