There's been a review on IGN for weeks and on 1up this past week.
The issue I'm having with the reviews is that the first game also got glowing reviews and is widely considered to be one of the best games on the PS3. I played the first one and quite honestly, it was only pretty good but certainly not great (much like another launch title in Resistance). It's a beautiful game to look at, no doubt. The storyline is a very good and fun - if very unoriginal - one and the real reason to play the game. The issue is the gameplay. It's mediocre. Exploring is pretty basic with levels designed to funnel you and very little real exploration (I found 43 of the 60 treasures and I didn't try that hard). The fighting system wasn't particularly good. It was WAAY to irritating to try and do the melee combat and when you did try and shoot, guys would take - without exaggeration - 6-8 shots, or multiple headshots, to go down. Like with Mirror's Edge, fighting is very secondary in a game like this but this forced you to fight way more than you should have and the system wasn't particularly good. Quite honestly, after I beat the original in the 10 hours or so I played it, there was ZERO reason for me to every play it again. There was just no replay value. So I did what I do with very few of the games I buy: I sold it right after I beat it.
Now, I heard this game is supposed to have pretty good multiplayer so I downloaded the demo. I have it pre-ordered and will be picking it up on day 1 because I would like to go through it. But this game is on EB's gameplay guarantee where you can return it for full value within a week after release and it's also on a trade 3 deal. My plan is currently to play it and beat it and then return it in exchange for Demon's Souls, which comes out the week before. It will have to prove to me that there's a reason for me to keep it beyond that week. I hope it does but I'm not using the reviews as any indication since they failed me the first time.
That being said, anyone up for some multiplayer the week of the 13th? I will be up for playing that week. I have a headset as well.
I was there on that fateful day, were you?