This game was a MASSIVE step in the wrong direction. I've been a big fan of the AS series since AS1 first was released in 2008; when theyThis game was a MASSIVE step in the wrong direction. I've been a big fan of the AS series since AS1 first was released in 2008; when they announced AS2, I couldn't wait to grab a copy of it. And I was not disappointed in the slightest. Additionally, despite what many fans say, I honestly enjoyed AS3 very much as well; it introduced many new mechanics to the series and I didn't really feel as though the levels or star progression was too challenging in AS3. Additionally, the characters in AS3 were as memorable and witty as the ones in AS1 and AS2. While I wasn't a major fan of AS3's shift towards a more "futuristic" story, I still enjoyed the story as well. Unfortunately, everything about AS4 is worse than all of its predecessors, however. Any original missions are few and far between for AS4; most of it is remastered old levels. It was nostalgic at first, but if I wanted to play old missions again, I'd grab my old iPod and load up AS1. Additionally, most of the character's humor is gone; bleed's clone is frankly a very bland character, and he acts nothing like the original bleed that we all knew and loved from AS1. The storyline was also extremely generic; they simply put together a memory reviving machine in order to justify the repeated missions. By FAR the worst aspect of this game was the new star system/partner system, however. The star requirements scale DRAMATICALLY in this game, and it quickly becomes very hard to progress in the game without replaying previous missions 20 times over. And I hated the new partner/upgrade system. If you ask me, AS2 had the best upgrade system, with 3 upgrades for each unique tool. Now, there's well over 20 for each tool and you can't even select one to buy; it's pure luck whether you get the upgrade you wanted or not out of the (very expensive) retriever. Not only that, but for some surgeries, you actually need partners to attempt it; partners, which I should add, are very rare, expensive and have extremely long recharge times. The combination of the star requirements, partner requirements, upgrade randomness and the HEAVY push for IAPs (it becomes almost impossible to progress without IAPs) make this game frankly tedious and frustrating to play. I'll stick with AS1-3, thank you.… Expand
