Ridley Reviews: New Pokémon Snap
In the original 1999 Pokémon Snap, a first-person, rail shooter simulation game developed by HAL Laboratory for the Nintendo 64, players were asked to take part in a safari and snap pictures of Pokémon on an established path. Over time, the game grew to be considered an all-ages cult classic, but this was not the case when the game was first released. Critics couldn’t understand the appeal of an aim-and-shoot photography game about fake animals. Why didn’t these crazy kids just go outside and take pictures of real animals at the zoo? What’s the big deal about these “pocket monsters,” anyhow? Little did they know that the Pokémon franchise would transcend niche and evolve into a worldwide sensation, adored by children and adults alike. While the concept of taking photographs of Pokémon isn’t necessarily groundbreaking today, when the original was released, putting out a game where players spent their time snapping photos of fictional cartoon monsters was both risky and unheard of.
In the 2021 New Pokémon Snap, developed by Bandai Namco for the Nintendo Switch, you take on the role of a young amateur photographer similar to Todd from the first game. The region’s resident expert, Professor Mirror, has invited you to participate in an ecological survey, the first of its kind in a hundred years. Alongside his research assistant Rita, who’s there on vacation while her school’s on break, you’re asked to go on an ecological exploration of the area to fill out a Photodex. After jumping into your Neo-One, a self-driving vehicle that guides you through various environments in the Lental region, players get to traverse around a sprawling group of islands described as an “untouched natural marvel” to snap pictures of wild Pokémon.
The New Pokémon Snap trailer from 2021
The original Pokémon Snap trailer from 1999
The plot of New Pokémon Snap is simple and identical to the first game. In the original Pokémon Snap, Todd Snap, a young wildlife photographer, is entrusted by Professor Oak, a celebrity Pokémon researcher, to take photographs on a visit to Pokémon Island. Players begin the game with just a camera, and as the story progresses, they receive various accessories from Professor Oak that aid them on their photographic journey, such as an apple that can be thrown to either feed, stun, or coax Pokémon closer to the camera, and a pester ball to involuntarily extract Pokémon from hiding or knock them unconscious (lol what?). You also get a Poké-Flute to play music that wakes them up, hatches eggs, excites them into a dance, or otherwise gets them angry. With these items, along with a camera roll that can accommodate up to 60 pictures, Todd set off in his Zero-One vehicle to do the damn thing. After each course visit was completed, Todd’s chosen photos were judged and rated based on the Pokémon’s size, pose, and position in the frame by Professor Oak, who added the best quality images to the Pokémon Report, a catalog of his scientific findings.
In New Pokémon Snap, each photograph is judged and evaluated by multiple sets of standards. Photos are rated on a one to four-star scale after a course is completed, which gives the game added depth because you have more tasks to complete, but more on that later. In contrast to the first game, the camera roll in New Pokémon Snap can accommodate up to 72 pictures and Professor Mirror will notify you when there are ten photos left in your roll. Professor Mirror also gives you a Research camera, a more than meets the eye accessory, to utilize on your ecological survey. Not only is the Professor’s invention an ID badge, but it also lets you communicate with Rita and the rest of the team as well as analyze data. When you use the camera to run a scan, you can discover many hard-to-find details about your surroundings. The Research camera provides you with information about nearby Pokémon and alerts you if anything unusual is happening in the area. This new version of a camera is another noticeable improvement from the original game, which had a camera absent of these multifaceted functions.
SPOILERS BELOW
Quick travel in Pokémon never looked so cool
The flashy new Research camera
The game kicks off after Professor Mirror lends you the Neo-One for your journey, a teleporting pod that escorts players on each photography expedition. Once you reach the final island, the Professor will outfit the Neo-One with turbo mode, which allows the vehicle to move faster so you can have more control over the timing of your photos. It’s also interesting to note that the Neo-One slows down automatically when you look behind the vehicle or zoom and reacts to how you move your camera, giving New Pokémon Snap more innovative components than the first one. The design of the Neo-One looks much cooler than the Zero-One to boot, and this was a fun minor enhancement from the first game.
Two early complaints I have about New Pokémon Snap are one; there aren’t any customizable options for your avatar’s appearance; and two, the overdone tutorial, which is way more involved than the original Pokémon Snap. While the tutorial was helpful, it was a bit too much. I don’t think players needed to have the controls broken down to that extent and have Rita walk you hand and hand through functions that pretty much speak for themselves. Still, I suppose this part of the game is for the younger or much older players who don’t have a lot of video game experience to begin with.
