I played through this on stream for an all-Secrets run. Only missed one secret >.< You can watch the YT playlist of it here.

Look: 7/10 Functional enough. This is the era of PS2 graphics I so love, though. And some really cool animations like the death animations. I think if I had/once I watch the show, this could boost up to an 8 or more as I would be excited about recognizing the characters. As it was, I don't get all that excited about it haha. That being said, some cool monsters, settings, etc. they did a great job with this game.

Sound: 7/10 Really added to the atmosphere. I kept joking it was like a nicer SIlent Hill, and the audio added to that feeling. Creepy, tense, and catchy. The voice acting was pretty good, I thought. Nothing special but also definitely not bad.

Play: 8/10 Yesss, I loved the weapon variety like Shovel, Pitchfork, Pool Cue, and dang that Sword was great (as was the last level's Axe weapon that similarly had no durability factor). The Combos were varied and allowed for a challenge, but also had simple enough Combos for mediocre gamers like me to enjoy learning. Thank goodness for the very forgiving Continue function (tho I love that it keeps that as a stat and you are rated for a level, and could replay that level to do better, which is the right way to have the ability to make a game easy/doable but then present the option to go for perfection)

Not a huge fan of how you change through your items and use them, still not entirely clear on that ha (Triangle seems to be use but so does Up… and it serves as Equip I believe? Hard to explain). Similarly, some weapons shoot with Square other with Triangle. Some you aim with R2, some with R1. I'm sure connoisseurs could explain the clear differences but for someone like me, it could have benefitted to have it more streamlined.

Likewise, the combo/spell list should be in the pause menu, not an item. The item selection process was already one of the main faults of the game, and to top it off, not knowing Willow’s spells till you’re done being onslaughted with enemies… not the best call. I suppose the multiplayer game would be a way to practice combat low-stakes, and so it was wise to include that. Nonetheless, I think anyone would agree this game could benefit from a lock-on feature and better aim mechanics for throwable items. Oh and lol, these people sure get up slowly.

Pro-tip: I learned the hard way–breaking chairs in the game consistently provides Stakes!

Another pro-tip: with weapons that allow it, R1 is the true aim. Most notably, the Crossbow and the Tranquilizer Gun. R2 just, uh, puts you in a stance type thing lol. I still can't remember which one was the right one to use for that darn gas tank used by the puppet guy to blowup a door lol. That part frustrated me due to the uncertainty of which buttons to use, even though I had solved the puzzle I just didn't know what to press :-p

Feel: 8/10 I love the Titan A.E. poster. I love a game that includes so many replayability functions. I love that it encourages you to replay levels and to explore explore explore (well as I got deeper into the game, much like with the first Silent Hill, this encouragement to explore explore explore was muddled by the constant onslaught of enemies). As I’ve said a bunch about PS1 and PS2 era 3d graphics, I love trying to see what you can jump to or corners you can see around or glitched walls you can walk through etc, which this game fully embraces and has secrets on top of, say, a truck I spontaneously decided to see if I could jump up, etc.

Biggest complaint is just such constant enemies that you don’t really get time to focus on your objective or solve the puzzles (I have very short term memory ha). Almost never get a chance to breathe. And as far as I can tell, they will keep re-spawning, more often than not, so it didn’t always feel worth it to kill them all off (that’s not always true though, some rooms they stop spawning for sure… others certainly felt endless ha). In time I learned, most of the time, they wont infinitely respawn if you stay in the room, just if you leave. Still, that would be my biggest complaint, as others have noted and like I said for Silent Hill. I got used to it, always being on my toes expecting another enemy to spawn, but it would've been nice to breathe and puzzle-solve or adventure sometimes. Great overall feel to this game, regardless.

Attachment: 8/10 Missed one damn Secret otherwise ostensibly 100% though the replayability factors allows for a lot more to claim 100%: perfect ratings, the multiplayer game, no death runs etc. The fact I could see myself replaying it to get an all-secrets, no-deaths run says a lot. I likely wont, though, because it's quite lengthy and I don't have that attachment to the Buffy show. But if/when I do watch the show, I bet these all could boost! For fans of the show, I would imagine this is a phenomenal, unforgettable game. And from the youtube comments and viewer comments, that seems to be true. As an outsider playing it, I can say it really is top-notch and one of those rare high-quality media tie-ins.

Completion: All secrets except one, completed all levels Playtime: ~10 hours