Dude I took a break from rebirth because it is so huge and I wanted to give it some air. I thought I was a little close to the end to do that but it was time. So I took a month. Then I went back recently, and I was kinda close to the end. But after the break, I wanted more. So I did something unusual for me and went around the whole map mopping up tons of that side stuff. In most games this big, I would leave most of that, especially the most numerous little nothing-quests. But the gameplay, musi, and the immersion in that place makes it fun. I dumped in another 40 hours in three weeks and had to take another break!!!!
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After not playing anything for a few weeks due to endlessly fiddling with my first tablet pc (was a little worried I'd wish I got a laptop but no, I love this thing), I got back to Wanted: Dead and this game continues to grow on me. I can't believe how many hours I've put into it. It's just sublime.
Everyone says it's like a ps3-era game, but I swear it's not. It has tps mechanics right out of that era, but I think it was just the most straightforward way to prominently implement guns. They maybe should have nixed the cover system in favor of a simple crouch but the game has tons of rough edges so throw that one on the pile.
The feeling I get from it, I can only trace back to older 2d games. Electric Underground did compare it to metal slug. Sounds odd but I see that a bit. For me it feels a little like shinobi? Shinobi has that emphasis on the projectiles because the ninja stars are your main attack. But on the other hand, they are sort of not. So shinobi ends up feeling free-form and you have a good amount of room to use the stars or close attacks as you like.
I'm a little hooked on the feel of the game. Even running around the police station (inter-level downtime sections) is a little fun because the movement is so good. I was thinking the mc could use a few 80's one-liners, but her control is so good that it fills her out as a near-silent action game character. She's got the control you want, the moves you want, the reward you want. We wouldn't look at sonic the way we do if he controlled like a generic platformer back in the day.
