Superman: Returns The Game

by: The Ryan 1 year, 11 months, 4 weeks, 16 hours, 18 minutes ago

Release Date:

11/20/06

Price:

$60

Company:

EA Games

 

Faster than a speeding bullet? Could be. More powerful than a locomotive? Hardly. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound? Perhaps.

For the past decade, and the forseeable future, when a Superman video game is published the first thing that runs through fans heads is the infamous Superman 64. With that game being the gem that it is, how can anybody think that there could be a bad Superman game. For those of you who played Superman 64, you know I’m being real sarcastic.

At first glimpse Superman: Returns for the XBox 360 looks like a good iteration of The Man of Steel. The graphics aren’t anything to gawk at, but they’re by no means bad. A little cartoony but I think that’s what they were going for. Brandon Routh modeled for Superman in the game and it looks pretty good. All of the character models look really good as a matter of fact. Lois Lane and Lex Luther are only re-made as characters in cinematics in between “sections” of the game. The three actors also reprise their roles in the game as voice actors for their characters. So there’s little wrong with the sound of the voice acting. Except, some of Superman’s comments he makes as he’s flying around repeat themselves an awful lot.

The cutscenes seem like they were made by another studio completely independent of what’s happening in the game. The issues that happen in the cuscene, which by the way follow the movie almost perfectly with a few exceptions, do not affect the actual gameplay at all. Nothing you see happening in the game effects the cutscenes at all either. And no, there will be no Lois or Lex in the game portion at all.

The landscape of Metropolis is like nothing ever seen. It sits in a kind of ravine between towering mountains and is an island being protected by a dam. It’s the best way to make it so that there are boundaries to Superman’s flight path but by no means bad. The gigantic city is multitiered giving it the illusion of different neighborhoods. There’s an area with all the major skyscrapers, a downtown district, an industrial district and so forth. I was expecting the Daily Planet to be one of the tallest skyscrapers in the game, but no, it’s all by it’s in a totally different section surrounded by normal looking buildings pretty difficult to find if your looking for it. Some of the far off buildings do a little popping onto the screen as you get closer, but nothing that is too noticeable. All in all the city looks great.

As far as the controls for Superman are concerned, you give a little and you get a little. There is a lock on feature by holding down the L Trigger, but it doesn’t always work the way you want. Once in a while, even when your locked onto an enemy, when your speeding into them you’ll find yourself shooting past and getting up to a couple blocks away by the time you realize what happened. You’ll have to almost look right at an enemy before you’re able to lock onto him. If your up against multiple enemies at a time you’ll find it very difficult to lock onto the exact target that you want.

The fighting seems like it was made for a old school arcade classic. you have a basic three punch combo plus some combos that add in a blast of heat vision or freeze breath at the end. The combos that you earn throughout the game are pretty worthless too. I myself finished the game by just using two or three of the available combos. So there’s not that many moves you’ll have to memorize to survive. The boss battles are nothing more than trial and error. As you play through the repetitive fight scenes, you play weaker versions of the next boss battle. For example, you fight Metallo when he’s 6 feet tall or so a couple times before you fight him as a building sized Metallo. This happens with every boss in the game, including the final boss which is… a tornado? That’s right everybody, and it’s also the easiest boss battle of the game. What exactly can I say to that?

Playing through the game for me was nothing short of painful. It was Superman so I felt obligated to finish the game and see the “story” through to the end. But after the first hour or so, it got Super boring. Thankfully for my sake, it only lasted about 5 hours. If I didn’t do any messing around with the mini games I think I could’ve done it anywhere from 4 to 4.5 hours.

If you REALLY like Superman I can recommend this as a rental. As the flying mechanic is pretty nice and the look of the cape physics are great and you just want to feel like you’re Superman soaring above the clouds. If you want to play this game simply because you’re a beat-em-up fan, don’t. If your one of those like me who love EA, don’t base it on that either. Rent it if you really want to see what it’s like but that about it. Superman: Returns isn’t quite as painful as Superman 64, but it is headed in the same direction as just another useless Superman game.

P.S. Sorry Superman fans… Really