Our bland(he's not the only character like that in this...) protagonist is on the bridge(left in sections, with a raging river that comes into a waterfall that doesn't look like it was there before the earthquakes hit clearly visible if you look down) into the devastated city of Haventon, to reunite with his estranged wife and daughter.
He meets a young girl, and tries to help her(starting off the plot, which will be your pilot whether you'd like it or not; this is so linear that you won't feel much like replaying, and any hopes of an open-world experience disappear early, when this keeps giving new equipment every so often, letting you enter new areas, and making this hand-holding completely unnecessary), as well as others he comes by(requiring you locate them, and can spare the finite resources), and each will grant you a Retry.
Yes, this has you earning the right to return to most recent checkpoint(lest you'll start the level over), an aspect that could be fine(it tends to be the combinations of elements that cause problems in this) were it not for the trial-and-error problem solving. You do get infinite if you play on Easy(there are three difficulties), though it's a wonder they didn't merely limit your amount of saves, rather than reverse that. Points for trying to be different, with the execution messing it up.
Not everyone you meet is friendly - some of these are merely trying to protect their territory and will leave you alone as long as you respect that. And then there are the gangs. Armed with machetes(I guess this place was the world's biggest exporter of those?), and some with handguns, they have reverted to the law of the jungle, and you will be forced to hold them to that. There's no glory in it, these people were clearly regular guys, with jobs and families, but such is the situation.
Bullets are rare, and you're outnumbered, unable to take on more than one in mêlée(tap a button until you take the other one out... what, you wanted options?). The only way to get past them all is with psychological games. You can lure one close by pretending to be afraid and take out, and the moment you draw your pistol(which can be right after aforementioned), they will stop in place, and you can now tell them to back up. They won't continue to fear you, and the tougher ones will call your bluff... because you won't actually fire, will you? Hopefully you won't have to. If you don't wait until they force you to pull the trigger, or die(you'll die if you get shot twice, or hacked at three or four times), you may be able to have them keep going backwards until they're right in front of a steep drop, or a fire. Moving closer(which you don't want to do until they're in this position... and don't leave an enemy sidearm on the ground near one of them, because the moment you give them an opening, they will take it, creating thick tension), you can then kick them into the deathtrap.
This works for the first half, after which apparently they decided to plan conflicts as if this was a FPS(other things take a nosedive, as well... was this the exact spot where this changed game companies?). Again this makes things unfair, clearly to prolong this 7 hour game, same as why you go to and from where you're getting some item needed, via the same path a lot of the time. Sure, they'll put in new challenges, still, backtracking is a developer shortcut.
Given that one failure in dealing with these threats tends to lead to death, it's odd that they offer healing items for exploration. You know, rather than ammunition, the rarity of such is why you'll lose these encounters. Early Wyatt Earp approaches leave you unable to blow away those you do need to, not long after, and having to go back to the start of that mission.
This fares much better on climbing and exploration, built on the solid foundation of Prince of Persia(and to those worried this is repetitive... it is if you consider that franchise to be; I love the mechanics and don't find them to be, not everyone agrees with me, and I hold no ill will to those who don't feel that way), and expanding well on it.
The Stamina Meter will recharge whenever you aren't hanging/moving by your arms(along the way, you can place pitons, though you're rationing them, as well... you can also use soda pop, adrenaline shots, etc.), or breathing in toxic dust(get to a higher point), and it will decrease faster from rushing(you can always tap run to speed up whatever you're doing - why is this not in every action video-game?), and any jump will take a bite out of it. Run out, and it will initially shrink(and have to be restored with items) and you'll have to quickly get to safety - if it gets to the end, you'll lose your grip, and fall.
The conclusion to the story lacks punch, in spite of reasonable build-up, mostly because we don't get that into our blank slate of an unlikely hero, or his relationship with his family, whom he has returned to help. We do get into some of the interpersonal stuff with those he meets and stays in contact with, and that's done nicely enough.
Mei, the child you aid early, adds humanity and hope, keeping it from ending up too bleak. Graphics are passable, if that. This is one of the bad ports... the camera sticks and controls can be slow to respond. At any rate, I'd go for a rental of this.
There is some bloody violence, disturbing content, strong language and sexuality in this. I recommend this to any fan of post-apocalyptic settings, dark atmosphere, as well as being posed challenging ethical questions. 7/10
