XBox 360 Review: CAPTAIN AMERICA: SUPER SOLDIER

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows game, Sega and Marvel team-up release Captain America: Super Soldier swerves the usual trend of a same day release of the movie, with a fortnight-too-early launch date. Perhaps it was a conscious decision to try and deflect the usual tie-in stigmas, but no matter when it was released, this particular game would always be inherently linked to its big-screen sibling, starring Chris Evans. And even just based on the trailers of the upcoming movie event, the game sadly can't compete, nor even really fill the hole before the movie hits cinemas. As someone who has looked forward to an impressive Captain America game release for some time, it's difficult not to feel somewhat uninspired by the mediocrity of this one - and with a playtime of a little under six hours it's not like replayability or scope can rescue the short-comings of the content. There are plus points - the combat system in particular - and some suggestions that the film coul well have been something great, but the game is criminally let down by a failure to accomplish the simple things well enough. We play as Cap himself, dropped into a Bavarian castle to take on an embedded army within the large complex which is home to mad scientist Armin Zola, punching and kicking our way through the castle's many separate arenas to take out enemy antennas, sentry guns, troops and armory. Along the way Cap is charged with collecting all number of objects, including secret dossiers and artefacts, as well as liberating captured members of the Howling Commandos. So while it fits the idea of the character drawn in the upcoming movie, there is little that overlaps with the film's actual content. Right, so the problems. The graphics are the first issue: while Cap himself and his enemies look good, with appropriate and attractive detail, the backgrounds are unfortunately a different story. Everything about the environment looks dull and pretty insipid - there's plainly not enough detail or individualism to set different areas of the map out against one another, and it is entirely counter to the intention to encourage the player to painstakingly explore every square inch in search of collectible items. And forgive me if I'm way off here, but I find it difficult to believe that anyone can get much of a kick out of endlessly collecting dossiers that litter that place like the detritus of a particularly careless secret service and ceramic eggs. There isn't really much challenge in it, and it feels like nothing more than a poorly executed attempt to add a further element to extend the ridiculously short playtime a little. Next up in the list of problems is the gameplay, or one element of it in particular. I am perpetually infuriated when tie-in titles dumb down the action, and thus the required skill level needed to best them for no other reason than to pander to the more casual element of gamers who are attracted more by the "brand" than the desire for a challenge. And Captain America is guilty of the same crime, thanks to a decision not to trust the gamer to figure out how to traverse obstacles using Cap's acrobatic skills and instead to offer frankly ridiculous levels of on-screen prompting that takes out both the challenge and the fun. Such is the ease with which you can trapeze from beam to swing-pole (when prompted to press X, though you don't need to at the right time in order to actually make the manoeuvre) that they might as well be cut-scenes, because there is no scope for personal expression, and little opportunity to make a mess of the moves. And we're supposed to be playing a super-human who can do anything he wants - yeah, not in this universe he cant. On the same subject, there just isn't enough interactivity in the environments at all - and it is something of a stretch to believe that Cap cant smash up every thing in sight, or jump over simple things like chairs or tables. Not major achievements by any standard, but some of us like a bit of mindlessly violent feng shui to pass the time, especially when in a Nazi hive, and the limitations of what Cap can do and where he can go are too painfully obvious to ignore. Then there's the stop-start nature of the game, punctuated too many times, and for way too long in each case by Loading screens and cut-scenes, which is frustrating to say the least, especially in a game where time is supposed to be quite pressing to encourage you to seek action. No platformer of this ilk can survive being so staccato But going back to that combat mechanic system - it seems again to channel the spirit of Batman: Arkham Asylum with melee combinations even being crowned by the same slow-motion flourish, and in all honesty it is quite impressively athletic. There is a fair amount of enjoyment to be had in racking up combos when facing multiple enemies at once, and the famous starred shield allows for a bit more flair additionally. Likewise the combat alert system, while a little bit too easy to fathom out (you can become pretty much invincible after only the first few chapters) makes mindless button bashing less of an option as it requires switching from kicking Nazi tail to seeking cover behind the vibranium shield. Really, those similarities with Arkham Asylum are not the only ones - we have the combat system, the combat alert system, the "tactical vision" option that shows secrets, the one setting environment where new aspects are revealed as the story progresses, the collectibles (a poor imitation) and the obvious superhuman element. But side-by-side it is Super Soldier that sticks out as the poorly by comparison. Had they gone the whole-hog and been even more shameless in their magpie-ing of Arkham's features, including a similar level of scenic interactivity and better execution of collectibles, plus a little more of that unquantifiable personality that made the Bat's best game appearance so incredible, we might have been talking about a very good game. But as it is, while not the worst tie-in game ever released thanks to the combat sequences in particular, Captain America: Super Soldier is little more than mediocre.

Captain America: Super Soldier is available to buy now on XBox 360 and PS3 now (with North American release coming on the 19th of July).