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IGN Review of God Hand
Clover Studio has a knack for creating unique and off-the-wall games, many of which have ties to 2D art and gameplay. Viewtiful Joe was largely a side-scroller set in a 3D world with a cartoony art style and time-altering mechanics. The equally-excellent Okami utilized painting techniques not only for its visuals but core gameplay mechanics as well. And now we're presented with God Hand, the studios' latest release and also its oddest so far, largely mimicking the brawlers from the old days of gaming in a kooky 3D world.
It's somewhat apparent that God Hand was meant to be a joke on many levels, much as a film director might intentionally make a B-movie. The game practically encourages button mashing, enemies are extremely generic, the level layout is very uninspired, the dialog and jokes are poorly written and delivered, and most of all, much of the control and gameplay mechanics are so old-school it hurts. While Clover took a huge risk in hoping that this sort of off-kilter design would appeal to some gamers, and there will probably be a few folks out there who will dig this extremely niche design, by and large the joke simply falls flat. Dead flat.
One of the only interesting aspects of the game is its combat system, largely in part due to the fact that you're able to customize exactly which moves you want in your combo string. While you only have one main combo chain, you're able to fit in other moves that you've assigned to the face buttons and create attack chains on the fly. Some moves have special attributes, like juggling an opponent, tossing them away or breaking a block. This customizable aspect, and the fact that you'll earn and buy new moves as the game progresses, means that you'll constantly be switching up your attack style and incorporating new moves.
But that's about as far as the fun of combat goes. Beyond this, it's an extremely tedious brawler where you'll generally mash a button or two until an enemy is dead. There are a few tactics of sorts mixed in, like choosing the best times to use a slower but more powerful move, but in large part you'll be mashing buttons until everyone is finished. It's kind of funny the first time you're able to stomp on someone's head with your leg moving at mach 3, but this gets old quickly.
One of the major problems with the combat, and God Hand on the whole in fact, is that the camera is stuck directly behind your character and you're unable to freely control it. Where you walk is exactly where it points, so enemies will often come up (or even appear) behind you, and this can be extremely annoying in a crowded room. On many occasions we finished off a handful of enemies only to have new foes appear directly behind us and take us out. The right analog stick acts as a dodge button, so since you don't have a block of any sort you'll be using this often, but because of the poor camera you'll often perform backflips into nearby walls.
There's an extremely curious health system at work as well. To regain life, you need to pick up fruits from inside boxes, or more commonly, left behind by downed enemies. This part is fine, though your health doesn't refill between levels. This means that if you were near death at the end of the last stage, your only hope is to kill a few guys at the beginning of the next stage and hope they drop some grub. Generally the best course of action here is to simply let yourself be killed and choose to continue with a full life bar. It really doesn't make any sense that your health isn't refilled since you're very likely to die a minute later anyway and then restart with no penalty. And of course, you have to wait through a load screen when you continue.
The most annoying aspect about this is that you'll often have to fight demon spirits that arise from fallen enemies. They take a while to kill and simply act as roadblocks to slow down your progression. After fighting them for the 3rd time you'll become bored, and by the 50th you'll be throwing your controller across the room.
©2006-10-10, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
It's somewhat apparent that God Hand was meant to be a joke on many levels, much as a film director might intentionally make a B-movie. The game practically encourages button mashing, enemies are extremely generic, the level layout is very uninspired, the dialog and jokes are poorly written and delivered, and most of all, much of the control and gameplay mechanics are so old-school it hurts. While Clover took a huge risk in hoping that this sort of off-kilter design would appeal to some gamers, and there will probably be a few folks out there who will dig this extremely niche design, by and large the joke simply falls flat. Dead flat.
One of the only interesting aspects of the game is its combat system, largely in part due to the fact that you're able to customize exactly which moves you want in your combo string. While you only have one main combo chain, you're able to fit in other moves that you've assigned to the face buttons and create attack chains on the fly. Some moves have special attributes, like juggling an opponent, tossing them away or breaking a block. This customizable aspect, and the fact that you'll earn and buy new moves as the game progresses, means that you'll constantly be switching up your attack style and incorporating new moves.
But that's about as far as the fun of combat goes. Beyond this, it's an extremely tedious brawler where you'll generally mash a button or two until an enemy is dead. There are a few tactics of sorts mixed in, like choosing the best times to use a slower but more powerful move, but in large part you'll be mashing buttons until everyone is finished. It's kind of funny the first time you're able to stomp on someone's head with your leg moving at mach 3, but this gets old quickly.
One of the major problems with the combat, and God Hand on the whole in fact, is that the camera is stuck directly behind your character and you're unable to freely control it. Where you walk is exactly where it points, so enemies will often come up (or even appear) behind you, and this can be extremely annoying in a crowded room. On many occasions we finished off a handful of enemies only to have new foes appear directly behind us and take us out. The right analog stick acts as a dodge button, so since you don't have a block of any sort you'll be using this often, but because of the poor camera you'll often perform backflips into nearby walls.
There's an extremely curious health system at work as well. To regain life, you need to pick up fruits from inside boxes, or more commonly, left behind by downed enemies. This part is fine, though your health doesn't refill between levels. This means that if you were near death at the end of the last stage, your only hope is to kill a few guys at the beginning of the next stage and hope they drop some grub. Generally the best course of action here is to simply let yourself be killed and choose to continue with a full life bar. It really doesn't make any sense that your health isn't refilled since you're very likely to die a minute later anyway and then restart with no penalty. And of course, you have to wait through a load screen when you continue.
The most annoying aspect about this is that you'll often have to fight demon spirits that arise from fallen enemies. They take a while to kill and simply act as roadblocks to slow down your progression. After fighting them for the 3rd time you'll become bored, and by the 50th you'll be throwing your controller across the room.
©2006-10-10, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved