This Thursday’s update brought us the single-handedly biggest downloadable game on a console to date, and now we’re here to post our early impressions of it.

First things first, the game consists of 12 episodes, and those are split into different chapters; for example the first episode is subdivided into 2 cutscene chapters, a gameplay chapter and a trailer chapter that gives a teaser of what the next episode has in store. Every “game pack” that’s available on the PS Store contains 3 episodes (that is, there are 4 game packs available), and each one costs £6.99, or £19.99 for all of them. Phew, what a mess. Also, if you buy the whole lot immediately, you don’t download one single file, which means you have to download each of the twelve episodes separately and after that install them separately as well. Since the game is a whooping close 10 Gb, Sony could’ve simplified the process a bit better, as this takes a good while to do.

But now to the game itself. The presentation is great, with easily navigated menus and a great option of deleting the episodes you don’t want on your HDD anymore (the first episode can’t be deleted). The episode selection menu is well presented, and it’s easy to jump straight to the parts you like.

On to the first episode. The game surprisingly starts with a live-action video that hastily introduces a couple of the characters you’ll play and get to know in the game, and soon enough you take control of a fleeing American youngster named Howard Wright. How he got there and what his purpose is isn’t disclosed at this early part of the game, but he’s still immediately thrown into a nasty situation. You start out in a small cabin where you can get accustomed to the controls, which are simple but, as you might expect, a bit tank-ish like in most survival-horror games.

Soon enough you’ll bump into your first enemy, the local police officer, and the game immediately kicks into high gear. This first episode acts out like a tutorial, since the game holds your hand by updating the mission objective as you go along. Throwing an enemy at you so soon might be off-putting to some; since the game is extremely dark, I had a bit of a hard time finding my way around without getting killed immediately.

But the controls are easy to grasp, so after a couple of minutes I was dodging bullets and hiding in small alcoves. One thing this game does well is freaking you out, with great sound effects and a good use of the SixAxis vibration function. Another clever thing this series has is the sightjacking ability that lets you observe from the eyes of the enemies. It’s an effective way to build up the tension to great levels.

But just as the game was starting to click, the first episode ended (with a bang). All in all, the first episode provided a mere 15 minutes of gameplay, including some of the trial-and-error reloads. But this first episode bodes well for the other ones, even if the game is strict on what you had to do at all times. Hopefully the rest of the episodes tone down the handholding, and open up a bit.

Still, this first episode effectively introduces the (somewhat campy) setting, and opens up with a bang. Expect us to give a final review soon.