I absolutely love survival horror games. Cronos, Dead Space and RE9 are some of my favorite games ever.
all the games I mentioned above are like 15-25 hours long and I hear from reviewers Sinking City is a bit on the shorter side compared to them. It’s the only reason I haven’t bought it yet.
I know it’s early but I was wondering what everyone’s thoughts were? Do you recommend purchase now or wait for a sale?
Thank you!
Just wrapped it up and I’m really happy with the purchase and the experience overall. This game absolutely delivered in a lot of ways, even if it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting going in.
What I loved
Combat
This is easily the standout for me. As a huge John Wick fan, this is the closest I’ve ever felt to playing a proper John Wick-style game until we eventually get an official one. The shooting, melee transitions, and environmental interactions are incredibly satisfying.
One of my favorite things to do was getting into a fist fight, then smoothly pulling out the service pistol and finishing with a kneecap shot. It just feels right. The combat has that weight and flow that makes every encounter feel cinematic. Even though I don’t see myself replaying the whole game repeatedly, I will absolutely come back just to experience the combat again.
Story
Feels like playing through a Bond film. The developers clearly respected the tone and structure of the movies from start to finish. I’m not even a massive Bond fan, but the story kept me engaged the whole way through and was genuinely well done.
Environments / Presentation
Visually, the game is stunning. The environments are rich, detailed, and feel lived-in. NPCs are well animated and actually add to the immersion instead of just filling space. You can tell a lot of care went into making each level feel grounded and believable.
My main criticisms
1. Marketing vs. reality (player freedom / mission design)
This is my biggest disappointment. I went in expecting something closer to Hitman-style level design, where you’re given a sandbox and multiple meaningful approaches to complete objectives.
That’s not really what this is.
The “choice” usually boils down to extremely light variations like: go through a vent or distract a guard and slip in behind them. It gives the illusion of flexibility, but in practice the mission structure is very linear.
Because of how the game was marketed, I honestly felt a bit misled in terms of player agency.
2. Too much downtime, not enough action
The combat is genuinely excellent… which makes it more frustrating that there isn’t more of it.
There’s a lot of walking, slow pacing, dialogue, and stealth sections, and not enough opportunities to actually engage with the game’s strongest system. I completely understand that pacing matters for story delivery, and I know some players will love that balance—but for me, I’m very much a gameplay-first player.
I came in expecting more freedom to go loud and play aggressively throughout missions. Instead, that approach often feels limited or discouraged in favor of slower, more scripted sequences.
Final thoughts
Even with those issues, the game still ended up surprising me in a good way. It wasn’t exactly the experience I expected, but it still managed to pull me in and deliver a memorable ride from start to finish.
Despite my criticisms, I had a great time with it overall and I’m genuinely looking forward to any DLC or future content.
Final score: 8/10
Great game, just not quite the sandbox-action hybrid I was hoping for—but still absolutely worth playing. I highly encourage anyone interested in buying this to wait for a sale or at least wait until IOI releases some new updates and DLC.
What I would like to see in future content updates:
Would love them to expand on the tactical simulation mode. Add new operations that allow the freedom of action I desperately want. I would also love to see a wave based survival mode. This would keep me coming back to the game. The combat is just that good
And of course keep the story missions coming and hopefully they make it a bit less linear like the main game is.
I’ve been playing First Light and can’t stop thinking about how amazing a Hitman game would be with that combat system. Imagine Agent 47 infiltrating a heavily guarded compound, silently taking out guards, then seamlessly transitioning into brutal hand-to-hand combat when things go wrong.
One of the few criticisms of the modern Hitman games is that direct combat feels pretty clunky and is usually a last resort. Giving 47 fluid melee combat, counters, disarms, and cinematic takedowns would make those “plan gone wrong” moments way more fun instead of an instant reload.
Keep the disguises, stealth, social engineering, and sandbox assassinations—but add First Light’s combat as a fallback option. It would make 47 feel even more like the world’s deadliest assassin.
Am I crazy, or would this be an incredible combo? Hopefully with the success of this game they are planning something like that.