Obviously I proceeded to run it. But I wouldn't say I "played" it. I think that's too strong a word.
The demo gives you one example of each of the game's three mission varieties: the present-day running away missions, in which you are racing against an entirely unexplained clock to escape your pursuers; the flashback assassination missions, which Borne apparently remembers with suprising clarity, and in which you are allowed to shoot people; and the present-day driving missions, if you can really call that driving. Assuming there's no time spent wallsurf adventuring for clues elsewhere (and if there is, that would hardly change the workings of the other distinctly separate missions), I think it's fair to say that the whole game is represented.
So then, let's go through each mission one by one.
We start our Mysterious Timer Mission by getting our first taste of hand-to-hand combat. This system basically boils down to mashing X and Y randomly until your attacks stop connecting, at which point you hold A (block) until your opponent's flurry ends. Deep. Also as a result of your successful hits, assuming you're in the right place, you're occasionally granted the ability to press B treating you to a brief cutscene (sorry, "environment takedown") and knocking a chunk off your opponent's health to speed things along a bit. Movement is essentially meaningless (beyond shuffling between the context sensitive Press B locations), as your opponent moves with you forwards and backwards in perfect sync. If there's a lot of enemies around you, you're occasionally tasked with a one-button QTE input as they remember that they're meant to fight you as well as the guy you're currently pummelling. Successful input smacks them in the chops so you can get on with dispatching the guy you're currently working on. Incidentally, there's no way of exiting this combat once it's initiated until the guy you're working on drops. And combat automatically initiates the second you get within a certain radius of an enemy. You can also kick by holding down X or Y if you feel like it, the timing of which being the closest this system ever gets to skill.
After this a tutorial screen informs us of our sprinting ability. By holding RB you run quite fast, significantly shortening the time between each QTE and cutscene (from 6 or 7 seconds to a mere 2 or 3). And there are a lot of QTEs and cutscenes. Bizarrely, even though the game tells you to hold RB during any period in which you aren't fighting someone or watching a cutscene (or both), releasing your grip on the button too late when a QTE input icon appears (that being more or less the instant it appears) counts as an instant fail. Also while not beating people up or watching cutscenes, you can press Y to make the level's critical path (or, the next place you need to press A) appear as HUD icons. A whole core ability, which they call Borne Sense, meant for the sole purpose of compensating for their shoddy level design. Oh by the way, here's another cutscene.
So, that's the first demo mission done. We can spend as long as we like wondering why the hell there was a time limit for that sequence of bad fighting, running and cinematics, then move on to the next one.
This next one is an Assassination Mission. It's basically the same as the Mysterious Timer Missions except that you can shoot people and there's not quite as many cutscenes and QTEs. There's not nearly as many checkpoint saves either. After an unskippable piece of exposition (which you'll have to sit through again if you die before the distant first checkpoint) you get to draw your woefully inadequate pistol and start gunning down faceless goons. Getting too close gets you into the interminable hand-to-hand again, which is made all the more annoying by the fact that people are shooting you with assault rifles and shotguns while you slap these guys about, unable to take cover or recharge your health. It's particularly great if you get into a scuffle on the railway which throws bizarrely frequent trains at you to dodge, and of course you can't dodge when you're stuck in a fight. Similarly to the melee system, after amassing enough hits and kills you gain the ability to press B to cutscene-kill as many people as you have saved up the power to, assuming you time your QTE input right for each one. I like the Press B To Make It End Faster mechanic. It's quite humanitarian. You can take cover behind anything with a tap of A rather like in Gears of War, except with no diving out or moving between points etc. Moving while carrying a large weapon is practically impossible due to the camera putting itself in exactly the wrong place for seeing where you're going.
Finally, after all that gunslinging, there's a boss fight. It's basically the normal combat, except that you're against the damage sponge of the century. He can also perform takedowns on you occasionally, which basically means that a QTE occurs repeatedly at random intervals - succeed and it's like nothing happened, fail and you lose a chunk of health, then carry on anyway. This fight, the nuance of which is exhausted the second he tries his first takedown (triggered as a tutorial about 30 seconds in), takes roughly eight minutes. Gripping.
So what more can this cinematic action adventure bring to the table? Why, the worst driving model I have ever laid my hands on. Thanks for asking. In the Tacked-On Driving Mission, cars apparently pivot from the centre, and feature grip that I can only call extra-dimensional. I was able to perform a drift turn by applying the handbrake in mid-air. The steering is absurdly oversensitive, sending your vehicle swerving at a right-angle from the tiniest tilt of the stick, leading me to wonder why the tutorial screen recommends use of the handbrake for sharp corners. I certainly didn't spot any hairpins. Braking is more or less instant, even at Improbable MPH. A scripted event blocks the exit for as long as it takes for Marie to say that it "might have been unblocked by now", so in the meantime you just idly swerve around the tiny level wondering what you're meant to do. When finally you can cross the blocked exit, guess what? Yeah. QTE. Marvellously, this cutscene features vehicular physics every bit as ridiculous as those you just played with. At least it's consistent.
Basically, it's rubbish. Far more rubbish than a
And if you have a spare 1.2Gb on your Xbox 360 hard disk you can see for yourself, but don't say I didn't warn you.
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