It took me awhile to warm up to this series. It was off to a spectacular start, with a costumed gunman fighting hordes of pasty monstrosities, but I really couldn't care. I could appreciate the great color and lighting, great sound, very distinctive style, but the action was just too contrived and full of superficial actions that only served to create dramatic tension.
But I gave the second episode a chance, and it wound back in time to establish characters and tell a gritty yet sensitive crime drama of friendship and hardship, loyalty and ambition, a man's personal wars and loves. Though the action was slower, it was more believable, it served a narrative purpose beyond the scene, and it wasn't the main focus.
When the story finally caught up to the setting of the video game, I realized why it wasn't that engaging; the action is better suited to interaction, and watching it isn't as involving as playing it would be. Until there's a port to PC that isn't going to happen, and getting through the final episodes is becoming a chore.
It's a shame those comic-style episodes turned off so many potential fans, because the heart of it is an excellent work, and the final payoff is well worth it.
But I gave the second episode a chance, and it wound back in time to establish characters and tell a gritty yet sensitive crime drama of friendship and hardship, loyalty and ambition, a man's personal wars and loves. Though the action was slower, it was more believable, it served a narrative purpose beyond the scene, and it wasn't the main focus.
When the story finally caught up to the setting of the video game, I realized why it wasn't that engaging; the action is better suited to interaction, and watching it isn't as involving as playing it would be. Until there's a port to PC that isn't going to happen, and getting through the final episodes is becoming a chore.
It's a shame those comic-style episodes turned off so many potential fans, because the heart of it is an excellent work, and the final payoff is well worth it.