Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects Review

Having seen VU Games and Activision tap into the massive portfolio at Marvel Enterprises, it was perhaps a little inevitable that Electronic Arts would carve a piece of the superhero pie for itself, the result being Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. Set in the Marvel Universe version of New York, Rise of the Imperfects follows a stellar cast of the iconic comic book company's greatest characters take on the might of EA/Marvel created group, The Imperfects and their creator. Though the game has a straightforward beat-em-up Versus mode, a majority of the gameplay is found in the Story mode, which follows the story of the mutants as they attempt to tackle the alien threat and invasion searching for the perfect being known as Paragon. These missions, which rarely last than a few minutes to complete, are undertaken by a variety of mutants who all follow their own path against the invaders across landmarks across the Marvel version of New York including Grand Central Station, the Avengers Mansion, and of course, the Daily Bugle.

Beginning the story as the Fantastic 4's The Thing players begin to fight back against the alien hordes; completing missions unlock other character paths for players to play including Wolverine, Spider-Man, and another Fantastic 4 member Johnny 'Human Torch' Storm. During these missions players also engage in battles with 'altered' versions of Marvel characters, though an element known as â??The Last Standâ?? is thrown in at various stages of the game where players have to choose which of the characters on the select screen theyâ??d like to kill off. More than a contentious issue given the age of some of the characters, the fact that hugely popular mutants such as Wolverine and The Thing can be vanquished by upstarts such as The Imperfects (more on those very soon) may prove to be an idea that EA and/or Marvel may come to rue in the future. Though itâ??s a great idea in principal to allow gamers to take control of a range of Marvel characters the short missions and the constant pick-and-choose nature of the gameplay really stutters the experience and fails to create a sense of fulfilment in the player.

So who exactly are The Imperfects? The group are made up several individuals created by the alien being, Niles van Roekel whoâ??s main motivation seems to be to create the perfect being. Created by this shiny plastic skinned character, The Imperfects didnâ??t match up to his expectations and were in some regard reduced to lieutenants. Sadly names like â??Johnny Ohmâ?? and indeed their overall representations donâ??t seem to fit into the traditional Marvel character styling with most of them cybernetic; somehow they really donâ??t seem to fit into the comic creatorâ??s universe and come across almost watered down.

For the most part the game takes place across a relatively small section of the city such as a couple of rooms of the Avengersâ?? Mansion or a couple of alleyways so itâ??s not exactly the most expansive game. Essentially these sections are brawlers, with enemies appearing throughout the locations until an objective is complete. The list of mission objectives boil down to a list of just a few, including â??Destroy X amount of enemiesâ?, â??Destroy a number of certain objects before the timer runs outâ?, or â??Get to the end of the level before the timer runs out.â? Despite the number of characters that players can take control of, the gameplay does become repetitive quickly, though the boss battles either against â??alteredâ?? Marvel characters or as one of The Last stand battles do offer some respite. Such battles form a more traditional beat-em-up bout within an enclosed arena though the combat system, as weâ??ll see, is far from smooth and fluid; some might even refer to it as imperfectâ?¦

Of course the most important feature of an action title is the combat system; without providing gamers with a fluid and responsive control system a title can quickly become frustrating. Sadly Marvel Nemesis suffers from exactly that with delayed execution of moves just one aspect of the game that detracts and annoys. Moves just donâ??t seem to flow into each other very well making the game feel quite old, and more than that, the selection of attacks feels really limited especially during the one-on-one battles. Executing a combination of attacks build up a characterâ??s Rage Meter, which essentially means that for a limited time, players can perform an unlimited number of superhero moves that never seem to truly fulfil their title of â??super powers.â??

Another thing, itâ??s rather annoying when players cannot block attacks from a small band of enemies, which means that until the player controlled character falls to the ground, they must take their beating with ever increasing frustration. Though the control system includes a variation on dodging it never seems to be quite as responsive as it should be in such situations and therefore only serves to compound frustrations.

One of the key gameplay elements marketed about Marvel Nemesis in the run up to release was its high level of destructible objects, and whilst itâ??s true to say that the game does indeed enjoy a high level of destructibility it canâ??t be relied upon to deliver a great experience for players. Making strong use of the objects, which can vary in size from explosive barrels right up to 6-wheeled rigs, is pretty much imperative with â??weakerâ?? characters such as Wolverine unable to pick up the heavier items though how fans of the adamantium clawed character will feel to discover this is another thing entirely. At times the action can seem to get quite frantic though thereâ??s a distinct lack of tension, which is only truly created when the really foreboding soundtrack makes an audible appearance.

After completing the Story mode, which is more of a test of patience than an enjoyable experience, longevity in the title relies upon the Versus mode where one-on-one battles can be fought across various game locations. A lot of the characters are locked at first (a good bribe for players to complete the Story mode) but even this mode, which appears above Story mode on the main menu, fails to really satisfy and suffers from a lot of the criticisms of the campaign.

Visually the developers have tried to create the game with a graphic novel style, but this really doesnâ??t impress to the same extent as Activisionâ??s Ultimate Spider-Man, which continues to be the closest title yet to an interactive comic book. Drenched in a green hue very reminiscent of The Matrix the atmosphere created in the game does at try to, and to some extent manage, build a real sense of foreboding â?“ something that is really helped by the soundtrack â?“ though the level of detail in both the character models and more specifically the environments themselves, are disappointing.