Captain America: Super Solider
Thankfully Captain America: The First Avenger is a pretty decent game. Compared to other comic book games it is miles ahead of Green Lantern and Thor but it never reaches the same heights of Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Many parallels can be drawn between Arkham Asylum and Captain America. Both take place on a confined location with the hero being able to travel to several “open” areas. While Cap lacks the gadgets of Batman, the combat is quite similar in terms of striking, dodging and countering enemy attacks. It is obvious that Arkham Asylum was the template the development team was using while building this game.
Despite the lack of gadgets, Captain America does combat almost as well as Arkham Asylum. The one area where is falls behind is countering attacks where Arkham Asylum’s animations are cleaner and just cooler to look at. Batman however does not have Cap’s shield which was a blast to throw around at enemies. You have the ability to shoot from the hip and throw the shield out at incoming enemies or take your time and aim it at a particular target. While aiming you can also mark targets and receive a great in game cut-scene of your shield taking out all of your marks.
The level design of Captain America is fairly linear which detracted from the open area aspect that was trying to be established. It is always clear where you need to go and the game pushes you along to the next checkpoint without you having to figure out what to do. With Arkham Asylum you had options on how to tackle particular situations, in Captain America all you can do is enter an area and take out all the enemies by using your shield or punching their face in. The argument can be made that Batman is a more methodical character than Captain America but more creativity in how Cap could approach situations would have been appreciated.
Captain America: Super Solider has a decent length campaign with an engaging albeit shallow story. The campaign’s presentation is aided by the cast of marvel characters. Cap allies like Bucky and Dum Dum Dugan show up as well as villains like the Baroness. The characters are modelled after and voiced by their movie counterparts which tie the game into the movie nicely.
The developers went well above and behind what was necessary by adding in tons of extra collectibles that actually have a purpose. There are thirteen film reels to collect throughout the campaign which offer insights into the creation and purpose of several hydra enemies with narration by Hydra scientist Zola. There are also thirty one Baron Zemo diaries that need to be collected that detail his family’s past and how he was betrayed y the Red Skull. Each diary entry is narrated by Baron Zemo in case your too lazy to read them. These can easily be over looked but added some cannon to the game that made me actually have a reason to collect everything.
As in Arkham Asylum, Captain America: Super Solider also has challenge rooms which test your combat prowess or ability to gather up collectibles. There are a dozen or challenge rooms which are not incredibly difficult but add an extension onto the time Captain America will spend in your console. Jumping into the combat challenge rooms is something I can play over and over again simply because the combat in Captain America is fun. Being Cap, throwing that shield and having it ricochet off enemies and objects is a great feeling.
In terms of graphical presentation, Captain America: Super Solider isn’t going to win any awards. It looks decent but comparing the look of levels and character models to other games released this year, really shows how much it could have used another layer of polish. I found the visuals to be quite distracting at first but as you begin to kick ass with Cap graphics take a back seat.
Overall I enjoyed Captain America: Super Solider much more than I anticipated. While graphical presentation isn’t going to make your jaw drop, the actor’s performances and the story should counter balance this. It borrows heavily in terms of game mechanics and design from Arkham Asylum and in some aspects it matches it while in others it lags behind. Captain America: Super Solider is a good game and I would welcome more instalments from the same development team.
