Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsMarvelous Technical Achievement, Average Game
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2020
The fact that they managed to squeeze this game onto the Switch is frankly, mind-blowing to me.
I remember when I got the original PSP. It blew my mind with its PS1 quality graphics at the time. And now we have this marvel.
As a port, I can't fault it. Any flaws that it has can be forgiven just because of how well it runs and how it good it manages to look while doing it.
The game, on the other hand.
I adored The New Order. It came out of nowhere and blew me away with excellent graphics, a deep, character driven narrative, and some damn satisfying gameplay.
The New Collosus is a bloated, over-stuffed sequel, unfortunately.
The gameplay suffers from a series of incredibly silly little niggles that ruin the experience overall.
You're never aware of how much damage you've taken until you die, there are way too many big robot enemies that are just bullet sponges, and the stealth is completely broken.
The environments range from blue gray corridor to other blue grey corridor. They're too dark and boring to be any fun to rampage through.
The story, while touching on some great points, feels poorly thought out. I get what they're trying to say, but it doesn't fit in well with the gameplay.
We go from a scene where a child BJ and his mum are viciously brutalised by his racist father, to blowing Nazis with a weapon in each hand.
It almost feels like a Metal Gear Solid game at times, where cut scenes can go on forever. But the difference is that while MGS has some of the most entertaining writing in existence, here it's all so deadly serious it really gets to you.
The overarching themes of racism, bigotry, and how easy it is for a country to slip into fascist rule are great themes. And there are occasional moments of brilliance in the writing, but it never comes together.
It gets in the way of the already lacking gameplay, making the whole experience one that grates a lot more than it entertains.
This needs to be a whole lot leaner. Things need to be cut, enemies need to be more varied, environments need to be more interesting, and the story needs to get out of the way of gameplay.
I doubt I'll even finish this one, to be entirely honest. Doom 2016 this ain't.
What a damn shame.