How cute are these two?
Sometimes you need to zoom in to get the best shot otherwise the Pokémon will be too small to garner high points. Just make sure that when you do zoom, you don’t cut off your subject too much because then your points will be reduced
When your photos are ready to be evaluated by Professor Mirror, they will appear in their own individual folders. This is a significant improvement on the first game in terms of organization. Like what Professor Oak did in the original game, Professor Mirror in New Pokémon Snap judges and evaluates your photos and assigns them a score. The Professor rates each image from one to four stars. This evaluation system helps the Professor and his team to understand and categorize how Pokémon behave. He explains, “Photos of Pokémon in an ordinary state get fewer [stars]. More unusual behavior means more [stars]. Simple enough, right? To be clear, the number of stars a photo receives doesn’t affect its score. Every category is important.”
The subject’s pose is evaluated first. Taking a picture at the perfect moment is the secret to scoring high in the pose category. Snapping a picture of a Pokémon in flight, fast asleep, having a nice meal, doing something unusual, etc., will garner a higher rating than a default pose. The more Pokémon you get in a photo, the better insight the Professor will have into the area’s ecosystem. Thus, the higher your score will be, but be careful not to have the Pokémon overlap; otherwise, your score will be reduced. As for size, the larger the Pokémon appears in the photo, the larger your score will be. If your subject is facing the camera in your photos, this also equals a higher score than, say, snapping a picture of a Pokémon facing the opposite direction. It would help if you also took a picture of the Pokémon while it’s in the center of the frame to balance the photo.
Essentially, taking a picture of the whole Pokémon in the center of the frame with the subject being large is how you get a high score from Professor Mirror. Once your photos are evaluated at the research camp, you can fill out your Pokémon Photodex. Completing your Pokémon Photodex is the milestone you work towards while playing, basically the same as the original game, but with all new bells and whistles to complicate the photo-taking process. Having a unique background in the shot will also positively affect your score, so make sure to take the whole frame into account when snapping your photos.
This picture of Volcarona was my highest-rated photo. It’s not that dope, tbh
Yet this photo is majestic as @#$%, but somehow not worth Professor Mirror’s time
Course Scores are a system the Professor devised to measure how thoroughly you can research a course in a single outing. Quality counts the most, but so does quantity, so try to photograph as many Pokémon as you can. The Internet component allows you to see your ranking for your course scores too. Once you beat the story mode of the game, you get access to Burst Mode, a new element that Todd asked the Professor to add to your camera. This new addition allows you to take multiple photos in quick succession with one press of the shutter, which can be turned on and off in the Settings menu, another significant improvement from the original.
Research levels on a course let the player know how much progress has been made there. When the level increases, you will see Pokémon behave in different ways. To raise your research level, you have to observe all types of Pokémon behaviors, which means snapping pictures of them in each category— from 1 star through 4 stars. After hitting a new stage in your research, you will receive new photo research titles as you advance in the game, and small changes happen during the course as you move forward. Your progress will unlock new paths to take and new Pokémon to snap. Changes to the course are sometimes subtle, but the Pokémon you encounter will exhibit different behaviors depending on what time of day you access the course. You also get stickers, frames, filters, and profile icons for your accomplishments and when you hit milestones. Expedition Points are gained throughout the game that raises your Research Level in each stage and unlocks new features, like playing the course at night, which adds new Pokémon animations and interactions.
Another feature that’s novel to the New Pokémon Snap is the addition of LensTalk. LensTalk is a quick way to share what you learn and see in the field. It’s a communication tool people in the Lental region use to send photos and descriptions of exciting occurrences in the area. Professor Mirror also uses it to send things he notices on his monitor. Once you’ve access LensTalk, you can read about the photo requests the Professor and company have for you. Requests range from photographing striking or specific behaviors to investigating what Pokémon are interacting with their environment. They sometimes act as tips to let you know to look out for certain behaviors or let you know that there are other Pokémon nearby for you to snap. If you get anxiety from having so many incomplete requests, skip this function altogether and mark everything as read!
