TL;DR - Sebastian is a compelling character and his motivations are understandable.
Even though the game-play is uneven at times the excellence in Art design and above average game mechanics keep it from being a failure.
Just think playing Liam Neeson from 'Taken' through a horrifying and haunting world with a sprinkle of Inception thrown in, It's a pretty good combination.
The Good -
Art Direction. This was hands down the best aspect of the game.
The enemy design, character design, environment, boss design, weapon design; you name it was all high praiseworthy.
Though the graphics were not exceptional, but it was competent enough to support the excellent Art Design.
Sebastian had some interesting shoes to fill, initially he seemed pretty one note; I honestly lost count of how many times he said 'What the Hell'.
But as the game went on we see the cracks in his psyche brought about by his life, his failures and his fears; loved the few instances we spend in Beacon since I did not play the original game.
Which brings me to my next point, the story was well paced with it's flow; even though I did not play the first game I got a pretty good grip on where Sebastian was coming from and got into his motivations comfortably.
Personally I felt the horror elements were a little stronger than the action-shooter elements in the over all story, which was a good thing.
The game-play a little uneven at times makes up for it's flaws by allowing a very fluid combination of stealth and shooter, added with a good amount of weapon choices kept my play-through engaging.
Voice acting was competent and well done for the most part, sometimes too good as the in game characters models were not as expressive and the dialogue was not the best either.
Collectibles were fun and worth the time fleshing story and giving usable rewards for exploring.
The Bad -
As i said I found some of the game play a bit uneven, melee combat being the primary loser.
It was mostly non-existent and downright a little naff at times with the Axe the only melee worthy weapon but downside being a one hit break.
At least one melee weapon should have replaced the 'Survival Knife' aka Kitchen Knife since it was mostly useless in head to head combat and was just a stealth thing.
Aiming was a little off at times as well especially with the crossbow as some of bolts were less misses and more just phasing through the sides, sometimes when enemies were running up close the aiming would come at a detriment of FOV almost giving a sniper feel and obscuring environment.
The Bosses were also a bit dull save for the final boss and Wallace, but T. Wallace only for me since I did not play the first game; but I assume would have felt like a cop-out/boss rehash for gamers who played the first game.
Even though the final boss mechanics were decently varied I wish Myra would have got some more proper character development, maybe actual interactions with her inside STEM and gradually seeing her deteriorate into 'The Overprotective Mother'.
Myra's sacrifice though heartbreaking for Sebastian was a little overplayed for me since I did not really interact with her as Sebastian outside very small cut-scenes.
Same could be said for 'The Administrator' and the whole concept of all minds connected to STEM which seems a little stupid for an all powerful organization to be doing, just seemed all too convenient to allow for the 'Happy Ending'.
Even with my issues I am hard pressed to say this is a bad game as I usually rush through the main story of TPS games in general save for the ones I am really enjoying, TEW 2 was one of those.
I spent roughly 20 odd hours going through every nook and cranny of the Levels finding collectibles, ammo pouches and slides.
Conclusion - Would love a sequel since the concept of STEM is pretty vast and being clearly influenced by Inception which is one of my favorite movies, but maybe this time around let Sebastian's Book remain closed and maybe we start a new story with a new protagonist since I'd really hate for Castellanos to be forced into STEM again.
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