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Others will stick with it for longer than I did – the aforementioned boss is beatable – but it takes forever and remains a game likely to be abandoned in favor of other entertainment options. If you’ve played through one level, you’ve played through them all, and the game is so repetitive that I’m able to make such a statement with a reasonable amount of confidence. The fact that I have no desire to finish the title simply illustrates my point. Not coincidentally, that’s about when I stopped playing the game. I felt as if I would have to get lucky in order to proceed. To phrase that differently, N3 II eliminates interactivity in order to kill you, and that’s atrocious design. On multiple attempts, I’d get knocked down once and then get pummeled with constant attacks for another twenty seconds without ever getting a chance to respond.
N3 NINETY NINE NIGHTS 2 FULL
A boss about halfway through utilizes a difficult to avoid technique that leaves you prone and vulnerable for a full five seconds of game time. On top of everything else, the five-second stun mechanic eventually breaks the game in half. Even so, the bombardment constantly disrupts the flow of battle and turns an otherwise fluid game into a choppy, aggravating mess. They don’t deal much damage, so you’re unlikely to die as long as you keep moving. Many of the most common enemies – such as archers and birds – have projectile attacks that can interrupt almost anything that you happen to be doing.
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Considering that the game’s concession to a difficulty curve is to throw more of the same grunts into every encounter, progression can become a tedious proposition. The gameplay is similarly packed with frustratingly unbalanced mechanics. Later levels include environmental obstacles like poison gas and falling rocks that needlessly clutter the screen and interfere with the warfare. The thankfully brief platforming sections showcase the unresponsive shortcomings of the jump button. That doesn’t excuse the blatant design shortcomings or the studio’s inability to distinguish between challenging and annoying. The developers admittedly faced a tough task, as the sheer vastness of the dark lord’s armies makes some forms of subtlety impossible. The AI is laughable, with opponents often forgetting their assignments as soon as you leave the room. The frame rate lags noticeably during the more intense moments, which is a serious concern for a game that throws literally hundreds of enemies against you at any given time. More damningly, N3 II has trouble managing all of the business that takes place onscreen. The dodge and block buttons only seem to work about half of the time, making it impossible to rely on evasive strategies during combat. Others intrude directly into the gameplay. Some of the issues are technical, like the temperamental physics engine that allows boxes to remain suspended in midair after the rows below have been cut out. Numerous niggling flaws ensure that apathetic indifference will set in long before the game’s conclusion. There are several days’ worth of missions to overcome but virtually no reason to keep playing through them once you start getting bored. Sadly, that just means that you’ll have to replay levels multiple times in order to unlock all of the content. The characters do have personalized story arcs that give you several perspectives on the proceedings. The accessories and combat abilities are identical for every fighter, so no adjustments are necessary when switching heroes. There are five different playable characters, but gameplay diversity is nonetheless an illusion.