Honestly, I think you\'re giving it too much credit. If this was trolling, I honestly think we would have known for certain by now. Sometimes people really are this stupid, I guess.
Oh God! Natural light!
As funny as it would be if the game is satire, it\'s not. The people who worked on the game did not have any self-awareness and played it straight. But the game\'s story and voice acting are still hilariously bad though.
...And I don\'t know that it is, but you do not know that it isn\'t. So I am sticking to my interpretation.
It\'s comedic, whether intentionally or not. I once watched a YouTube Let\'s Play with a \"damn\" counter, that increased every time Shadow said \"damn\".
When I was a kid, I had no idea that River City Ransom was meant to be funny; my older brother said it failed at its intent and became cheesy. Different interpretations right there.
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A playable shooter with a fun satire
So, no. I do understand why one wouldn't like this game. It's meaninglessly Darker and Edgier in a toothless manner, it has some slippery controls, cars and motorbikes are awful (Although the motorbikes were more or less redeemed by the Archie comics, where Shadow treats them as an "I don't need it, but I like it" thing) and an entirely massive collection of various dumb-ness, along with being a complete Cliché Storm.
And that is why I love it. By god, they give this game all its might in taking itself seriously with its completely stupid premise, dumb, cliched story, and crappy morality system. Oh yeah, and the ARK levels are dumb as shit.
But here's the way I see it, described in two words:
Stealth Parody.
Yeah. Seem likely? To some, no. But look at its incredibly massive stockpile of stupidity. Look at the absurdity of the "ooh, we're dark now!" aspect. Look at Shadow shotgun-cocking an SMG, riding a motorcycle that explodes because why not? Look at the badly-shoved in swearing! Watch, as Shadow decides WHO HE IS via some serious jackassery, and makes some really dumb decisions!
I see this is as SEGA trolling Shadow's Misaimed Fandom. The large assembly of Shadow fans who like him due to thinking of him as this edgy, angry Anti-Hero instead of a more restrained Byronic Hero. I see it as them saying "Fine! You want edgy? Here's a 3'3 hedgehog on a motorbike shooting aliens with an SMG! And we'll play it all so straight that you'll barely even notice, we'll have a Generic Doomsday Villain who is so generic it's stupid, and then we'll throw in some Ho Yay just for the Sonadow shippers!"
That's not to say the satire element doesn't have its issues, though. Mood Whiplash is all over, and due to the E-10+, they can't do the full parody of Blaxploitation/B-Movies that they want to. Add some fairly bad acting (although Griffith gives a good, hammy performance at points, which fits right in with satire) and you have a dumb parody.
However, despite Shadow being slippery, and vehicle controls being awful, the game shines in levels like Sky Troops and Air Fleet (Which can come right after another depending on storyline) where Shadow is given a supply of weapons, platforming to do, and best of all, the ability to tear through enemies like tissue paper, refilling his dark/hero gauge as he does so with a full gauge, helping him to gain more in each gauge! Muahahahaha! No, really though, had the whole game been like that, it would be a firm 9/10.
But it's not, so 8/10.
But it has the ARK levels, so 7/10.
But it has the "DAMN fourth Chaos Emerald" line and "This is just like taking candy from a baby, which is fine by me" line. So, 8/10.
But you should really decide for yourself.
Overall, an 8/10, which is better than I gave Jessica Jones and Sword Art Online. Sue me.