Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

I used to be the manager of an EB Games.  I recall the excitement and preorders for Superman 64 on the Nintendo 64, and the frenzy of Superman fans that assaulted my gates on release day.  It’s a day that I remember from beginning to end as I would see these same people again later in the day.  Their demeanor had changed – they were upset and wanted their money back.  Superman 64 would go down in history as one of the worst games ever made, for any platform, ever. 

Fast forward to 2006 and we see the release of Superman Returns on several platforms.  A licensed tie-in with the movie of the same name, this release coincides with the release of the movie on DVD.  The movie wasn’t the smash hit that many hoped it would be, focusing more on the softer side of the Man of Steel, and less on the good vs. evil struggle of Superman.  EA picked up the license for the game and began working on the game in early 2006.  We saw a version of it in May that held a lot of promise that was 30% complete.  I’m sad to say that the complete version didn’t deliver on the early promise presented at E3, and in fact managed to capture everything that Superman isn’t.

I have to say that the graphics in Superman look pretty damned super, at least the screenshots do anyway.  Brandon Routh, the actor that portrayed Superman in the movie, is meticulously recreated for his in-game counterpart.  The famous cape whips in the wind and ripples like you would expect it to, and comes to rest slowly behind the caped hero.  During (most) cutscenes, Lex Luthor is also well-modeled after actor Kevin Spacey who portrayed him in the movie.  Sadly, this is where the super graphics end.

As I mentioned before, this game was made for multiple platforms.  With the Xbox 360 being the most powerful of the slated systems, you’d expect that it would be the most stable and clean execution of the bunch.  Sadly, Superman doesn’t keep a consistent framerate, and as you dive from the wide open sky down to the city you’ll get a great deal of mip-mapping and pop-in distortion.  It really boggles the mind as it happens every time you fly through the city – certainly somebody noticed?  Certainly some tester mentioned that it super-sucks?  Well, apparently nobody was using their super-hearing that day. 

Sadly, nobody was using their super-sight during development either.  Much of the city, once all the texture pop-in is in place, is fairly flat and non-interactive.  You can pull light poles out of the ground and swing them around, and you can pick up and throw cars, but that is almost the extent of the interaction.  If you run into a building, regardless of whether it is a solid brick building or one made of glass, it’ll make the same exact mark.  I know there is enough space on the DVD to include artwork for more than one building strike, but apparently it didn’t make it. 

Back in the “Cool!” category, we have the flight model for Supes.  When you fly, the edges of the screen blur a bit, but over a long distance you’ll get a short bit of silence followed by a really cool sonic boom.  The edges of the screen will blur further and Supermans cape will crackle and whip with the additional speed.  (We’ll talk about the additional speed later)  Flying around the city at supersonic speeds is certainly the coolest part of the game, but it is also a high speed reminder of all the pop-in that shouldn’t be there on such a powerful system.

There are few people that can’t correctly identify the fantastic orchestra opening to the Superman movies.  You listen to that music and just somehow feel inspired.  Well, sadly, they left out the fantastic Superman theme, but fret not, the soundtrack in the game is actually very good.  In fact, you could easily put it beside the real thing and include it in a movie soundtrack.  I was very impressed and never even thought to turn it down or replace it with a custom soundtrack. 

Keeping Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, and Kate Bosworth around to handle the voice work was a smart move.  It lends some credibility to the characters and adds greatly to the audio experience.  Unfortunately, all that talent is all but wasted on some horrifically bad scripting.  Brandon Routh sounds downright bored as he clubs down his enemies spouting the same uninspired one-liners that makes Resident Evil look like Shakespeare.  Sadly, Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth are equally wasted as they appear in cutscenes almost exclusively, and have very little effect on the overall story.

The sound effects throughout the game are passable, with the cape whipping in the wind as the standout performer.  I guess if you are going to work hard on one sound effect that should be the one to get the attention.

Controlling Superman is split into two sections – one setup for flying, and one for fighting on the ground.  When you are in flight you can essentially free-fly in any direction.  While flying, your most effective attacks are your powers.  Your ice breath, heat vision, and superbreath are the primary attacks that you’ll rely upon.  You can also pull off a power drill down to the ground that will ripple a shockwave out from your impact point.

On the ground, you have a more expansive arsenal. You can punch, grab enemies and smash them against the ground or throw them, use your superpowers, and unleash a whole host of super attacks, as well as a bunch of unlockable attacks.  While this sounds great on the surface, there really isn’t a point for the vast majority of it. Other than a quick interlude off-world, the bulk of the experience with the controls is deciding which power to use to defeat your enemies. You can combine your powers with your melee strikes to unleash special combination attacks. Most of the attacks are pretty easy to execute, but you’ll find a few of them that you like and tend to use them ad nauseum.

The controls aren’t really the problem with this equation – the problem is that Superman is all but pointless when just slightly off the ground.  When you take flight, Supes tends to move so fast that you have to put your feet on the ground to get anything done.  It is hard enough to beat up enemies before you add in the unforgiving timer, but it is even worse when you factor in the rather bland combat that devolves into a paper rock series. Some resist heat, some resist ice, and the superbreath doesn’t seem to have any real effect on enemies at all.  The targeting system is so confused half the time you’ll end up clubbing civilians like baby seals.

