Great atmosphere, terrible game design.
There is a lot this game has to offer if you're in the market for horror games. the atmosphere and story telling is the best part of it but playing the game at this point in time you may be turned off by the poor gameplay and terrible game design.
My main problem with the game involved the moments where you were required to shoot at enemies. Ammo is limited and the gunplay sucks. if the game played through it's entirety like an adventure game i would have a better perspective on it. As is, the gunplay are primarily the moments where i just said "i really don't want to play this game anymore."
Aside from the gunplay, there were very inconsistent moments of not knowing, or the game not communicating, what to do next. It's common in survival horror but in this game the solutions tend to be things you didn't think you would be able to do. running down some scaffolding to be blocked by a giant tentacle would suggest, "find a different approach" but a second try reveals that that was the solution from the start, what i did different, i will never know, sneaking past enemies, while you have no weapon, that you assume WOULD be able to see you from the angle they're standing, whereas elsewhere they seem to spot you regardless, or dying from a titlewave over and over because the game doesn't communicate how to protect yourself in the situation.
Take note: i had to play through the game watching an original Xbox Lets Play on you tube. the version i played was on PC and there were some inconsistencies in the way of dialog, so communication could have been lost in glitching for all i know...the most important thing to know when playing it on the PC is the INVISIBLE REEF GLITCH. If it wasn't for the offhand mention of this glitch in the Lets Play i probably never would have been able to finish the game.
in the end, it was worth playing through once for the story and atmosphere but i have no desire to go through with it again...you are more likely better off watching someone else play it then playing it yourself or just play it on the easiest difficulty setting.
Reference:
Dealing with the Reef Glitch on the PC:
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