Well, I finally beat the game today. I have no idea how long it took. But with all the dying, maybe close to 10 hours? I played about 5 days at a couple hours per day, so that seems about right. The length felt about like what I experienced with Alan Wake which I loved and didn't find necessarily short.
I'll try to give it a review in a similar format to JinCa's guy.
Visuals
Let's start off with the obvious, visuals.
I'll be honest. At first I wasn't completely blown away. Obviously the graphics were good. But the softness of the environments and objects in it because of the filter and depth of field gave it a look that is unique but one hat you have to adjust to.
By the end of the game, I learned to appreciate the subtle approach they used to texture their world. Things that are supposed to be shiny are shiny. Things that aren't, aren't. Even for material like wood. Wooden book shelves with a high level of gloss shined. Floorboard that were weather beaten did shine, but were appropriately dull.
The fabric materials are second to none. Character clothing is just stupidly detailed. My favorite part regarding materials though was on the airship as our heroes repelled down the side of the ship/blimp. The canvas, or whatever material they use on blimps would crumple under their feet when they landed. Something simple that makes you smile for the detail put into the game.
Interior designs were pretty immaculate. Dinning rooms, kitchens, mansions, whatever were just incredible to looks at. Capcom needs to see what RAD did and emulate that for future Resident Evil games. Games can look RE Remake in full 3D. Not everything is destructible. But things that aren't necessary for cover seems to be shot up pretty good.
Characters are nearly perfect. The Lycan transformations looked really good.
Ok, enough babbling about visuals...there's so much to point out, but I give the visuals a 5 out of 5. Enough said.
Story
The underrated aspect of the game imo. I won't spoil or even try to explain what is going on. But I'll just say that I thought the story was great. I've seen big budget movies with less of a plot.
I'm not saying it's Oscar worthy or anything, or even as gripping or thought provoking as The Last of Us. But it was good.
There was a missed opportunity for choice at the end.
4 out of 5
Gameplay
Gameplay was an up and down experience for me. Most of the game is very linear and feels like a shooting gallery. AI is not great for the most part. Grunts will hide behind cover and stay there and pop their little heads out on occasion. Also, when you do take one out, another will run to the same spot and behave the same way.
RAD increased the difficulty by employing others guys ( I'm terrible at remembering exact names for enemies) that have better weapons and they will run at you, well... they will run to the sides of you, to give the impression of being flanked. Then the next level baddie are the shotgun guys. They will advance on you, sometimes armored sometimes not. They can be pesky little b****es.
Then we have the big weapon guys. They primarily stand back and shoot grenades or thermite at you. Other lesser guys will sprinkle in hand tossed grenades as well.
overall the gunplay is fun. But feels cheapned in the way AI behaves. Also you pretty much always have cover. It never gets destroyed unless you advance further up into the playfield.
The dreaded QTE's lol. This was a mixed bag as well. I loved the qte boss fights. But I hated opening doors or overriding electrical circuits. But I understand why those things are there.
Some of the branching qte's were cool, but confusing as you have to focus on where it is you're supposed to line up the reticule to trigger the button prompt. Overall QTE's immersed me in the story and didn't get in the way as suggested from reviews and whatnot.
There are a few sneaking missions that are cool but undercooked. I would have liked more of those scenes and more fleshed out. Enemy AI in these were bad though. I practically just shot everyone without me or the dead bodies being noticed.
The Lycan battles ( Non QTE's) were just kind of there. No need to explain further.
3 out of 5
Fun.
There was a stretch in the game where I wasn't having a lot of fun. But after Chapter 12, things picked up a lot. The story was coming together at that point, and enemy AI was better as your foe was more heavily trained. I won't spoil it.
3 out of 5
Overall I'm glad that I got to experience the game. Just the amount of detail and work put into it is amazing.
The game has flaws as do many games that we enjoy. Watching the enemies react to being shot never got old. They did a great job with that.
Replay Value
I probably shouldn't give a score on replay value since I probably won't play it more than once. But I'll give it a score to round out my final score. 2 out of 5. I think it's time for some Majora's Mask via trade-in-value.
17 out of 25 is 68%. But I would say that I enjoyed it more than that number would suggest, at least the last part of the game.
Some of you will play the game multiple times. So that score will go up if you do.
Nice write-up! Very comprehensive, covered everything I was curious about. Glad you liked the story. You gave me a good sense of what the gameplay and QTEs are like, both the pluses and minuses. Thanks for taking the time to detail your impressions. It's not far off from a full review, really.