Just like my actual inbox, I have a huge backlog of messages
I really wish there were more options to customize your character. It would have been cool to pick out different outfits and access fun hair colors
The lay of the land
Professor Mirror breaks down the survey for you and discusses all of the areas you’ll be visiting as you level up and further the story along. He starts by telling you that Florio is your home base and that your first area to explore is the lush and green Florio Nature Park. Your research then takes you off its shores and onto Belusylva to the verdant Founja Jungle, your second destination. The Professor then presents the player with two new islands to explore. One is a long narrow island named Voluca containing a vast desert and a small oasis named the Sweltering Sands. The other, Maricopia, is a tiny but serene island offshore in the middle of the water. This area is home to the pristine sands and pastel tones of Blushing Beach.
On Voluca, there’s another research site called Fireflow Volcano, a fiery prehistoric volcanic region. There’s also a massive mountain hidden by clouds in the heart of Belusylva Island called the Elsewhere Forest. Just off the coast of Maricopia is Maricopia Reef, an aquatic wonderland with a coral reef and filled with the relaxing sounds of crashing waves. Under a blue hole and beneath the water is the Lental Seafloor, which brings you up close and personal with the various Pokémon and colorful plants hidden to the world above. The fifth destination on your expedition is the Snowfields of Durice Island, a shimmering and icy landscape covered in a thick white blanket of snow, as well as the Outaway Cave, an extensive cave system deep underground that extends into the inner depths of the earth. Lastly, the sixth and final island is the forgotten land of Aurus that’s home to ancient, slumbering ruins whose origin remains a mystery.
I have to say, my favorite part of the game was exploring each island and uncovering the different Pokémon behaviors that changed from day to night in every course. The absolute best part of the game was admiring the breathtaking visuals and figuring out the sometimes frustrating, but mostly fun level designs that unlocked different paths for the Neo-One to take around the Lental region. Hidden among these destinations are five Illumina Spots to investigate. The goal of these courses is for you to capture photos of Pokémon exhibiting the illusive Illumina phenomena that directly ties in with the story. This was one of my least favorite parts of the game because of how repetitive it was, but also because capturing the Pokémon glowing was frustrating, too. Often, I snapped photos of what I thought were killer shots, but when it was time to select photos for the Professor none of them counted. This part of the game I’m not excited to return to. Also, @#$% you, Steelix.
The New Pokémon Snap also builds on the first game by revealing to players a surprising connection between the original game and the sequel. At some point, Todd, now a famous photographer, shows up as a NPC, bringing some much-needed sex appeal to the franchise (Jk… Maybe). It turns out; he used to be an old travel companion of Professor Mirror. Todd’s number one student, a petulant little @#$% named Phil, and your de facto rival, joins in on your ecological survey in place of Todd. What’s disappointing about the addition of Phil is that his presence adds nothing to the game short of a few moments of comic relief. I was left disappointed to discover that you wouldn't be competing to surpass his scores, but instead, only compete with yourself to best the scores of your past photos. I know there’s a great life lesson to be had here, but I would have liked to rub my success in his face nonetheless.
Todd Snap? More like “Hot Toddy” namsayin
The Team Badge got the ol’ spit shine treatment
After receiving a Team Badge indicating that you’ve officially joined the Lental region research team by completing your first Illumina stage, Professor Mirror will award you with access to fruit that grows in the Lental region to toss at Pokémon. Fluffruit is New Pokémon Snap’s answer to the original Pokémon Snap’s apples. Fluffruit is sweet and tasty to most Pokémon, but other Pokémon will be cautious of the fruit and not run over to eat it.
What’s unique to New Pokémon Snap and the Lentil region is that certain Pokémon and plants that players encounter on their journey are beautifully illuminated by a soft glow, which I touched upon briefly already. This unique occurrence is called the Illumina Phenomenon. Professor Mirror tasks you with investigating this regional occurrence. As the story unfolds, you discover how and why this phenomenon occurs and its effects on Pokémon and their habitat. The Professor developed and invented Illumina orbs to make Pokémon and crystalblooms glow. Since “...different areas of Lental have distinct types of energy flowing through them,” you will have to capture photos of the various colored crystalblooms glowing on each island so that Professor Mirror can make new kinds of Illumina orbs for you to use.
