Published by: Square Enix
Developed by: Entersphere,
Inc
Release Date: 02/22/2012
Available on: PS Vita
INTRO: Hey, a new system is out! Although sales
aren’t as good as they should be, the PS Vita is a badass little
handheld that is certainly worth the dough, in my opinion. So, it is
with great pleasure that I am presenting my first PS Vita review, for
Army Corps of Hell!
Coming from famed company Square Enix, Army of Hell puts you in control
of the King of Hell, the ruler of a hundred goblin soldiers. You must
command these enemies of different strengths, sizes and abilities to
help vanquish your enemies and reclaim that throne as rightful king!
GAMEPLAY:
I was impressed from the moment I turned on Army Corps of Hell.
well, maybe I shouldn’t say impressed was the right word. Pleased might
be more fitting. I loved the game’s balls-to-the-wall, hellfire and
brimstone design and goofy awesome metal riffs throughout. It certainly
isn’t a game that takes its own name lightly.
There isn’t much to the story of the game, it is essentially just you
as the King acting really mad and punishing the goblin horde, as he
struggles to regain a measure of rule.
Anyway, when it comes to the gameplay, you’re the King of Hell and you
command your underling army to take out foes from a third person
perspective. You can use the left shoulder button to throw goblins at
enemies and use the generic face buttons to attack. You have three
different sorts of minions at your disposal- the soldier, the spearman
and the magi (guess what each one does, haha). As the game goes along
you can upgrade their skills by creating new weapons for them (and
yourself). Sadly enough though, the upgrades are few and not overly
awesome.
It’s one thing to just use them, but its a whole other thing to use
them effectively. You basically need to get around the enemy and avoid
them (using different attack formations), which unfortunately gets a
little old after awhile. There are touchscreen segments too, but they
aren’t super impressive- you pretty much tap the screen to use a
special attack while tapping the rear touchpad as quickly as possible
to increase the range/damage of the attack in question.
The enemies aren’t awesome because they tend to repeat themselves
often, and the level design is repetitive. With that being said, the
boss fights are fun, engaging and add a good amount of challenge to
balance things out.
Ultimately, I had a fair amount of fun with this game and made a lot
more progress in a shorter amount of time than I expected. It’s
repetitive, but fun. It’s better suited to shorter play sessions, and
perhaps once the price goes down, it’ll make it a tad easier to
recommend.
Gameplay: 6.5/10
GRAPHICS:
Army Corps of Hell is a visually impressive title, with great
environments, cool character design and decent effects. As I mentioned
before though, a bit too much repetition.
Graphics: 7.5/10
AUDIO:
Sound is a metalhead’s dream, heavy metal pounding incessantly over
the screams of dying men and the battle cries of hordes of the damned
making sweet, sweet music.
Audio: 8/10
FINAL VERDICT:
I had a good time with this game, but it just felt a bit too
expensive for what I got in the long run. If you can just wait a few
months for it to drop, it’s more than worth enlisting in this army.
Final Score: 6.5/10