In the past, many movie game adaptations have fallen short of giving the player a truly overwhelming experience. This is often due to a lack of fundamental gameplay elements. Is G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra another action packed shooter that ticks all the boxes or just a chaotic on-screen blur with no redeeming value? 

Lets get one thing straight. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra makes a complete mess of the basics. The story-telling and narrative are sloppy, the camera angles are terrible and the gameplay quickly gets tedious. Along with these handicaps, your aim is to bring down the Terrorist group known as Cobra. Unless you have seen the movie, you will find it hard to follow the shallow plot and understand the events unfolding in the game.

 

Gameplay is by far the biggest letdown of all. It is tedious, monotonous and downright dull. Almost every single aspect has been done badly. The camera seems to have gone completely wild and spins all over the place making it hard to get to grips with your surroundings, especially when turning corners or going down a slope. This in turn hinders many of the other gameplay features such as the aiming and cover system. Due to the sloppy camera movement, you will often dodge or dash for cover in the wrong direction. There are a variety of missions scattered around the world for you and another A.I controlled member of the Joe team to complete and blast your enemies to hell while earning a few unfulfilling points. Although there is no online mode, there is a local multiplayer option that lets the A.I controlled character be replaced by a human counterpart. When piloting a vehicle you are able to see just how poor the controls and camera are. Keeping a straight course is hard enough in the middle of a battlefield but when the the camera decides to move around and you don’t have a typical rear view of the vehicle, driving really gets messy.

The Joe team is split into 3 different types of unit classes: Combat Soldiers, Commandos and Heavy Soldiers each with their own different abilities. For example, commandos specialise in melee and close combat whereas Heavy Soldiers focus more on heavy ranged firepower. Another flaw in the game is the absence of checkpoints. If you fail a mission or die you have to start again right back at the beginning of the level.

All the characters have their own unique weapons and abilities as well as an accelerator suit which temporarily makes you invincible and super powerful. Hidden characters can be unlocked by earning battle points during a mission. However, apart from this there is very little incentive to play.

Although the soundtrack is half decent, the voice acting and general sound effects during the game are exceptionally poor. The bad dialogue and cheap sounding gun noises quickly get rid of any feelings of thrill and excitement Its as if the in-game characters couldn’t care less about the scenario they’re in. Visual animations are not on par either. Character models look last generation, movement is clunky and robotic and environments look dull. 

 

At first glance you would think that this is just some low budget DLC but at £40 the game has no redeeming value at all to make it worth that sort of price. You could just get away with renting it but it should definitely be said, this is a game to avoid.

+ Lots of on-screen action at any one time.

- Dreadful Camera

- Story is hollow

- Voice acting is poor

- Inconsistent targeting and cover systems 

3.8/10

By Ian Ratledge Posted Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 8:37 am