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Godzilla: Unleashed Review

Gwynne Dixon

21/02/2008

And you thought Godzilla had found a nice uninhabited valley to settle down in. Wishful thinking I'm afraid...

Ever since the early 80s, the guardian of the 'skyscraper sized monsters causing inner-city havoc' gaming genre has been the vast series of Godzilla games. This genre has ticked along in the middle-of-the-road ever since, with the 1986 arcade classic Rampage further stoking the flames. Both intellectual properties have been re-hashed on various consoles so many times over the years that you could very literally fill a whole bargain big with their fodder.

Pipeworks, the developer behind Godzilla: Unleashed, is one studio that has certainly tapped into the genre's refusal to go quietly into the night. Not only has it developed a couple of Rampage resurgence games for various consoles in recent times, but it has also taken sole responsibility of the Godzilla videogame series as well. Godzilla: Save the Earth and Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee are two such games that Pipeworks has developed for previous-gen machines. Now, with Godzilla: Unleashed, the series remains on its familiar PS2 territory while also being released on the Wii.

Can't They Just Find A Quiet Village Somewhere To Fight In?

Huge monsters, as we know, are drawn to densely populated cities. The idea that they could settle their differences away from the terrified gazes of a million citizens is, well, ridiculous. It would certainly make the game less fun anyway. As a result, Godzilla: Unleashed's main premise is fighting various other skyscraper sized monsters in well known capital cities across the globe. Throw in a few crumbling buildings, some architecture that you can throw at each other, as well as puny looking tanks/helicopters hopelessly firing at the beasts, and things really start to get interesting. Well, they would get interesting if Pipeworks had actually put a bit of thought into the basic gameplay.

Godzilla: Unleashed opts for a kind of isometric perspective of the proceedings and you control your leviathan from the sort of viewpoint you might have if you were a petrified helicopter pilot trying to destroy it. From here, you can get your behemoth to traipse across the city in question, crushing various structures in its wake.

There are a variety of monster factions in the game (I was unaware that monsters actually had politics). On the side of earth are the Earth Defenders with classic monsters such as Godzilla himself, as well as the Global Defense Force that's made up of human engineered "Mecha" robots. These two factions have to defend the earth from Alien and Mutant faction monsters, which have apparently screwed up the planet's environment with various crystals that have crashed to earth in a mysterious meteor shower.

The game's story (and that should really be in inverted commas) divvies up levels where you'll face an assortment of these various enemies. Sometimes they'll be by themselves and sometimes they'll have a buddy monster with them. You'll usually take on these monsters either with an allied monster, or occasionally one-on-one. It's here that things really start to fall apart.

Firstly, and most irritatingly, there is absolutely no camera control whatsoever, and this is coupled with a lock-on system that's difficult to distinguish and isn't integrated particularly well. Like a leech, it just latches onto an opponent and refuses to let go, until you slowly trudge away far enough for the lock to snap. This really is unforgivable by today's standards in a game of this type. If Godzilla: Unleashed had been released when 3D games were just starting to gain popularity then it may be understandable, but not with a contemporary title.

Then there's the combat system and, honestly, we'd have had more fun covering our bodies in fish bait and jumping into piranha infested waters. The basic controls of punching, kicking and fierce attacks are so sluggish that there's very little skill or timing involved in close-quarter combat. Instead, the best option is a completely random combination of all three attacks, letting sheer chance dictate the winner. Either way, the resulting fights tend to be horribly confused and frustratingly unresponsive, so you're best off opting for the other attack styles.

Grabs, on the other hand, are easily the best integrated combat dynamic in the game. However, when well integrated, we mean they're still hideously awkward and inconsistent, but just not as bad as the other controls. The system does allow you to lob buildings at your enemies, which is fun, although actually picking up the building when you're right next to it can be a little hit and miss. Also, there is an element of timing required to execute a grab on another monster before hurling them across the cityscape with a variety of finishing moves. Of course, the animations of these finishing moves are crude at best, leaving you unconvinced that the thing you just threw across New York was a 500 ton monster.

The other main attack option are ranged attacks, which vary in their style from one monster to the other, but all have the same common ground of allowing players to inflict damage from a distance (e.g. Godzilla can breathe fire beams). There's the option of a charged attack or smaller bursts, and there's also the minor bonus of a small arc of manual control over the attacks using the right thumbstick. Such attacks deplete energy though, which can then be replenished over time or with the previously mentioned crystals in each level. You're often left resorting to these ranged attacks because melee attacks are so dire, but there's certainly nothing special about them - they're simply the lesser of two evils.

The crystals do offer some special moves such as a Critical Mass power-up, where your monster does more damage but is also prone to attacks. There are also Power Surge special moves which can give monsters increased speed for a limited time, the ability to encase monsters in crystal, a powerful electric charge etc. etc. Some monsters, on the other hand, have unique abilities that they can unleash during a fight (e.g. the Mothra Larva turns into a giant moth, while other creatures can borough into the ground). Again, these features certainly come far short of bringing stimulating action to a game that is fundamentally flawed.

Going Backwards

As the PlayStation 2 begins to glide gracefully into semi-retirement having notched up way over 100 million unit sales, many publishers and developers have set their eyes on it as a casual gaming platform. This is fine, as long as casual game doesn't mean broken with very rusty graphics. This is a distinct possibility for the platform as it gets more and more releases such as this one: a game that costs £19.99 on the day of its release and is designed to hoodwink gamers into thinking they're getting a bargain.

The PS2 has hosted some spectacular graphics in its lifetime such as God of War 2, Gran Turismo 4 or Metal Gear Solid 3. However, to release a game now that takes the console right back to square one in terms of visuals (Godzilla: Unleashed literally looks like a PS2 launch title), is nothing short of an insult. Even to price this game at £19.99 is a complete rip-off and all we can do is urge you very strongly to overlook Godzilla: Unleashed in the bargain bin, which is where it's sure to be a month from now.

The sound is nearly as squalid as the visuals, with cringe worthy voice-over work, monster sound effects that grate and a hard rock soundtrack that sounds like something out of a very poorly produced 80s teen horror flick.