izigame.me

I wish I liked this gamed, it has a lot going for it. I think the vast majority of people that enjoyed Nioh will feel right at home with this game. But for me, the further I made it through this game, the more I felt annoyed rather than challenged. I loved the game all the way up through the 1st main area (first act or whatever it's called), but it fell off hard after that. The game moves from having engaging fights with well crafted enemies to all the types of difficulty I do not find fun in games like these. The combat is great, the graphics and performance are amazing, but this game does more to frustrate you than challenge you. Examples are:
Enemies hidden around corners constantly or obscured from vision
Invisible enemies that you can only see foot prints, that then become visible right before command grab
Enemies disguised as non combatants that will attack, or sometimes command grab you
Enemies disguised as items that grab and throw you off ledges
Enemies that fly out of range shooting crap at you, that if grabbed, will throw you off a ledge
Treasure chests that explode while looting
Bats placed solely to knock you off ledges or high beams you're walking across
Rivers of poison or some other BS you have to wade through afflicting you
enemies that leave behind self guided missiles once they die
enemies leaving pools of acid type shit around after dying
Battle constantly fought on ledges, or on beams you're walking across
Holes that open up in the floor unexpectedly for you to fall to your death
snipers inconveniently located in most fights to pepper you while you try to fight
Water that kills you if past your knees
The list goes on and on..
I wouldn't mind if these situations popped up every once in a while like most games in this genre, however this game seems to take all that to a new level, and then some. The amount of times the above type situations come into play become more and more frequent the further into the game you get. The game more often seems to seek anxiety engaging moments rather than engaging combat, at least for me.
Here is the progression of the game:
1st act, fight all new types of enemies and have engaging boss fights.
2nd act, reuse all enemies from 1st act, except put the fights on a ledge, and put a few snipers on other side of ledge to pepper you while fighting a dude trying to knock you off, keeping you from engaging snipers. Then after fight, place a few spots on the ground that will break if you walk on them so they can do it all over again.
3rd act. more of the same, but some great boss fights.
That being said, the game has a lot of positive things to mention that other reviews will praise the game for I'm sure, and I likely agree with a lot of it. I think I am likely in the minority when I say this game just wasn't for me, even though I do enjoy similar games. I would suggest picking up the demo and if you like it, maybe you won't have the same frustrations I did as the game goes on.