The game has a good setup and premise, but sadly the best moments of the game come in the early stages of the game. Aside from the abundance of generic units as both enemies and NPC characters, there are roughly a dozen lines of dialogue that are spouted in the heat of battle by your opponents and comrades. While this is an attempt to add depth to the game, it comes across badly, as many times the lines are not always appropriate to the situation, and rapidly become redundant after you hear them for the fifth time in a mission. There were also a few moments were the audio portion of the game dropped out.
Another issue with the game is the very bad A.I. that aside from rolling from side to side, limits your enemies to straight on attacks for the most part. On more than one occasion I was able to shoot an enemy only to have him take a shot at me and then turn his back to me and ignore me until I attacked him again. The game attempts to explain this during a load screen with text that informs you that soldiers on Nectar become impervious to much of what is around them. While this may be the case, it tends to make for some very dull and uninspired enemies and gameplay.
Another issue I had with the game was the level design missions. Many missions involved simply getting to a point and then getting back from a point and surviving the combat in between. There were few distractions in the plot and little twists to give the game a sense of suspense or mystery, and to explain Carpenter’s motivations. A so called reveal hinted at things, but there was never a big payoff or confirmation, so I was left to accept that Carpenter had a change of heart based on what was largely circumstantial evidence and the word of another person.
The game does get some things right, and that is the solid selection of weapons and the ability to administer Nectar to yourself in combat. Gamers who want a bit of perverse fun may want to give themselves an intentional overdose and watch what happens next.
The finale was a big disappointment as there was no ultimate bad guy for me to content with nor were any of the real mysteries of Mantel fully explained. I had thought that this might be explored in a future sequel but since Ubisoft did not respond to my requests, I have to assume that this is not the case. The final conflict was so uninspired, that two quick bursts from my rifle and a grenade ended the conflict. I did not even need to use the special Nectar grenades that my character learned to create later in the game.
Another issue with the game is the inconsistent graphics in the game. At times the game really shines and at other times, the textures seem on par with PS 2 graphics and did not live up to the potential the PS 3 offers.
