Like any of my reviews, this could have what some consider spoilers so read at your own risk. I haven't actually beaten this game yet, I only rented it during a free weekend and I will rent it again during another free weekend to beat it. Overall, the game has been a blast. I am going to start with the things I really like, then move to mediocre, and then to what I don't like.
I enjoy the way they did the side missions so that you can really decide whether you want to do them or not, but all of them actually seem meaningful and made me want to do them. And doing side missions is actually quite rare for me. The other thing I really like is the pay off for exploring while at the same time leaving it completely optional. For example, you can pretty much hack any door code or computer system in the game; however, if you explore enough, there is a chance you will find a pocket secretary (spoiler: the future will have PDAs) that contains a password or passcode for a system you will encounter later. I like the ability to upgrade your skills through Praxis kits that can be found, earned through XP, or purchased with money. Having all the options to add abilities is quite nice. My complaint here is I have done a lot of exploring and found kits and have purchased them and earned them, but I am nearing the end of the game and I still have lots of abilities I haven't been able to add. I would also recommend trying to keep one kit on reserve in case you find you could really use it during a mission. For example, I have gotten to places where the safe fall upgrade would have been really nice to have, but instead I had used my last one on a security hack or something. Lastly, the gun play, movement, and cover system work well, even though the cover system comes up in my complaint section. Lastly, the ability to save your game at any time is always welcomed and I wish more games would continue to offer this.
For the mediocre, I will call out the story so far. The story is entertaining, but predictable so far. Now, that is all said knowing I haven't beaten the game yet, but so far I have been able to predict each part and find myself sitting there yelling at the TV that she is lying only to find my character gets tricked because he is a fool. I believe I know the outcome of the game, but I will have to wait to see if I'm right or not. Another area that is a little weak for me is the conversations where I have to pick what he is to say. I just can't tell if it really matters what I say or not. If it does matter, then I must be awesome at talking to people because I have been getting what I need every time. BTW - the persuasion ability is lame and wasn't worth my one kit to get it and please kill the animation of my character crossing his arms in front of his chest. Every time he does it I wait for him to bust out a rhyme Vanilla Ice style.
For the bad, I don't like the switching between third person and first person view points. The majority of the game is first person, but when you go into cover it switches to third person. Switching in works well, but switching out can leave me facing strange directions and I just have trouble following where I am going to end up when I switch between them. My last complaint is a stumbled on a bug where I was doing a side mission and a core mission that both required me to visit the same place. When I visited that location, they gave me credit for the core mission, but canceled out my side mission and said I failed that mission.
Overall, great game, but I don't see a lot of replay here.
4/5
