Good Idea, Weak Execution
posted by KPilot (NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) May 19, 2006
Member since May 2006
5
out of
7
gamers (71%) found this review helpful
The title every nerd has been waiting for, but unfortunately Marvel: Nemesis falls short of the expectations in many ways.
The main problem is the tedious story mode. Most of the game is a series of mowing through simple but frustrating enemies who tax even the most dedicated gamers' patience. You slog through 50 or 60 mindless drones only to be taken down at the last moment by an enemy teleporting behind you and killing you with no warning, against which there is no defense.
These missions vary drastically in difficult, but not because of any strategy or enemy AI changes. Rather, a lot of the difficulties in this game come from the game mechanics themselves. The most frustrating (to me at least) example of this is the confusing choice the designers made to include a slow-motion action replay of "cool" moves. Seems like a fine idea until you realize that game play keeps going during these replays (which, by the way, you can't turn off). So, while you're watching your watching the three-hundredth time you've knocked a thug into a wall with a fireball in excruciating slo-mo, you have to be blindly mashing buttons and hoping that someone isn't wailing on your super powered keister.
This is indicative of a lot of the design choices that make this game frustrating but not challenging. Others include the endless number of repetitive missions (only a handful of venues and half a dozen types of enemies lead to the same thing over and over), which go on until, without warning, you are dragged into the ending sequence after which you cannot go back and finish the missions you left undone, which means that if you don't unlock all the special features the first time through, you have to do all the missions ALL OVER AGAIN.
Now the up side is that there is an impressive range of playable heroes in this game. The story is compelling and keeps you guessing, and the stories behind the imperfects are great.
If only that made up for the lackluster game play...
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