Bankai076

This game has received a good amount of negative feedback from people saying this game wasn't very fun to play and was rather short. Nevertheless, I decided to walk into my local game retailer and purchase this title. And when I beat it, let me tell you, I was not disappointed. Let us first start from looking at the 2 types of people that would buy this game. First off would be a Final Fantasy fan who would buy anything with the words ''Final Fantasy'' somehow related to it. The other type of person would be your average gamer, who, not looking for anything in particular, was visiting his/her nearby retailer searching for a good looking playstation 2 game. I would classify myself as more of a ''Final Fantasy'' type of gamer who was looking for some kind of Final-Fantasy-ps2-that-I-have-not-yet- played-game. So, purchasing this hefty 20 dollar game I walk out of my local Gamestop and upon getting home, turn on my ps2 and pop the disk in. Now, I have always been impressed with the quality of Square Enix's cutscenes and this one was no exception, as I watched the gorgeous introductory cutscene. Next thing you know, I'm left in the middle of an alleyway with a pistol in my hands and a couple of pistol rounds in my inventory along with a few potions. Running through the alleys I shoot a couple of mutant dogs and enemy soldiers. This sort of action continues for some time until I get to a more open platform with a heavily armed soldier, which is this game's first boss. Upon beating him, I keep on playing while doing similar types of actions. About a week later, I finish the game. Now time to talk about the aspects of this game and what it's ups and downs are.
Presentation/Graphics: The graphics and detailed environments in Dirge of Cerberus are some of the most amazing I have seen for the Playstation 2 to date. The cutscenes are breathtaking and the character designs are pretty amazing, too. The environment blends in flawlessley when running about or even when surrounded by dozens of enemies. When watching the cutscenes, I became immersed in the level of detail and smooth movement. All in all, I would think the graphics are the best point of this game. I would give them a 9/10.
Gameplay: The game itself is pretty fun and wether it's shooting or sniping your enemies, or just heading straight on and melee attacking them, I never got tired of it. Although the minimal amount of weapons and ways to customize them throughout the game would be one of this game's flaws. Also, those of you wanting many types of enemies with complex attack patterns will be disappointed, as the enemies here pretty much stay the same throughout the game and A.I. tend to be pretty stupid even as the game advances. In the end, the gameplay gets a 7/10
Soundtrack/Voice actors: The voice actors here are pretty good surprisingly, and I especially like the one of the character you play as, Vincent Valentine. The music playing during boss battles and just roaming around matches the mood pretty well, so I would give the sound an 8.5/10.
Storyline: The storyline here is excellent and even a non-FF fan would find the story interesting and entertaining. The way how everything makes sense in the end was good, and all loose ends are tied. Some unexpected things happen too, which adds some twist to the story. Storyline gets an 8.9/10
Lasting appeal/Game length: Nothing much to say here, You will probably beat the main campaign in about 15 hours, which is pretty good for a 3rd person action/shooter. You get 45 extra missions unlocked after you beat the game, so that should keep you occupied for a while. The chances of replaying this game are pretty low, considering there's only one more difficulty (hard) . Game length/lasting appeal gets an 8/10.

So there you have it, a brief Dirge of Cerberus review. I would recommend this game to anyone out there who likes a good old shoot-em up 3rd person game. FF fans, I strongly recommend you get this, especially if you liked FF 7. All in all, this game gets an 8.5/10.