Even the most basic of guards can cast agiant beam of light from their sword that killed me in a single hit, and death is pretty punishing here. I eventually found myself more-or-less breezing my way through levels (at least when I knew where to go) by exploiting patterns, and it never felt like a really accomplished something like when I would successfully complete a mission in 'Metal Gear Solid V.'Įnemy AI being generally brain-dead might actually be a blessing in disguise, as 'Aragami' is otherwise pretty punishing. It seems like developer Lince Works is aware of these issues as they've issued two sizable patches since I've been playing the game, but it's going to take a lot of work to fix the borderline broken AI. I was supposed to feel like an incredibly powerful shadow assassin facing off against these powerful warriors of light, and instead I was facing off against rejects from 'The Three Stooges.' Some were harmless enough, I had a foe walk in place that wouldn't spot me even if I was standing right in front of him, but they still took me completely out of the game. I ran into a few AI issues in the early chapters, but by the time I was mid-game and facing off against dozens of soldiers, I began to experience these bugs pretty often. These small grievances build up, and losing 20 minutes of progress because of an in-game bug that broke the guards' patrol routes is heartbreaking. Sadly, these moments never seem to last in 'Aragami.' Every fantastic stretch of gameplay eventually ended with me lost as to where to go (with the on-screen guide simply telling me to "move to the next area" as if that was helpful advice) or running into a scripting error where the AI would start rapidly turning around indefinitely. It's all a matter of risk-reward, and it can be absolutely thrilling. I eventually became confident enough in my abilities that I was leaving bodies out in the open to lure other guards, and then taking care of them before they could call for back-up. It's these wonderful moments when every mechanic in the game clicks, and the action moves along like clockwork, where I felt like I was playing the next great stealth game. This led to me creating extravagant plans of how I was going to tackle an area, attempting to pull them off, and then managing to barely succeed after undoubtedly getting spotted along the way. This really opened up the gameplay, and getting to experiment with how to deal with the guards and archers that I faced off against made every encounter all the more interesting. I even gained access to a raven that would mark key locations, and in theory tell me where to go. After the first three chapters I finally had more tools at my disposal, and I really started to enjoy 'Aragami.'Įventually, I was able to throw kunai at far away enemies, mark foes as if I was playing 'Far Cry,' and even make bodies vanish by using some dark magic. Thankfully, the game ramps up in complexity, as more mechanics are added as the grandiloquent story progresses. While it all worked, I was pretty bored by the opening stage as it seemed like the game was just a pretty stealth title with nothing else to offer other than a staunch difficulty and the shadow teleportation. Things start off pretty simple beyond the shadow shifting, as the titular character only has a sword that he can use to take out dangerous enemies (ones that will end his day with a single hit). So many stealth games feel slow, so it's highly satisfying to be incredibly mobile. I was able to leap from one shadow area to the next, and was even able to cast my own shadows in order to have a freer range of movement. While these performance issues would get better upon leaving the starting area, they always managed to pop-up occasionally while playing.ĭespite the less than stellar technical performance, 'Aragami' began to impress me once it started to explain its in-game mechanics. Immediately upon starting the stealth title, I was greeted by a terrible frame rate that seemed to freeze before every cutscene. My first impression of 'Aragami' was a negative one.
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