Published by: Namco
Developed by: Bandai Games
Release Date: 7/27/2010
Available on: Xbox 360, Playstation 3
INTRO: Folks, you’ve got to believe me when I tell you that I truly like playing video games and I don’t try to choose ones that suck each time I bring you a review. It can be hard at times to find something that is horror/fantasy/badass related that is site-worthy, and when I do, I pounce. And with that, I am bringing you today’s review of game based on a movie that just got released on home video a few weeks ago…Clash of the Titans.
According to the company line, Clash is “Set in the timeless grandeur of Greek mythology, Clash of the Titans immerses players into the epic battle for dominance between the human race and the powerful gods Hades and Zeus. Through vast landscapes of swamps, mountains and the underworld, two modes of play let players embody Perseus’ adventure from the film, or take on original new bosses in fresh, dynamic adaptations of one of the greatest mythological stories ever told.”
I’m here to tell you a little more about it in the most in-depth way I can. I warn you boys and girls, this might not be pretty.
GAMEPLAY:
Right away, any game that is to be compared to mythology is going to draw comparisons to the mighty God of War series. Let me tell you right now that this game does not compare to that series in the slightest, but luckily it isn’t a bad clone or anything. It doesn’t try to be God of War and luckily for us, that is a good thing.
Admittedly, the idea of facing the giant foes from the movie can sound pretty fun. Unfortunately, this is a game that really feels repetitive, lacks challenge and just feels dated. The game isn’t exactly like the movie, and it can feel like the plot moves around you while you just watch. It’s one of those ‘help out the townsfolk by doing the exact same mission (killing dudes) the entire time. It has a few neat concepts along the way, like the idea that you are killing bosses and stealing their weapons. This is a cool feature because you get to wield some badass implements of destruction. Not only do you get to kill the boss with it, but once you do you get to keep it forever, which is really cool. You can also slowly upgrade your attributes by beating quests.
Now, the problem with this is that you’re really, really powerful to begin with and you can use your boss weapons a lot. The frustrating this about this is that you have to drain the ‘soul’ of an enemy. This involves a long animation, some button mashing and some context-sensitive button pushing in order to steal their weapon. This isn’t so bad when you do it for the first couple of times (and you really should do it fairly often to upgrade your weapons) but it gets downright tedious after awhile. It feels like the game is just trying to keep you busy and don’t even mention the whole weapon switching system, that menu is awful.
The combat besides this is unbelievably basic and while there are some cool combos you can string together, it isn’t enough. You will spend a lot of time running in circles waiting for dudes to spawn so you can kill them and move on to the next hack and slash.
The whole presentation of the game just feels off. This is Clash of the Titans and you feel as though the whole thing is ho-hum, with super lame storytelling. Perseus couldn’t be any more dull. This adds to the tedium of the game which can be absolutely mind-numbing. I hope you like backtracking because there’s a ton of it to be found here. There’s a lot of walking around and listening to people blather on while you fight for two minutes and then move on. There are very few ‘quests’ that last any length of time at all. Hell, when you’re traversing the map, the locations barely look any different. This isn’t to say that there aren’t a few cool boss battles, but it isn’t enough. You just don’t have fun playing this game and that’s the worst part of it.
Gameplay: 3.5/10
GRAPHICS:
This is not a pretty game. As I mentioned before, all of the environments look very similar and the whole thing feels really uninspired. They look, feel and are dated. The cut scenes look awful. There’s really nothing to look forward to visually in this one. The actual in-game graphics are just okay, but they don’t cut the mustard.
Graphics: 3/10
AUDIO:
Well, the soundtrack for this one is alright. At the very least it is pretty varied but that’s about the best I can say. The voice acting isn’t very good and as I said before Perseus is just dull. There’s really nothing much more I can say here.
Audio: 4/10
FINAL VERDICT:
I’ve reviewed a few licensed titles in my day, and this is easily one of the worst. Hey, I like killing mythological stuff too but this didn’t quench my thirst at all. This game even has a two player co-op mode but its so broken and frustrating that I didn’t even mention it in the main review. Between the short (but plentiful) loading screens, bland characters and environments, tedious weapon system (although it’s a cool idea) and incredibly repetitive combat, there isn’t much going for this one. It stinks!
Final Score: 3.5/10