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Justice League Heroes - First Look Preview
Jon Wilcox
26/09/2006
TVG dons a lycra superhero suit and fights alongside the likes of Batman, Superman and other DC Comic characters...
Formed in the 1960s to counteract the Earth-occupying intentions of aliens and supervillains alike, the Justice League is DC Comic's ensemble group that counts some of their greatest superheroes including Batman and Superman in their ranks. Still going strong thanks to the comic book and animated series, the Justice League will shortly be appearing on Xbox, PlayStation2, PSP and DS towards the end of the year in Justice League Heroes. TVG managed to use our superpowers to infiltrate Eidos recently to see for ourselves how work was progressing...
Currently in development at Snowblind Studios, who have previously worked on other action-RPGs including Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance back in 2001, comparisons between Justice League Heroes and Activision's own action-RPG series set in the Marvel Universe are somewhat inevitable...and quite hard to refute. In fact there's little doubt that having seen Marvel's own batch of superheroes battle it out in the X-Men: Legends franchise (soon to be joined by Marvel: Ultimate Alliance), DC Comics' owners Warner Bros. wanted a piece of the superhero action-RPG pie.
One area where the two franchises are set to differ is the visual style; unlike its rival, Justice League Heroes won't be going down the cell-shaded route. Instead it's much more traditional in its representation of comic book/cartoon characters and visual style, which comes as a slight relief but could leave you wishing for something a little closer to the stylised designs of the animated series it's based upon. Likewise, the music of the game does seem to have a gothic undertone that might take itself a little too seriously - but at least it's indicative of the sort of atmosphere that Snowblind Studio is aiming for in the rest of the game.
Like Dark Alliance, Justice League Heroes is a good ol' dungeon crawler, only without the dungeons; instead the locations in the game are set across recognisable DC landmarks including Metropolis, Gotham City, the Moon, and even the red planet, with story-progressing cut scenes that will certainly be enjoyed by fans of the comics and cartoons. Structurally the gameplay will be linear, though there will be a certain degree of branching off from the main 'trunk' of the game world. Sub-bosses and Main Bosses of course feature in the levels, as we ourselves experienced thanks to a mechanical octopus-like opponent during one laboratory level. Aside from working through the 'dungeon' areas, Justice League Heroes promises a variety of objectives and sub-objectives, though our brief demonstration touched upon the typical rescue civilians, sub-bosses and getting from start-to-finish.
Being an action-RPG, Justice League Heroes will of course see players upgrade their characters throughout the course of the game, and like all role-playing titles the ability to do so relies on increasing the number of Experience Points. With their status of 'superheroes', all of the playable characters in the game will have their relevant powers to hand, with several more available to unlock through the progression of the adventure. For instance, Batman has his Batarang (and a rather Hitchcockian Bat Swarm attack - the clue is in the name), Superman has his freeze breath, and Green Lantern has his giant green hammer...Players won't be able to choose their characters however, as Eidos explained that this would 'mess up the storyline' - in that respect the game could very well end up being too linear in terms of the gameplay experience as well as level design. Accessing the superpowers, which includes a defensive stance, is linked to the game's equivalent of mana and is topped up by defeating the waves of enemies throughout the levels. Further character development in the game will come in the form of Booster Combiners. Collecting the various boosting items scattered through the course of the game allows players to combine them to provide developed attributes such as improved health recovery and increased strength - which is quite helpful if you're in the habit of getting your butt kicked by waves of opponents.
Aside from superpowers, normal attack combinations seem to be a significant area of combat in the Justice League Heroes, which are based on timing rather than just the specific combination of buttons. There will be a whole set of combinations for the superheroes throughout the game, with more and more unlocked as the story unfolds; though it's currently unclear whether co-operative attacks like the X-Men: Legends series will make it into the repertoire of the Justice League experience - hopefully Snowblind Studios will have the determination to at the very least reach the standard set by Raven Software's Legends franchise over the past couple of years and include them.
The perceived weakness that DC Comics has when compared to its rival Marvel, is the distinct lack of recognisable characters. Beyond the likes of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash, the quality of superheroes does diminish somewhat (Hawkgirl, anyone?). Whilst the likes of Green Lantern and Green Arrow may be more than recognisable to comic fans, there's no way that the DC catalogue of characters can even begin to rival Marvel's numbers - in fact the latter has such a raft of recognisable superheroes that it's not so much a raft, as an oil tanker.
One area where a missed opportunity looks likely is the lack of online co-operative play. According to one Eidos representative it's felt that the desire to play with a stranger on the other side of the world isn't there in a game like Justice League Heroes. Whilst a valid point, the fact that it will also rule out friends separated by a small number of miles from playing together, doesn't seem to have been realised either. That said, Justice League Heroes will at least allow for two players to play co-operatively on the same console, though offline multiplayer is very much the lowest denominator that could be realistically expected.
Anonymous
Date Added:Mon 13th Nov 2006 19:41
BTW - If you're here trying to tell us that we need to get a life, then it just goes to show that you need one too. Insulting people is no way to convert them. Oh... [ Read full comment... ]
Anonymous
Date Added:Fri 3rd Nov 2006 15:11
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 1st Nov 2006 23:55
Anonymous
Date Added:Sun 22nd Oct 2006 20:33
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 27th Sep 2006 21:13
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 27th Sep 2006 02:16
C'mon DC will always live in the shadow of Marvel - there's no competition.
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 27th Sep 2006 00:55
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 27th Sep 2006 00:51
Anonymous
Date Added:Tue 26th Sep 2006 10:39