Vertigo 2: Into the Aether Review (Aezeus)
Overall, more Vertigo, more good. So I thoroughly enjoyed this! However I would say, the fact that it has seen less playtesting than the base game is very clear, and that this is a shorter little addon.
SPOILERS (but not story spoilers, only gameplay)
The base game is better, and a lot of things are communicated poorly to the player here. You have to figure out somewhat randomly that this is not on-rails like vertigo, but infact some metrodiv-whatever-that-genre-is-called game where you explore one huge level. Okay, this is fine, but was not communicated. So I assumed I was dumb or missing something when I had to backtrack a lot.
Now, this leads up to a big boss battle, which frankly... Is unbalanced. I kept dying, I barely did any damage to the boss, even on easy, despite deflecting, using the revolver, and having collected all 10 rings. So it was very frustrating. Not to mention you are reading the boss dialogue, which as it is translated, can only be seen in subtitles! WHILE YOU ARE FIGHTING TO BOSS. I am sorry but this is such a horrible decision, and it made it so I had to more or less defeat the boss on story mode to actually have an enjoyable experience here, despite otherwise effortlessly flying around the base game on hard no problem. The boss battle also lacked depth. Beyond that, a lot of areas in the game just communicated very badly to the player "what next" leading to either constant dying, or not knowing how to continue.
As an example, you have an area where an enemy (the librarians) will instantly kill you as soon as you are spotted. I tried going there many times, instantly died, and due to knowing there is a deflector which I did not yet have. I assumed this was off limits. Until I had eventually explored everything numerous times, realizing I had to gun it through that section, to then reach the deflector. Which was VERY counterintuitive, because you have two sections where you get shot at by projectiles you cannot dodge, a place where the deflector is needed to pass, and the hallway leading to the deflector itself. Which is bad design. Because you simply assume you cannot go there as you instantly die.
So, while I love this as another addition to the vertigo franchise. I am also very frustrated with the "okayness" of a lot of things here. however this is still getting a good review from me. Because even with its flaws, this DLC is a better VR game than so many. lol