Hooked Gamers - Godzilla Unleashed Review

Godzilla Unleashed

January 28th, 2008 by Vyle

Also available on: PS2

Godzilla’s nine to five

Battles always seem to pan out the same way. It begins with the camera behind your character. The first task is to work out who your enemy is, as you may have allies among those that entered the arena with you. The game maintains a sluggish pace with the camera unhelpfully behind you until you find your enemy. At this point, the camera will switch perspective and will make aiming ranged attacks very awkward. This perspective will keep changing whether you want it to or not. All the while, helicopters and tanks will buzz around shooting at you. You futilely hammer buttons to try and hurt the enemy, while trying to walk around or destroy the buildings that get in the way and collecting crystals that give health and other stat boosts.

Repeat until somebody wins.

Respawning buildings?

The arenas really deserve a special mention – they are dreadful. Each one is supposed to represent a city, yet they look like flat planes with a few boxes on them. London doesn't feel like London, and if it wasn't for their names, the different locations would all just blend into each other as generic, but shockingly small, playing fields. Where Global Defence Force made you feel like a small man in a huge world, and Katamari Damacy made you feel like a big ball in a big world, this game makes you feel like a small character playing in a field of boxes. Even destroying scenery lacks any satisfaction.

An odd glitch (at least it feels like a glitch) is the respawning scenery. When a building is destroyed it may re appear at the most random times. In one instance, a skyscraper respawned in front of an enemy, protecting him from a projectile, and on many occasions, buildings randomly appeared out of thin air to block my path. But it gets even stranger. When two AI controlled characters engage in a throw, the camera will focus on them. This often takes your character out of the picture. In levels with hazards, such as lava streams, this can cause you to suffer huge amounts of damage from no fault of your own.
Despite all this, there is some fun to be had when the game works and a semi coherent fight is produced. This, however, is a rare occurrence that happens more in spite of the shoddy design than because of it.

Polish

Propping the game up is a story mode that tells a tale of alien crystals that disrupt the monsters and causes all kinds of buffoonery to take place. This story is told through graphic novel-style cut scenes with poor voice acting and very few art frames. They look nice enough and get the story along, but they are hardly riveting stuff.

To give the game longevity, there are four different stories – Monsters, Global Defence Force, Protectors and Aliens. Each faction has a selection of characters, and completing the game unlocks further characters. Missions reward the player with money which they can use to purchase characters and other bonuses. Characters are extremely expensive, so unlocking them all will take a lot of play. This would be fine if the core engine wasn't so bad. I have heard that this game had depth to the fighting, but as hard as I looked, depth couldn't be found – only frustration. It is a shame. With the proper love and care, this could have been a fun game. As it is, it is a broken fighting game whose replay value is hampered by its lack of polish.

Be warned

Sadly, there is very little to recommend about this game. The only people that should pick this up are die-hard Godzilla fans that can't find a copy of Godzilla: Save the Earth. That game is basically the same though throws work and offer some satisfaction. If you are not overly obsessed by Godzilla, then don't bother. There are hundreds of decent fighting games on the market, and most are far cheaper. Godzilla has been unleashed, so act like the helpless public in the movies and stay away.