talked to two people in the US, my college mates, they say the game is rad ! They say that some missions are boring, but overall, its very varied in its campaign and there's even a Doom/Quake kind-ish level in it
! Good times can't come soon enough.
Only one of them is a MP guy, and he is digging it !
I finished the SP campaign and I can strongly agree. A few boring areas, one level in particular of mostly scripted sneaking is the only one I can think of that I didn't really have fun honestly, some early times where they take control and it's annoying.
Overall an extremely well done game. Very varied in gameplay. Lots of enemy types, human and non-human which are all fun to fight against. Story is interesting, but nothing to write home about. No swearing.
Thoroughly enjoyed the game. I would rate the singleplayer 8/10, only thing that I truly didn't like was that it ended a strong experience too early.
I can also confirm that some levels are narrow, yet with many rooms and areas, and other levels are extremely large and wide open. The levels also have many vertical levels, and you can really approach many areas in different ways. Tons of different rooms and stairs and levels and buildings, you never feel like you go to the same area twice. There are four levels in particular which I think are excellent, one of which is more linear and I had a lot of fun, the others being the wide open ones that I really loved.
There is so much detail in the levels sometimes, you might even consider it to the point where it's at fault and obstructs easy navigation. Though as you said, it feels refreshing to have to look around a bit, because the areas are large and you have to do a bit of "how can I get there?" The game does not hand hold you to figure exactly everything out, only in rare cases do they not tell you enough of exactly what to do where they should.
It is a premier singleplayer FPS experience, it is definitely not a barebones pop-shoot fest at all. The enemy AI traverses the levels easily, rotates cover often, and is very aggressive and very fun to fight against. Lots of interesting weapons, though you can only hold two weapons and can't switch the primary... the weapons are extremely fun though, especially the loud Helghast weapons
The OWL gives you fun abilities that simply change up the gameplay and give the enemies another thing to shoot against. Abilities work on cooldowns, and do not feel overpowered. If you make too many mistakes, the Helghast will easily overwhelm you, but the game rarely ever feels unfair, you always feel like you can change your strategy and get a better outcome. I can only think of two areas I had significantly more difficulty than others, but nothing that was hard to overcome with a few retries.
And from the few hours I have played of multiplayer I can definitely say it has a lot to offer. Lots of game modes, lots of customization for the players and an incredibly amount of server options to go with.
It's a fantastic game. My only two complaints which really matter to me are that there is no local co-op and the singleplayer is too short, ending abruptly in what feels like should be the middle of the game imo.