Negative Reviews That Don't Really Say Anything Negative

Today after work I'll be heading down to GameStop to pick up my reserved copy of Psi-Ops for the X-box (and a free second copy of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance). After playing through the demo in the Official X-box Magazine I am very psyched for the game, not so much for the story (which, as you'll learn at some point in my Blog writing future, is not a major focus of my game playing), but more for the fun physics and cool open-ended gameplay that the demo showed off.

I've spent the early part of the day scouring the web for reviews, and so far things look moderately favorable. It's looking to average around 8 to 8.5 depending on the site. Actually reading through the reviews, however, I can't find out what's keeping this game shy of the high 8s or low 9s that seem to be delved out so often these days.

Most of the reviews have said that the physics engine is the highlight of the game and that throwing around enemies to see how they interact with the environment is extremely fun to play around with. A few even said that it's so fun that it warrants playing through the game a second time just to mess around with the enemies. From the demo I figured that this physics engine would be the driving force of the game - the fun you can have by taking over enemies and having them shoot barrels to kill themselves or using your telekenesis to throw them into each other, at flaming barrels, over ledges, against walls, etc. etc. It sounds like a new experience that helps to set the game apart from other 3rd person shooters but won't feel gimmicky like bullet time and dual wielding can.

The reviewers have also said that the game is somewhat short, which I see as kind of a blessing given the bloatedness of a lot of the games that've been coming out recently. Reading some of the other blogs around here, including those of many editors whose opinions often make it into web-reviews, it looks like I'm not in the minority. It seems like most people would rather have a great game that lasts 10 hours and never gets old than an otherwise great game that lasts 30 but starts to get repetitive at around the 20 hour mark.

The other slight complaint being thrown around has been that the game's story is somewhat lacking but that the bosses are very cool. This almost seems like a contradictory statement in that the bosses should make up a large part of the story if the game is indeed so short and character development factors in at all to the reason that the bosses are so cool.

Oh well, I guess I'll see for myself at around 6:00ish.

-Wes