Yeah, I think what helped me get into it is I didn’t really care for anything other than combat, so I skipped most of the cut scenes except anything I felt important.

I also never bothered doing well in the mini-games. They were just not that interesting and poorly put together overall.

These long stretches without checkpoints felt fucking impossible at a couple of points throughout the game. I had to take a couple of long breaks to make it through on my first playthrough.

Unlocking shit definitely makes the game way easier. Some parts don’t feel doable without grenades, for example.

I did end up having a lot of fun in the last stages and on a subsequent playthrough though. Unlocking everything + figuring out guard cancels to increase mobility + tactically using grenades/weapon pickups made it all click in my head.

Guard canceling into gun at close range in particular made minibosses a lot easier, especially when combined with grenades.

It’s definitely one of these games that get better after the first playthrough. Issue is the first playthrough can be so rough it kills any desire to revisit the game for most people.