An absolutely amazing work of art. I’ve never played this game before and so without an ounce of nostalgia for the game or the series, I can proudly proclaim that old games are indeed better than modern titles.
It has everything: fun combat, superb visuals that look great to this day, great and captivating environment design, some puzzles, exploration, climbing, a (somewhat) engaging story, great voice acting, secret areas with extra loot and power ups, tons of unlockable concept art, it runs flawlessly, has mission challenges for extra replayability.
Get that, the game has extra epilogue levels AFTER the main story is complete to tease and hype you up for the next game in the series. Can you imagine that happening with today’s games? Extra chapters after the main story? With cutscenes and voice acting, and a playable character swap with different movesets created for just a single level, for free? Instead of butchering those levels for DLCs or putting them as intro levels at the sequel? Every time I find a secret area in a decade-old game I realize how much I’ve missed them in newer titles.
There are some minute annoyances here and there, like the players inability to control the camera which makes three or four platform leaps in the game harder than they have to be, and I’ve noticed major power ups becoming rarer after some point but overall this is a great game that can entertain you for hours even today.