So a game came out yesterday that made absolutely no attempt at subterfuge in how gloriously it reveled in its own stupidity. You need only read the name to have some understanding of that, but it's the trailer, which is what sold the game to me, that really drives it home. This is a game that has no right to be as entertaining and funny as it actually is. By all rights it should be stupid and I should hate it but despite losing at least one IQ point playing through it I find myself enamored of the game.
1. Gameplay: To use Yahtzee's turn, most Hack'o'slash'o'button mash'o games like GoW and Bayonetta have the issue of useless weapons and/or combos. In the case of God of War I think we can all agree that there was absolutely no reason to use anything but the starting weapons. Bayonetta had lots of cool weapons but the combos were so convoluted that many of them were basically just frilly toys. Marlow Biggs limits itself to about 9-10 combo's per weapons, all easy to remember permutations of Light Attack and Heavy Attack combinations. It has enough weapons unlocked at a reasonable enough pace that you don't feel inundated by choice but don't get bored with spamming the same weapons either. You never run out of creative ways to introduce the hapless guards to big daddy death is all I'm saying. While that might seem simple, in a game as simple as this already is it's something that could make or break it. Fortunately they managed the former.
2. Humor: Oh the humor. This game knows down to the milliliter, exactly how much of the piss it is taking. The game intersperses between decent-to-stellar combat sections and humorous asides from both main character, the floating death mask you're paired with, and the main bad guy over the P.A. system. There are whole sections which cleverly take the piss out of games like Tomb Raider and Uncharted without being so overt that you feel like it's just patronizing its audience. The voice acting could be better but while its a little shaky in the first part of the game, it quickly becomes more than tolerable.
3. Technical: So here are a few downsides. For all the great aspects of the game the limited budget does show through in some of the animations. Collision errors occur sometimes where characters are holding things and I did encounter one fall-through-the-world glitch. Those are the only major bad points. On the good side, the enemies are programmed with AI that acknowledges more than just yourself as an enemy. So for instance, if the human enemies encounter the giant bug enemies they will fight amongst themselves while also fighting you. None of that, "Why are the human soldiers working in perfect tandem with the giant penis monsters from Mars?" problems a lot of games have. Other than that everything if perfectly functional if a little raw in some places.
So all in all I'd give this game a 4/5. It set out to accomplish a goal and it succeeded better than most triple A titles I could name. There's literally no reason not to buy it either at an easy $15US.
1. Gameplay: To use Yahtzee's turn, most Hack'o'slash'o'button mash'o games like GoW and Bayonetta have the issue of useless weapons and/or combos. In the case of God of War I think we can all agree that there was absolutely no reason to use anything but the starting weapons. Bayonetta had lots of cool weapons but the combos were so convoluted that many of them were basically just frilly toys. Marlow Biggs limits itself to about 9-10 combo's per weapons, all easy to remember permutations of Light Attack and Heavy Attack combinations. It has enough weapons unlocked at a reasonable enough pace that you don't feel inundated by choice but don't get bored with spamming the same weapons either. You never run out of creative ways to introduce the hapless guards to big daddy death is all I'm saying. While that might seem simple, in a game as simple as this already is it's something that could make or break it. Fortunately they managed the former.
2. Humor: Oh the humor. This game knows down to the milliliter, exactly how much of the piss it is taking. The game intersperses between decent-to-stellar combat sections and humorous asides from both main character, the floating death mask you're paired with, and the main bad guy over the P.A. system. There are whole sections which cleverly take the piss out of games like Tomb Raider and Uncharted without being so overt that you feel like it's just patronizing its audience. The voice acting could be better but while its a little shaky in the first part of the game, it quickly becomes more than tolerable.
3. Technical: So here are a few downsides. For all the great aspects of the game the limited budget does show through in some of the animations. Collision errors occur sometimes where characters are holding things and I did encounter one fall-through-the-world glitch. Those are the only major bad points. On the good side, the enemies are programmed with AI that acknowledges more than just yourself as an enemy. So for instance, if the human enemies encounter the giant bug enemies they will fight amongst themselves while also fighting you. None of that, "Why are the human soldiers working in perfect tandem with the giant penis monsters from Mars?" problems a lot of games have. Other than that everything if perfectly functional if a little raw in some places.
So all in all I'd give this game a 4/5. It set out to accomplish a goal and it succeeded better than most triple A titles I could name. There's literally no reason not to buy it either at an easy $15US.
