It has definitely traded some amount of atmosphere and story for gameplay elements, but imo that is a nice progression for remedy as the balance was bit off for the previous games. So far I think it is fantastic! The cityscapes are stunningly cool and mindbending. I have easily spent three of my 24 gameplay hours just reading documents in-game. It has all the same fun elements of control but with a nicely balanced and engaging hack’n’slash system. Not too combo heavy but lets you string together abilities and basic weapon combos for a ton of fun smashing. Definitely recommend.

I fully believe in human-catalyzed climate change and I think we need to take immediate collective action to slow/stop the changes we are inducing. That being said, the earth is certainly not becoming inhospitable, the balance is just shifting.