We all know the history of licensed games, especially movie licensed games. Well, I kind of had better hopes for this game. Sometimes simple can be better. So I thought that the idea of a movie game being released on the XBLA was a great idea. Especially considering the Blockbuster status of Battle: Los Angeles. Unfortunately, simple was not better, if anything it was not enough.
To start with the game follows through what I can only assume is some highlights from the movie all crammed into about 45 minutes. The cinematics, if you want to call them that are are drawings that look like they have come out of a Sunday paper somewhere. These are mixed with what I think is dialog from the movie itself, but it’s so bad quality that it’s really hard to tell. I have not seen the movie, but I can tell you that if some of those lines are straight out of the film, I hope they fit better in the movie than in the game. Sometimes lines seem corny and pushed. Also the characters in the game try to resemble some sort of likeness of the characters from the movie, but pretty much fails at that too.
The in-game look is not to bad, but not that great either. They try to go for a very MW feel to the game, but it just does not work. Not because it’s that bad, it’s just been done before and over again. The controls are clunky and are kind of hard to get a grip on at first, just because you have to figure out how be able to move and grab cover on the fly using clunky controls. On top of all this the game is worst than most FPS games as far as keeping things fresh while playing. You’re either running to cover and shooting, or going through a building shooting from behind cover. All this magical game play broke up by a stop every once in a while to pick up a RPG, one of only 3 weapons I found in the game. With this RPG you may take out a gunship or two. then you may find yourself a top a Humvee gunning a turret for a couple a minutes.
So after getting used to the clunky controls. Seeing the movie broke down for me in a short compilation of levels. Getting more bored every second. Right when I finally started to get into the game and take it for what it is, I was greeted with the end of the game. I was informed it was a short game, but I played through an entire play through of the game in about 45 minutes. In this one play through I unlocked over half the achievements and unlockables in the game. By unlockables I mean in game videos, concept art and cheats for the game. I just really had a hard time playing the game because from the start I really was not enjoying it.
With all these negative things I decided to go through and have another go at it. Nothing changed except one thing. I realized that if you take it for what it is, which isn’t much you will have some what of a decent time just going through and killing stuff. I’m sorry to say that for 800 MS points this game is not worth a pick up and I would not recommend it to anyone. If you want to enjoy this go pay the same amount of money to see a better experience at the theater and it will take twice as long.
