I'm going to have to disagree with you (and, apparently, everybody else) regarding the 'final third' of the game.
Sort of.
Obviously, fighting the aliens doesn't have the free-form, pretend-to-be-The-Predator wondrousness of the earlier sections of the game. However, I would argue that it gives an adrenaline charged conclusion to the game (the final level aside, which was meh) that to my mind is intended to be fairly brief.
Personally I spent hour after hour playing through the earlier parts of the game, over the space of a week or so, retrying sections, climbing ravines, and frequently being executed for leaving the mission area (so maybe not all that freeform after all). At one point I spent an hour and a half clearing a small NKA outpost, proning my way through paddy fields, taking the guards down one by one.
Then I reached the Alien ship, and wandered around lost, going 'woah, cool'. Finally I tottered out the other side and BANG! Everything went nuts, the world was frozen, aliens were attacking. Lots of shooting, explosions, a small but awesome rail shooter section, some crazy arse cut scenes and a damaged shuttle later and I was on the home stretch.
Everything after the ship I did in one fairly short session. Maybe I would have been annoyed if it had been a larger part of the game, but as it was, for me it just worked (final mission still sucked, but compared to the end of Far Cry it was gaming gold).
I realise that I am largely on my own here - but I'm right and everybody else is wrong.
As per usual.
Sort of.
Obviously, fighting the aliens doesn't have the free-form, pretend-to-be-The-Predator wondrousness of the earlier sections of the game. However, I would argue that it gives an adrenaline charged conclusion to the game (the final level aside, which was meh) that to my mind is intended to be fairly brief.
Personally I spent hour after hour playing through the earlier parts of the game, over the space of a week or so, retrying sections, climbing ravines, and frequently being executed for leaving the mission area (so maybe not all that freeform after all). At one point I spent an hour and a half clearing a small NKA outpost, proning my way through paddy fields, taking the guards down one by one.
Then I reached the Alien ship, and wandered around lost, going 'woah, cool'. Finally I tottered out the other side and BANG! Everything went nuts, the world was frozen, aliens were attacking. Lots of shooting, explosions, a small but awesome rail shooter section, some crazy arse cut scenes and a damaged shuttle later and I was on the home stretch.
Everything after the ship I did in one fairly short session. Maybe I would have been annoyed if it had been a larger part of the game, but as it was, for me it just worked (final mission still sucked, but compared to the end of Far Cry it was gaming gold).
I realise that I am largely on my own here - but I'm right and everybody else is wrong.
As per usual.