When you throw an Illumina orb at a Pokémon, you can irritate or excite them, wake them up, or just plain old cause them to glow, which obviously looks its best at night. When you throw an Illumina orb onto a regular crystalbloom, it will glow, too. You can use these orbs to send Pokémon into their Illumina stage for a short while, but you have to keep your eyes peeled on its effects and snap your pictures fast. Everything beautiful worth photographing is fleeting in New Pokémon Snap!
Later on, after you unlock the third and fourth islands, you will be awarded a new Research camera feature that Todd forgot to suggest to the Professor. This new component is a melody player that plays a tune from your camera. Playing music from it will give players access to movements Pokémon wouldn’t be making otherwise, like dancing or waking up from a nap. I found this part of the game to be inferior to the Poké-Flute from the original Pokémon Snap. In the first game, the Poké-Flute would play three different jingles instead of the monotonous one jingle the new melody player employs. After a while, this one song gets annoying.
Half the fun of the original game was tossing fruit at Pokémon’s heads. Glad to see this tradition carries on in the sequel
Hey, remember that Alien Ant Farm song “Glow?” …said no one but me
I loved the music in the old Pokémon Snap. Each area had its specific tune, and I never got sick of hearing the soundtrack, despite having to return to each level numerous times. I was relieved to discover that the music in New Pokémon Snap is just as enchanting and varied. The Pokémon also sound like real animals in the game, which is a nice touch because in most other games they sound overly processed by a computer. As I previously mentioned, the only qualm I have with the sound design is that the melody player could have used some added jingles instead of relying on the one. New Pokémon Snap missed an opportunity here because they could have added a function that lets you create your own song to play, similar to what Animal Crossing did with allowing players to craft their town tune. In the original Pokémon Snap, the three songs you could play had various tempos that made Pokémon dance differently to each piece of music. Curiously, multiple songs weren’t added to the new game. It’s the only step back that comes to mind when comparing the first Pokémon Snap with New Pokémon Snap.
On a separate note, the graphics in New Pokémon Snap obviously blow the old graphics out of the water. What a difference 22 years makes! Since this is a game about photography, the graphics always needed to be great because Pokémon, the setting, and the animations should be the main focus of the game. While some people found it strange that Pokémon Sword and Shield weren’t given the same aesthetic treatment, they weren’t games about snapping the best photo possible of Pokémon in their natural habitat. So, it makes sense that graphics weren’t the top priority for those properties. The animations in New Pokémon Snap are the most “lifelike” that I’ve seen in any Pokémon game because the Pokémon aren’t on a short loop that displays a limited set of movements. They actually look like they’re interacting with each other and their environments. The graphics in New Pokémon Snap are the best out of any Pokémon game, period, even though the framerates slow down during some of the more graphic/motion-heavy moments.
The New Pokémon Snap also added some fun social options, like having the ability to share your photos online with friends and rate them or see how other players fared with their photo scores. If your picture gets popular enough, it will trend and get to be spotlighted in the game. The photo editing option was also an intelligent addition considering the popularity of Instagram. Using the re-snap tool, players can edit their photos by blurring parts of it, adjusting the focal point, zooming in, increasing the brightness, and adding filters, stickers, and frames to their images. Although these tweaks won’t impact your photo scores, you can save them to your personal collection to show your friends or share them online. This addition elevates the New Pokémon Snap above the first one because it creates replay value. Having players utilize this competitive aspect of the game will keep them engaged as they try to beat the top score on the global leaderboards. Essentially, these new features are a smart and fun improvement that will hopefully encourage players to stick around after the story is completed.
Some of the trending posts I found on the Internet. When you haven’t seen an area that a photo was taken in, the image will have an X across it, as seen above
The cell shaded filter is one of many filters you can use to upgrade your photos
Though simplistic in design, the original Pokémon Snap was a fun, unique, and risky concept for the time that made the world of Pokémon feel more real and fleshed out. Of course, nowadays, we’ve enjoyed multiple generations of Pokémon since, and so our Pokémon adventures have greatly expanded well beyond the Kanto region. While the original Pokémon Snap gave the world of Pokémon more depth, the game lacked that same level of respect in terms of surface area, available Pokémon, its difficulty, and the total amount of game time. Compared to the first Pokémon Snap game, there are 214 Pokémon in New Pokémon Snap, in contrast to the 63 total number of Pokémon in the original version, which was less than half the number of the 151 found in the first-generation release. This was an obvious flaw that the New Pokémon Snap had to remedy, seeing as how there have been countless Pokémon introduced to the franchise over the last 22 years.
