izigame.me

This is not the game I needed it to be.
Getting the pros out of the way: basic atmosphere is on point. The voice acting and the music are great and did a lot of the heavy lifting for getting me invested in the game. And Pill Cop is a work of art no matter what the critics say.
The gameplay itself is...not so great.
- The Max Payne influence is very apparent, but the mechanics implemented simply don't make sense. Bullet time dives work in Max Payne when you need to clear out a room of gun-wielding criminals before they have time to shoot back. But in EPE the majority of enemies use melee attacks, so diving just means you're lying on the floor ready to be dogpiled by the enemies you didn't manage to kill. There's no reason not to just use the dedicated slow-down-time button instead.
- Plenty of reviews have mentioned the repetitive level design, but I don't think any have mentioned the extremely messed up spawning system. The game will spawn new enemies when you hit certain triggers, but the spawn locations are illogical and sometimes extremely cruel. One level in particular will spawn angels directly above you, where you won't know they exist until they've already started firing.
- On a related note, enemy design is really not great. The brides and their teleporting force you to yank the camera all over the place to keep up, which of course means you can't see the conga line of zombies about to crash down on you.
- The game runs out of ideas by the halfway point. They don't have any more enemy types to offer so instead you get 'elite' enemies which are a different colour and do more damage. Level design isn't about new and interesting challenges so much as throwing more and more enemies at you at once. And using 'the void' as a narrative excuse to throw assets together doesn't really work.
- Gunplay feels bad and inconsistent. Sometimes enemies die to one shot, sometimes they don't. There's a dead zone right next to you where guns just can't connect so your only option is to spend a stake or die.
I'd still have been somewhat satisfied with the game if it ended on a high note with the sort of payoff I'd been hoping for, but it doesn't. James is very much aware that he was in an abusive relationship, complete with some colourful and elaborate descriptions of the awful things Draculae did to him, but he never manages to fully escape his feelings for her. As someone who suffered a particularly painful breakup a few years ago, I wanted catharsis where he gets to bury his demons and at least find inner peace before he dies. But whatever ending you get he's still sympathising with Draculae and telling her she isn't a monster and never quite holding her to account for the terrible things she's done. Perhaps this is more of a personal issue than a narrative one, but after pushing through the less-than-stellar gameplay to get there it didn't feel like the outcome I wanted.