I will start this review by admitting that I have never finished "Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII", a long-awaited sequel/spin-off of what is arguably one of the greatest RPG's of all time. I bought it the day it was released in 2006, and I tried playing it, but it left a very sour, underwhelmed taste in my mouth... For such a legacy as "Final Fantasy VII" (a 1997 release for the Playstation) has, this game feels very rushed and full of incomplete ideas. I never felt motivated to finish it.
Let's break the game down to the basic categories...
Graphics/Visuals... 8 out of 10- The in-game, pre-rendered FMV video sequences are incredible. The videos are the same high quality as the CGI-animated feature "Advent Children", and are all gorgeous and remarkable to behold. And I will say, the in-game graphics aren't half bad. Character models, though stylized with "anime" inspiration, are cool-looking, and animation is tight and smooth. But the game looses a few points for repetitive visuals. Some of the levels feature areas that look identical to one-another (such as the opening level in Kalm town, where I kept getting lost due to very repetitive design), and some animations are kind of weak. But overall, a solid game visually.
Sound... 8 out of 10- I'm not going to lie, I missed Nobuo Uematsu's music in this game, which was scored by a different composer. But the music present is very decent, albeit unmemorable. Sounds are also all very good, and in general, the voice acting is all pretty darned good. (Particularly uber-voice-artist Steve Blum as our hero Vincent Valentine) However, some performances are kinda flat, and the pronunciation of certain words is debatable. (Although I suppose it comes down to personal interpretation, but everyone I knows pronounces "Maka" as "May-ko", whereas this game calls it "Mahh-Ko.") It's a very solid audio presentation, which suffers slightly due to a few sore thumbs and a forgettable score.
Controls... 3 out of 10. Here's where the game starts to fall apart. The controls are very mixed. Somehow, the control system feels simultaneously too simple while still being too complicated. They are also very loose, and the camera controls are clunky, clunky, CLUNKY. (You'll almost always going to accidentally move the camera in the OPPOSITE direction of where you want it, and even swapping it in the options doesn't help, as it's response is very sensitive.) The game is obviously taking inspiration from hack-and-slash games like "Devil May Cry" with it's action-oriented gun-play, but the controls aren't precise and are too "wonky" to make gameplay fun.
Story... 4 out of 10. My other huge problem- the story is very convoluted, and without knowing every exact detail of every facet of the "Final Fantasy VII" franchise, you will get lost. In addition, the game does a very poor job as establishing what is going on, and the overall intent of the story. It's very sloppily told, leaving you guessing way too often. And not in the good way of guessing what will happen next due to suspense, but in that bad way where you get totally lost and frustrated. I've played the first part of the game several times (each time giving up due to "meh" gameplay and bad controls), and I honestly can't tell you a single detail about what's going on. All I can gather from the sloppy plot is that Vincent is good, and the bad guys are... uh... bad. (?) Silly, simplistic-yet-convoluted plot.
Overall... 5 out of 10. This game gets a lot of sympathy points for the great visual and audio presentation and the built-in love for "Final Fantasy VII." But the gameplay sucks, and robs the game of a lot of the fun. I didn't even get into the other huge problem (lack of difficulty settings in the North American release, which makes the game near impossible with the clunky controls), which is also tedious.
I'd recommend this game only to huge fans of "Final Fantasy VII"- for others, it's too mediocre to really care about.
Let's break the game down to the basic categories...
Graphics/Visuals... 8 out of 10- The in-game, pre-rendered FMV video sequences are incredible. The videos are the same high quality as the CGI-animated feature "Advent Children", and are all gorgeous and remarkable to behold. And I will say, the in-game graphics aren't half bad. Character models, though stylized with "anime" inspiration, are cool-looking, and animation is tight and smooth. But the game looses a few points for repetitive visuals. Some of the levels feature areas that look identical to one-another (such as the opening level in Kalm town, where I kept getting lost due to very repetitive design), and some animations are kind of weak. But overall, a solid game visually.
Sound... 8 out of 10- I'm not going to lie, I missed Nobuo Uematsu's music in this game, which was scored by a different composer. But the music present is very decent, albeit unmemorable. Sounds are also all very good, and in general, the voice acting is all pretty darned good. (Particularly uber-voice-artist Steve Blum as our hero Vincent Valentine) However, some performances are kinda flat, and the pronunciation of certain words is debatable. (Although I suppose it comes down to personal interpretation, but everyone I knows pronounces "Maka" as "May-ko", whereas this game calls it "Mahh-Ko.") It's a very solid audio presentation, which suffers slightly due to a few sore thumbs and a forgettable score.
Controls... 3 out of 10. Here's where the game starts to fall apart. The controls are very mixed. Somehow, the control system feels simultaneously too simple while still being too complicated. They are also very loose, and the camera controls are clunky, clunky, CLUNKY. (You'll almost always going to accidentally move the camera in the OPPOSITE direction of where you want it, and even swapping it in the options doesn't help, as it's response is very sensitive.) The game is obviously taking inspiration from hack-and-slash games like "Devil May Cry" with it's action-oriented gun-play, but the controls aren't precise and are too "wonky" to make gameplay fun.
Story... 4 out of 10. My other huge problem- the story is very convoluted, and without knowing every exact detail of every facet of the "Final Fantasy VII" franchise, you will get lost. In addition, the game does a very poor job as establishing what is going on, and the overall intent of the story. It's very sloppily told, leaving you guessing way too often. And not in the good way of guessing what will happen next due to suspense, but in that bad way where you get totally lost and frustrated. I've played the first part of the game several times (each time giving up due to "meh" gameplay and bad controls), and I honestly can't tell you a single detail about what's going on. All I can gather from the sloppy plot is that Vincent is good, and the bad guys are... uh... bad. (?) Silly, simplistic-yet-convoluted plot.
Overall... 5 out of 10. This game gets a lot of sympathy points for the great visual and audio presentation and the built-in love for "Final Fantasy VII." But the gameplay sucks, and robs the game of a lot of the fun. I didn't even get into the other huge problem (lack of difficulty settings in the North American release, which makes the game near impossible with the clunky controls), which is also tedious.
I'd recommend this game only to huge fans of "Final Fantasy VII"- for others, it's too mediocre to really care about.