As with every Pokémon release, there’s always more than a little bit of criticism surrounding what Pokémon are included or excluded in the games. The fact of the matter is, the players want as many Pokémon as possible in every game. Yes, the feel and experience of the game are probably the most critical aspect of any Pokémon release. Still, given the vast amount of different Pokémon in the franchise, it always seems like the players are getting the short end of the stick in terms of the variety included. In the case of Sword and Shield, expansions added more Pokémon to the game and soothed the concerns of the players who felt that the game fell short of the quota. To those who will undoubtedly have the same complaints about New Pokémon Snap, I think their disappointment should be remedied all the same if an expansion becomes available in the future.
There’s a nice mix of Pokémon from multiple generations. Glad to see my boys Tyrantrum and Aerodactyl made the cut
UGHHH I CAN’T WITH HOW CUTE THIS GAME IS
In view of the fact that the original Pokémon Snap had such a low number of Pokémon that appear, interactions, items, and courses, the game's replay value suffered as a result. For example, in the second to last level of the original Pokémon Snap, you’re asked to go back to all the levels you’ve completed and take pictures of various symbols hidden in plain sight, instead of being treated to a new level and new Pokémon, which is more than a bit of redundancy in gameplay. I understand having to replay levels after gaining access to new items. After all, certain Pokémon are hidden as well as alternate travel routes, so it makes sense that you would have to return to previously completed levels to have those other interactions. However, finding the symbols felt like a complete waste of time. I remember rapidly running through my roll of film after identifying the symbols so that I wouldn’t have to sit there bored and wait for the Zero-One to complete its journey.
Likewise, though exciting because of the prospect of interacting with Mew, the final level, Rainbow Cloud, was also devoid of variety and was mostly empty. Although I played the first game multiple times and had a great time with it back in the day, I can’t argue with the fact that its repetitiveness and lack of depth are ultimately its downfalls. Moreover, New Pokémon Snap doesn't deal with this same problem to the extent that the former Pokémon Snap did, which is an incredible relief. I was worried going into the game that this problem would still be pronounced, but I found that while the game does get repetitive, and though it’s not as deep as I would like, my boredom hit later than it did with the original.
Case and point, the first Pokémon Snap could be completed in around three to four hours, while the New Pokémon Snap takes about eight to twelve hours to beat depending on your pace. This is a considerable improvement from the original, though I was hoping for a longer and more meaningful story mode. New Pokémon Snap also boasts 24 courses to explore, a big improvement from the original, which only had seven courses; beach, tunnel, volcano, river, cave, valley, and rainbow cloud, all of which take around five minutes or under to complete. In this second outing from the franchise, players can visit its courses in both the day or night to experience various interactions and encounter different Pokémon. The added feature of being able to explore the islands during different times of the day keeps the game interesting and the players engaged much longer than the original ever could since specific Pokémon only come out at night.
The night sky makes for beautiful pictures, even if Professor Mirror swerved the hell out of this one
Gengar always knew how to make an entrance
Veritably, everything about New Pokémon Snap is a great improvement from the original. New Pokémon Snap's improved photosystem introduces updated mechanics and better visuals that build on the original game by providing its players with fun Pokémon interactions, varied level design, solid gameplay, and both gorgeous and thoughtfully crafted environments. Overall, New Pokémon Snap is a lovely and relaxing experience that will keep players interested far longer than its predecessor could. There are many Pokémon from different generations that appear during the day and night modes and these time differences added much-needed layers to the game in the places the original Pokémon Snap lacked. Completing the story mode still leaves players with a lot to do afterward, like scoring a coveted position on the online leaderboard, crossing off all of the photo requests, acquiring every research title available, filling up your Photodex, and capturing shots of all the poses or hidden Pokémon. As far as the gameplay goes, saying it’s a significant improvement from the first outing is an understatement.
