Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet

Sword Art Online (SAO in short) isn’t your typical RPG game, I was excited to start it for several reasons. We don’t have many games like this on Xbox, I love playing RPG games and the concept behind the video game really speaks to me. So let’s not dwell on it and see if SAO is something worth buying! 

THE GOOD

• Sword Art Online’s shooting gameplay is pretty unique, it takes some time to actually get the hang of it but the fast-paced aiming and many different ways of playstyles is one of the strongest points from the game. It is very beginners friendly but it has some surprising depth with stat adding items.
•  You are actually controlling characters that are plugged into a VR game. This makes the story really cool to follow, sometimes they talk about their real life too. It makes it a little complex to follow but it remains really interesting. A lot of stuff happens that you don’t expect, so you never know what to expect.
• Customization from your characters is huge, making your perfect character can take a long time. Obviously you can choose your gender but you can alter pretty much everything. It is not as diverse as the WWE games but Sword Art Online comes close.

MIXED FEELINGS

• Camera is handled by the game (or yourself) and works most of the time. In dungeons however, some frustration can be found because the camera angle can become stuck on objects or platforms.
• Visually things are very mixed, characters look great and well detailed but the environments are completely lifeless and empty. A shame because Unreal Engine 4 is used and I know that they could have done more impressive visuals with it.

THE BAD

• Dungeons lack some serious variation, it is practically always the same environment and enemies. Layouts are a little different but the same style is used over and over again, the only thing that keeps you motivated to complete it is the boss fight at the end.
• Loading times are atrocious, it needs to load every single location, even the small rooms. And it can take a full minute too, even in between cut scenes and conversations you have lengthy loading times.

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet [Score: 6,3/10] It does many things right and fun but too many frustrations happen while playing SAO. It lacks some visual variations and the loading times are really something … RPG or shooter fans will find some enjoyment in the game though, but overall it is a pretty average game to play.