My primary axe to grind with this title is that it has managed to capture everything that Superman isn’t.  You get an achievement for picking up and throwing 100 cars.  You get a trophy for ripping the famous globe off the top of The Daily Planet and bowling with it. You cause more damage against your own city than prevent.  Your powers are so unfocused that you’ll probably try to put out a fire and end up blowing up four or five cars causing more random fires and hurting the innocent civilians you are meant to defend.  When you take on enemies, you’ll find similar problems as you’ll end up unleashing your powers and destroying more than your enemies have.

Speaking of your enemies – do you remember the time that Superman fought the dragons?  Yea, me neither, but it’s in the game!  Do you remember the time that Superman paralyzed the Kryptonite spewing robot unicycles that assault Metropolis every 60 seconds?  Yea, me neither, but it’s in the game!  How about when Superman had to fight the tornadoes with his heat vision (what??) and ice vision (huh??) while simultaneously dodging the flying debris inside while frantically trying to ‘stabilize the atmosphere’?  Yea, once again me neither, but it’s in the game!  All of these things except the tornado happen so often that you’ll find yourself wondering why there aren’t more things to do in this sandbox. You can count the variety on one hand. 

I did mention that flying is cool, right?  Well, Superman is a big phoney. When you start off flying you are going a certain speed – lets call that speed X for ease of math.  When the sound goes silent and the sonic boom hits, causing heat to radiate all around you while shaking the screen with sheer speed, you should be going speed X plus a certain amount, right?  Not in this game.  While you get all of the visual hallmarks of going faster, you are actually not going any faster than you were before.  Visually cool, aurally cool, but it is gameplay-pointless.  Would it have been so hard to simply make him go 10% faster?  It is all fine and good anyway – once the fun of flying around the sandbox wears off, it won’t matter what speed you are flying.

Superman is about saving civilians.  He is about keeping Earth safe from harm, but you’ll never feel like that is what you are doing.  Since Superman can’t be killed, he has a bottomless health meter.  You have to ‘fly towards the sun’ (or more accurately, stand still for about 5 seconds) to recharge your health, but the bar above it represents the health of the city.  Doing things that damage the city causes the health of Metropolis to drop, such as the aforementioned car throwing, running into buildings, or ripping poles out of the ground.  During battle, your enemies will club the mindless civilians that wander around aimlessly, but Superman unleashing his superpowers tends to spread an arch of destruction that far exceeds any damage the enemies can do.  It is like you are playing teen-angst Superman, not the savior of man that Superman represents. 

There is one thing that Superman does that makes its way over from the movies – saving a kitten.  There are kittens that emit a little pink bubble of sound that alerts you to their presence. Hey, a collection element!  That extends the gameplay, right?  Well, why don’t you collect 100 kittens then!  It is a pretty sadistic request in a game this bland, and it is all or nothing – you only get the achievement for finding every one.  You’ll also get an achievement for playing the game for more than 12 hours, but I can’t see too many people picking that one up either.

Once again, the developers have captured everything that Superman isn’t.  If this is the Return of Superman, I’d suggest he go back for a little more education in the Fortress of Solitude until he remembers why he is on this planet. 

When a game is derived from a license, the value of the game is often heavily invested in the value of the franchise. Superman is one of the biggest franchises ever, but this game suffers from the Kryptonite of a short development cycle.  Doing some basic math that the game was roughly 30% complete at E3 in May, and is 100% complete now, it tells you that they started development of the title at the beginning of 2006.  More effort seems to have been placed on acquiring the license than using it effectively. 

There are roughly 10 hours of gameplay (which is inaccurately represented when the game is saved – after 2.5 hours it claimed I was 70% done) present in Superman Returns.  This includes the almost pointless races with the well-voiced Mister Mxyzptlk (a Leprechaun-like imp from the 5th dimension), saving the 100 kittens throughout the game, and saving hundreds of civilians (without reward).  It also includes killing hundreds of the same dragons, roller-robots, flying robots, and painfully easy bosses.  The worst part is that you’ll find yourself almost completely bored in less than an hour.  Once the flying portions wear off, the game will be over for most. Replay value of this game would be dependent of the desire to finish it.  Without satisfying that, the replay value is zero.

If the value of the game didn’t suffer enough from the lifeless gameplay, the painful dialog and storyline, and the cumbersome controls, the game also suffers from some fairly significant bugs.  During the first 15 minutes of the game, I failed Metropolis twice.  In the first instance, I was completing the tutorial where my father tells me that I can fly.  Inexplicably, I suddenly floated to the ground and couldn’t take flight again.  The only way to restore my flight was to restart my Xbox 360.  In the second instance, I applied logic where none existed.  If you are fighting giant robots, you should be able to use your superbreath or super strength to pick up the robots and throw them into the water, right?  They should short out and cease to function.  Instead, they were trapped underneath the water as evidenced by the radar onscreen (although still able to damage the city), and I was unable to enter the water to finish them off.  All I could do was watch as my inability to swim cost the citizens of Metropolis their lives.  Maybe Superman needs some red and white waterwings. 

What is it about Superman games?  Superman is the most simple superhero ever!  He stands for Truth, Justice, and the American way.  He helps civilians.  He is bulletproof.  He can fly fast enough to spin the Earth backwards.  He can swim.  How do you botch those simple things?  You can be a good hero Kal El, if the developers let you be.  It won’t be this time though.

Gaming Trend Score

39

1. Graphics: 60
2. Audio: 75
3. Controls: 60
4. Gameplay: 10
5. Value/Replay: 20
6. OVERALL:39