Captain America has seen limited face time when it comes to video games. He was playable in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2 and has made multiple cameos in various Marvel games but he never received his a title to call his own. With the release of Captain America: The First Avenger in theaters (I highly recommend it to Marvel fans), a movie tie-in once again follows in its wake hoping to cash in on fans of this Marvel superhero.
Next Level Games took up the duty of creating this newest tie-in to a Marvel movie. As we all know however, games that have tie-ins with movies usually never fare well in the funertainment department usually due to poor gameplay and quality. Does Captain America prove that it stands above the rest? Or does it fall into the same mediocrity of titles such as Thor or Iron Man 2? Here are the Hots and Nots of Captain America: Super Soldier
Hot
Gameplay
The basic gameplay does a great job of making you feel like you are playing as Captain America. The main focus of the gameplay is the combat which gives you the ability to use Cap’s inhuman strength and agility as well as his iconic shield to put the power of Captain America in the players control. The fighting system heavily resembles that of Batman: Arkham Asylum as you are usually surrounded by multiple enemies and must use multi-directional combat and evasive maneuvers in order to avoid taking a stun baton to the face. Cap also has a wide variety of special moves at his disposal to quickly eradicate enemies in his vicinity such as the shield charge and the ability to go into a “Super Soldier” mode when his focus meter is full.
Detail On Captain America
While the rest of the game looks pretty bland and drab, they did manage to polish up Cap quite a bit. His shield glimmers in the light and his costume has a great deal of detail to it. But alas this does not help their case as you will only seem to notice that the other character models and environments don’t look near as good as he does. But hey, he is the peak of human perfection right?
Not
Graphics
As I mentioned above, the graphics are nothing special to look at. You will see yourself fighting the same enemies over and over again in the same dreary colored locations time after time. Captain America’s costume and the Red Skull’s face are the closest thing you will get to a variety of colors out of this game. The game also suffers from some terrible frame-rate stutter from time to time which can greatly hinder your urge to play the game.
Platforming Feels Forced
When you get to one of the multiple sections that requires you to perform the platforming, you will find that Captain America is about as graceful as a rock flying through the air rather than a nimble and acrobatic super soldier. On top of that, these sections feel out of place and act more like fillers between combat than fun interactive sequences. It all boils down to you perfectly timing a press of the X or A button as you swing around the section. Not nearly as cool as what they could have possibly done with it.
Where Is The Story?
It feels as if the story for Super Soldier is completely non-existent but once you take a closer look at it, you realize that deep down under all the rubble there is a watered down story for you to try to piece together. You are attacking a Hydra base that is nestled deep within the Bavarian mountains. Your goal is to stop the mad scientist Arnim Zola and his creations at all costs. What it all comes down to is destroying a plethora of AA guns, antennas and tanks until you reach the next boss fight.
Too Many Collectibles
There are so many collectibles in this game that it is actually a bad thing. You will run across something to pick up literally every 2 seconds that you play this game. If you are a perfectionist, you can span this games 6 hour storyline into an 7-8 storyline just trying to find everything. I personally found it sickening that you have to collect the multitude of dossiers, film reels, and artifacts just so you can earn enough points to earn an upgrade point to spend on one of the game’s 9 combat upgrades. It really takes away from the experience when they turn Captain America into Captain Collectible.
Verdict
Although Captain America does fall into the category of movie tie-in mediocrity, it is not the worst one out there. Fans of Captain America who can look past the problem can find a solid game in there. For those of you who are on the fence about it, I would suggest renting it first. While the combat is awesome and fun, it is ultimately the only thing the game has going for it. With a diluted storyline, below average graphics and a forced platforming system only true fans of Captain America will find true joy in this title.
[Editor’s Note: Captain America: Super Soldier was reviewed on the PlayStation 3 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
