Episode Prompto

Third-Person Shooter - After Prompto is separated from his friends, he wakes up in a facility where he discovers his origins.

PROS:

++ Solid characterization. It's a shame I didn't get to learn more about Aranea, but I did learn a good amount about Prompto. His mini character arc in this DLC was decently emotional, especially when he was reminiscing about the crew when he was alone around the campfire wondering if they would still accept him despite his origins.

CONS:

-- Bad combat. Compared to Episodes Gladiolus and Ignis, Episode Prompto has noticeably weaker combat. Guns feel very meh since the rate of fire on the pistol is incredibly slow, and all the other weapons have limited ammo. And Prompto's fighting style just doesn't work when you're combatting large mobs or bosses.

Episode Prompto aims a bit higher than the previous DLC episode but also stumbles harder. There are clearly aspirations here to actually give Prompto a bit of a character arc and there are even some big budget action sequences that reminded me a bit of Resident Evil 5 in a weird way. Unfortunately the DLC doesn't really afford enough time to make Prompto's development feel earned and the over the shoulder gunplay lacks the punch that would make it more satisfying.

I was pleased to see Aranea get a bit more time to shine, as she felt woefully underutilized in the base game, but I was PROMPTly let down by how small her role here is. She gets to act tough for a few lines and fights alongside you for a boss then that's it. She feels tacked on, just as the DLC story as a whole does, which is odd considering the game sets it up beforehand with Prompto's disappearance.

Like with Episode Gladiolus, this DLC honestly doesn't add enough to make it all that essential to the base game experience. I guess you could argue either way as to whether that's a good thing, but I'm walking away from this feeling underwhelmed.