I have to say, New Pokémon Snap is very cozy. There were several moments that I audibly squealed because of how cute the Pokémon looked and were behaving. I also thought the levels were designed beautifully, with the Elsewhere Forest, the night portion of the Sweltering Sands, and the caves in the Fireflow Volcano to be particular standouts for me in terms of the visual WOW factor. The Illumina Pokémon are easy on the eyes and I enjoyed this beautiful element in the game. There is also a more substantial story in New Pokémon Snap than in the first game, but it still leaves much more to be desired. I felt as though the story and lore were an afterthought and I think this part of the game was thin at best. Sure, it’s not as if this game is Dark Souls or something, so I’m aware that people didn’t buy New Pokémon Snap expecting there to be a deep story. I didn’t either, but I at least expected the story to have some substance or even character development for the NPCs. I wasn’t emotionally invested in the story because there was no conflict, and this was in part because the character building was nonexistent. Additionally, I think New Pokémon Snap could also use more Illumina, mythical or legendary Pokémon. As it stands at the game’s release, there are only five Illumina Spot Pokémon and 10 mythical or legendary ones.
Check out these three jabronis
The Ruins of Remembrance and the end of the line for this amateur photographer
I think many players will find that there isn’t much of a pull to play again unless you’re planning on finishing the items listed above, which isn’t that enticing to the people who play games for their plot or to get to know its characters. If you need a story to keep you motivated, you will be disappointed with how quickly you will complete the lackluster one in New Pokémon Snap. The story itself wasn’t very compelling or fascinating. I didn’t think the lore was deep enough, and the stakes weren’t high in any way. I know that’s the entire point of this game, but I would have liked at least some adrenaline to keep me further engaged. As a result of the short time length it takes to complete the game's story mode and how frequently you must return to previous levels, I can’t say New Pokémon Snap is worth the $60 price tag. I think it should have been $20 cheaper for me to feel like I was getting my money’s worth.
Some of the not-so-great parts of the game include the fact that the Neo-One is constantly moving forward, and it cannot stop. This rail shooter element restricts the gameplay because each stage is on a set course, perpetually thrusting you forward when you want nothing more than to jump outside of the vehicle and be fully immersed in the beautiful ecosystems around you. I feel like the game would have been way more epic and exciting if you were allowed to exit the Neo-One and explore the levels on foot in an open-world environment. Imagine having to crouch down in the bushes to get your best shot of a frolicking Bulbasaur, hiding behind palm trees to photograph shy Bellossoms, or tip-toeing past a sleeping Tyrantrum to avoid facing its wrath. If the latter woke up and I was in danger, I could have a quick Pokémon battle with a starter I chose at the lab. If I lost, I would lose all my photos and start at the beginning of the level, but I get access to a unique photo opportunity worth more points if I win. Alas, I let my wild imagination get the better of me, and I have to accept that this game isn’t a regular Pokémon game, but a photo simulator on rails. New Pokémon Snap is a great game, but I think it would make an even better theme-park ride (you feel me, Nintendo World?).
Like in the original, the rating system doesn’t always make sense. Sometimes the best photo is not chosen, which happened to me more than a few times. I would take what I thought to be a stellar shot only to discover that it wasn’t worth that many points. Instead of besting my score of a super up-close shot of a Pokémon where you can barely even tell what monster it is, Professor Mirror would inform me that my new photo didn’t beat the score of a much crappier, older shot. Therefore, the standards of what constitutes a great photo and what isn’t aren’t always apparent.
I have come here to take pictures of Pokémon and kick ass... and I'm all out of film
Check out this guy, sleeping on the job while he sends a kid straight into the heart of an active volcano. I’m calling child services
7.5 out of 10
New Pokémon Snap is a fun and gorgeous reimagining of the original game. It not only builds on the nostalgia of the first but adds more depth to it by including many different Pokémon, courses, and realistic environments and interactions that make the player feel fully immersed in the beautiful, glowing world of the Lental region. With the addition of social features, day and night course options, and the re-snap photo editing function, New Pokémon Snap elevates itself far above the cult-favorite status of the original Pokémon Snap and becomes a classic in its own right, but it is not without its fair share of limitations. New Pokémon Snap is a must-play for Pokémon fanatics, new and old alike. However, gamers that aren’t as interested in the property at large will not enjoy the title as much as someone emotionally invested in franchise.
1 point deduction because the game is not worth $60 due to its short length, repetition, thin plot, and underdeveloped characters
1 point deduction because there aren’t enough variations in the accessories, Illumina Spots, or character personalization, specifically the melody player, how repetitive and slow the Illumina Spot courses are, and how plain your avatar appears
1/2 point deduction because the rail shooter mechanic limits mobility, and I think an open-world format would have made the game amazing
