malkav11

Seriously playing some more Disaster Report, partly because I was waiting for Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, Growlanser: Generations, and MechAssault to show up on my doorstep. (which they did today. As opposed to yesterday, the day I have entirely free to do anything I feel like doing.) Unfortunately, the game is never again as cool as it is in the opening bridge sequence. You accumulate various items, a large percentage of which never have even a single use in the game (for example, lighters. I've never had any cause to use a lighter in the game.), but you have limited inventory space (though this does upgrade periodically as you find larger packs.). Water is, I guess, meant to be a big mechanic, but as the water points are also save points you can regularly fill up without having to worry about portable water supplies. Even late in the game when they become fewer and further between, you will *never* need all five water rations that you can hold in a large water bottle, and you can have several by then. Likewise health. Mostly if you're in danger, it's of dying instantly. You can get banged up by falls and such, but it slowly heals on its own, and you won't risk it very often. Even were you to be killed by health damage, when you respawn you're full on health and water both.

Still, these are minor quibbles, and for much of the game the navigation of the incredibly hazardous, increasingly ruined city is both intuitive and thrilling. I particularly like that as time goes on the clothing of you and your companion(s) grow more ragged and dirty.
Then you discover the disaster was triggered by a villain and...yeah, that's dumb. And then there's stealth sequences and a fire hose and...bah. If there were much of the game left at that point I'd probably have quit. It was stupid. Fortunately, there isn't, and it goes back to more exciting material for that last bit (Stiver Island is pretty near gone towards the very end, and the sea is reclaiming it.).