Welcome to Lost in Translation? – the Ready Up series where we look at the rocky two-way road of media adapted from video games and games based on films and TV shows, in a bid to decide whether the juice was worth the squeeze, or if what made the source material great in the first place got lost in translation.
With just about everybody and his dog having now seen The Avengers in cinemas worldwide, in this instalment of LIT? we’re nearing the end of our Avengers special, casting a critical eye over the four pre-Avengers videogame outings featuring the four bigger names of Marvel’s superhero team: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor: God of Thunder and Captain America: Super Soldier.
Third up is Thor: God of Thunder, which was met with (ahem) less than thunderous applause upon its release. Going so far as to be the worst-received of the pre-Avengers games as far as Metacritic is concerned, its Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are the holders of a 38 and 39 out of 100, respectively, narrowly beaten by Iron Man 2’s aggregated score of 41 on each platform. Meanwhile its 3DS counterpart fared little better here on Ready Up, earning a 6/10 from Colin.
Developed by Liquid Entertainment, then best known for Rise of the Argonauts and the PC game tie-in for Desperate Housewives (perhaps a contender for a future LIT? instalment), Thor: God of Thunder was released in the UK two days after its cinematic counterpart back in April 2011 and if you were to ask Sega’s marketing department what the game looked like, they’d probably tell you something like this:
So – great film; poorly-received game. Surely it’s not all doom and gloom though, right?
What it got right
With such a poor critical reception, it might be tempting to say that the only things Thor: God of Thunder got right was the title and box art, but that would be doing the efforts of Liquid Entertainment something of a disservice. No, the game’s not great, but as movie or TV tie-ins go, I’ve played far, far worse (I’m looking at you, Prison Break: The Conspiracy).
Wisely, the game tells a different story to the film – although a great movie, playing as a depowered Thor as he learns to value the lives of others (and pull Natalie Portman) would make for a pretty odd action game.
As far as I can tell, Thor: God of Thunder is a prequel of sorts to the film, with Loki tricking Thor into unleashing a centuries-old demon that promptly sets its sights on demolishing Thor’s home of Asgard. For reasons not entirely clear to me, and I’ve finished the game, Thor is unable to return to Asgard immediately to save the day and instead must complete a tour of several other locales before he can indeed pop home for the final battle. Borrowing its boss characters from Thor’s comic book roots, you’ll square up to Ulik, Surtur and Mangog – nope, me neither – along with the king of the frost giants, Ymir.
Playing a little like God of War, if someone had only seen a trailer for God of War and not actually played it to learn what makes it good, Thor: God of Thunder tasks players with bashing their way through 15 chapters of largely-the-same gameplay taking place across four distinct regions. As a mindless brawler, the game is passable at best, but far from the tactical action it apes so blandly.
What it got wrong
Looks-wise, this game’s a bit of a stinker. The lion’s share of the game is spent beating up countless iterations of a very limited selection of enemy hammer-fodder, split into what seems like only five types of enemy repeated again and again and again, albeit with thematic swaps fitting the level they live in. The environments are pretty lifeless, and overall the game’s look suggests either a very rushed development period or a developer who didn’t care that much – and no developer sets out to make bad games.
My main beef with Thor: God of Thunder is that for a game that is all about hitting things with a big hammer, the hitting of things is a bit woolly, to be frank. Start a combo and chances are by the second or third hit your foe will seemingly ignore the afore-mentioned big hammer smashing their face in and begin to attack you back. While genre leaders God of War and the criminally-overlooked Castlevania: Lords of Shadow would let you interrupt your attack animations to pull off a quick evade or counter, here Thor continues until struck by the momentarily impervious-to-giant-hammers enemy or, far more commonly, hit by some bugger who’s just out of view. It makes for a stilted combat experience, never allowing you to zone out and experiment, or find a groove to call your own. Instead, you’ll learn maybe five combos – short ones, mind, to avoid being caught out by those enemies that can shake off attacks mid-combo – which makes the game’s near constant battling against incredibly samey opponents, well, incredibly samey.
The Verdict
All in all, Thor: God of Thunder isn’t very good and isn’t recommended. If you have a young ‘un who doesn’t know any better, this will keep ‘em quiet for a fair old whack, but for the discerning gamer I’d recommend avoiding this – lost in translation.
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