What a surprise "sleeper hit" of 2022 this game turned out to be. I am an avid stealth game player and while the genre will never truly flourish and will always have a niche appeal due to the whole, "waiting to get anywhere in the game" style of gameplay, I am glad that games like this are getting made.
One thing that irked me about the genre are two things, the fact that many of them have combat in them and either they tend to develop it's combat mechanics so much to the point where stealth feels like a less fun time waster since combat is faster and gives you more control over what you do by design and body dragging while I did kind of like how the first two Splinter Cell games did it where it penalizes you for actively killing in most of the other games in the genre, it feels like an afterthought, or it's either too dull to fully engage with since it feels like you are on clean up duty.
This is where Serial Cleaners comes in, it removes combat entirely and it makes body moving an active part of the gameplay. And the before mentioned "clean up duty" issue I brought is the very premise of the game.
Before I discuss the game I would like to say that I did play the first game and didn't like it very much, I found it to be far too punishing where if you died, you would have to restart the level from scratch with all the bodies you dragged and the blood you cleaned up set back 0 when you get caught, partner that with erratic AI and how you can get 95% of the mission done and then get caught and it's over and restart the whole level, it added so much frustration that I didn't want to deal with.
This is where the sequel improves and the addition that made it me beat this game and not the first, bodies, blood and completed objectives are now saved every time you save at a save point unless if an enemy is chasing you nearby the save point. You will occasionally get checkpoints on missions during key story points which also mitigates frustration. You also get difficulty options now, and while I don't reccomend everyone to play on easy, I say if you feel like the AI is noticing you way to fast on the "normal" difficulty then switch to easy and see if you like it more that way. The game is challenging either way and you will get seen and restart a lot even on easy mode.
With all that out of the way, let's start with the good, the story and voice acting are very well done and is extremely engaging, it feels like you are watching a fun crime drama with mysteries, twists and turns that does a good job at adding context to the gameplay while also keeping you motivated enough to see the game through to the end. The worst character is Viper and it comes from how awkward and forced her dialogue is since she basically feels like what middle aged adults think what young adults who use the internet a lot would talk like. The rest of the cast are charming and "likable" especially Bob since he's the kind of guy who's been around for so long to know how everything in his business works. He also is a guy trying to find attachment but not too much considering how she lost his mother.
It's rather refreshing to see a stealth game with this premise since the genre tends involve spies, assassins, and theives. This also does a good job at contextualizing the fact that the characters you play aren't trained combatants and if you do get caught, you are better off running away than fighting, which is refreshing but can be offputting for some since this can arguably break immersion since you can run away from enemies so many times and they won't even suspect that something is up. The AI can act spotty but not to the point of being unplayable, it mostly comes from how they will see cleaned up blood, and a body being moved and they will suspect for a few seconds and be on patrol. I get why this is here but some could be taken out of it.
The lack of combat mechanics and the fact that you aren't going full action movie hero mode after being seen is going to make it more obvious. I would've at least liked to permanently remove guards out of the levels like maybe 1 or 2 so I can have a few more options rather than constantly run away but you are given more options here than say survival horror games where all you can do is hide. Later levels of the games and different characters gives you different if rather unrealistic ways to get the heat off you. Like bumping into enemies, breaking line of sight and hiding, go into elevators where the enemy will stop chasing you, climb ladders, parkour up a wall, hide in vents, opening doors on guards, or using your bodies you pick up as a battering ram. Other levels will multi leveled areas which makes it even easier to slip past guards.
You know also get to play as 4 characters and this game surprisingly handles this well too. Bob is the weakest to play as since his blood slide ability is rather situational in a game where you need to clean blood actively. Lati is great for her parkour abilties especially in later levels, where you can slip by cops a lot faster with her run speed, and climbing up a wall. Psycho for knocking out guards when running away, and Viper has that while also hiding under vents which is the best hiding spots in the whole game. If anything, I say do Bob's missions first and then do Lati, Psycho and Viper's missions afterwards. The later characters let's you mess around with the enviroments in more interesting ways.
Overall, if you want a stealth game that is nothing but stealth with no combat mechanics or even being able to permenantly knock out guards and it's pure sneaking gameplay minus all the stuff that arguably makes the genre easier then check the game out. If you are struggling on normal see if lowering it to easy will make the AI more mangeable. This game is going to have a limited appeal for people and people who likes to play stealth with "options" aren't going to like it, but what's here is worth looking into for those who want to give it a chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment