Disappointing last third
Just finished LoS, and what an emotional rollercoaster it was. From epic, almost tear-inducing vistas to those fucking chupacabras to Robert Carlyle's (Begbie the psycho in Trainspotting) and Patrick Steward's excellent voice acting, to mind-numbing puzzles, to repetitive combat, to awesome bossfights, to a stupid post-credits cutscene.
When I wasn't gripping the controller in some tense traversing or mini-boss fight, I was shouting at the screen in frustration. Who the fuck decided to back-load the last third of the game with slogging, pacing-crippling, boring puzzles? Everything from Baba Yaga onward gets 2 stars from me - I was sensing the end was near, and I wanted the pace to reflect this. Instead, I got one ridiculous puzzle after the other, punctuated by traversal sections which by now had become pretty goddamn old. Up to this point, I would have given it 4 stars, but the inexcusably poor pacing of the last third just dragged it down. The last boss-fight was pretty good, as was the cutscene following it, but then the incoherent mess that came after the credits cancelled that out again.
The story of this game: Some really good ideas and mechanics, dragged down by poor choices on the part of the developers. I am glad I can finally remove this game from my pile of shame, and never have to look at it again.
