The animation is pretty average, although I did enjoy the character designs a lot - Zack and Eddie were my favorites. The sound is also pretty average and even felt kind of repetitive at times. Moodbuilding was alright but sometimes the sound effects and music were so dramatic and noticeable during very pivotal scenes and it made me feel awkward while watching.
Speaking of repetition, holy cow. The dialogue DRAGS on. At the end of the show you kind of understand why Rachel is so insistent upon establishing the deal between her and Zack but it really stilts the pacing and development of both the show and the characters. The story definitely has an interesting setup but just kind of falls apart after a while.
I can totally see that this was originally a video game - I actually thought so during the first episode and then googled to confirm my suspicions. I think that it really should've been kept to video game format, though - the characters are just so much better suited to that format thanks to the protagonists' rather uninteresting personalities. While Zack is pretty entertaining, he also feels very 2D with a basic sob backstory that is meant to get you to quickly sympathize with him. Maybe the writers could've spent a little more time actually turning the video game protags into real characters for the show, although there have been plenty of video game protags with interesting personalities beforehand, so I don't really understand why this was such a challenge. Sticking to canon? Idk, the game seemed popular but not that popular, so I really couldn't say.
In the end, can't really recommend that anyone else watches this. The youth of Rachel and Eddie also made this feel like some kind of a weird violent fantasy on the behalf of the director or something. I don't know if that kind of sexual energy was in the original game but I wasn't a huge fan of the dynamic spurring between Rachel and Zack, as well as the strange relationship with the doctor - which, to be fair, is painted negatively by the writers within the actual show itself.
