Superman Returns for PS2

Bean · 12-21-2006, 12:49 PM

I don't buy alot of PS2 games, in fact, the last game I bought brand new before this one was Star Wars Battlefront:2 the day after its release, and I still play it almost daily.

However this Xmas season, my mother sent me, along with a few nice sweaters, a check. So I decided to go out and splurge. I picked up some surround speakers for my girlfriends computer, and a copy of this new PS2 game. (Ahhh, God Bless Walmart)

I stayed up late last night playing this game for about 2 and a half hours. Now, half asleep and on my second Red Bull of the morning, I wish I had of gone to bed...

Let's start with the Graphics. The graphics aren't that spectacular. They're average at best. The in game cut scenes featuring the likeness of Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey are actually pretty good representations of the actors. The scenes of Routh however are ridiculous. From Supermans over chiseled muscular features, to that same "I've had too much coffee" look in his eyes actually had me laughing out loud to myself at points. Explosions are average for a PS2 game, when really they could have been so much more.

Storyline. Well obviously the game doesn't follow the movie scene for scene, and it's good because the pace of the movie wouldn't translate well into a video game. Within the first ten minutes of the game, you find yourself forced into gladiatorial competition on Warworld while trying to return to Earth from Krypton. While this does serve as a great psuedo tutorial on the game controls, it seems very tacked on as a plot. So far, I haven't gone far enough into the game to really judge the rest of the plot. I've been treated to a few cutscenes with the aforementioned characters starting the buildup to Lexs big plot, but nothing very involving as of yet.

Controls. The controls are better than what I was expecting. Combat is relatively easy to master once you go through the Warworld level. The only complaint I have in this regard is changing your selected superpower. In the game you have the ability to use 3 different superpowers besides the standard strength, flight, speed etc. You have two "Super breath" options. Hot and cold, and there are two degrees of each. You also get the classic heat vision. The problem is how you change between the three. It's done using the D pad, which presents a problem if you need to change quickly as it requires you to take your thumb off of the analog stick and thus stop moving. Not really convenient, but it's not that hard to deal with.

Gameplay. And here we have both the best and worst part of the game. SR goes with the trend of more modern games like Spiderman the Movie 2, and Grand Theft Auto in the idea of free roaming. You are free to fly around the city of Metropolis at your own whim. And let me tell you, there is nothing quite as exhilirating as doing a "power launch" where you crouch down like Neo in the Matrix, and propel yourself hundreds of feet into the air. While flying, there is also a super speed option by holding down one of the R buttons. Flying at superspeed long enough treats you to Superman breaking the sound barrier. There is no effect on the gameplay by doing this, but it looks damn cool.

Now the PROBLEM with the gameplay... redundant redundant redundant.... Maybe I'm being too harsh, and maybe it gets better later on, but right now I've done what is essentially the same mission at least 12 times, with no noticeable storyline progression. Even worse, is that these "battles" crop up randomly, and with almost no time in between them. In SR, Superman is basically invincible. The catch is that the city itself has "health" that decreases with every bit of damage to the city, cars and pedestrians the villains do. When the city runs out of health, basically, you die. Game over. Now for a city the size of Metropolis, (And the in-game city is HUGE) this doesn't take very long. You can go from full health, to almost nothing if you are unlucky enough to be on the other side of the city when an "alert" crops up. Oh? Did I mention collateral damage? Careful with that heat vision Supes, every car you toast knocks the health meter down a little... I would be so much more impressed had the developers seen fit to space out the battles a little, or even give you an option in the menu to slow them down (No game difficulty settings at all). This major complaint isn't just a nuissance itself, but it detracts from the games biggest attraction of free roaming, in the way that you literally don't have time to do it. Here they've created this huge wonderful representation of Metropolis for you to explore and fly through like we've ALL dreamed of doing at one time or another, but they don't really let you do it....

Audio. Well, I played the game on a television without surround, just the basic speakers, and it was unimpressive. The voiceovers of all the major characters so far use the actual actors (with the obvious exception of Brando). Most of the lines are taken almost directly from the movie, but changed slightly. Probably to avoid legal issues I would assume. The change however is usually enough to make a fan of the movie cringe... I was absolutley devastated to learn that the original theme, with it's momentous "Dum da da dum dum dum.." buildup is not used. I understand there would be liscensing issues etc... but jesus, they got the three major character likeness', not to mention their voices, they got the title of the damn movie, how much more would it have cost them to put the actual music in there? What you get is obviously trying to be reminiscient of the famed title theme, but fails as badly as it possibly could. Instead, the music is as tedious and repetitive as the gameplay.

What it comes down to, is as I mentioned before, I rarely go out and buy a brand new PS2 game. I'm usually content to rent, borrow, or buy second hand a few months after release. Sometimes however, I do take the chance. Sometimes that pays off, like SW Battlefront 2. And then other times I kick myself for days wishing to god I could return a PS2 game for nothing more than dissatisfaction. Can you guess which category SR falls into? I'll give you a hint, I'm gonna go play Star Wars some more.

At least the surround speakers I got sound really nice....

Brikar · 12-22-2006, 02:46 AM

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've heard all around for this game - thoroughly mediocre, with repetitive gameplay.

It's too bad, too, because the previews looked very promising. But we STILL don't have a good Superman game...

Stag · 12-22-2006, 04:49 AM

It seems there are very few adaptations that ever work well. Is there any Star Trek game out there that works well?? One or two, but most are mediocre and are designed to give fanboys a chance to fire phasers and fly the Enterprise - woooooo.

Bean · 12-22-2006, 04:01 PM

Well Armada is still one of my favourite games, I would definitley say it was one of the most sucessful Trek games. Elite Force, while not my particular cup of tea, was also pretty sucessful.

In addition to my original review, I have more to add about Superman...

I've got about another hour or two into the game now, and it's no better. I continued playing hope that it got better. I mean I really WANT to like this game, if for no other reason than to justify the 50 bucks I paid for it. The first couple hours of the game were spent fighting "squads" of robots over and over again. Well, after I got so far I finally got to a "boss". Metallo, who is the ring leader of the ridiculously repetitive robots, grows to be hundreds of feet tall, and you're forced to fly around dodging his attacks and throwing cars and trucks at him while he destroys buildings around him. Not bad, but not a shining point.

After that however, they did mix it up a bit. Instead of fighting robots over and over, now I'm fighting "dragons" and what appear to be some kind of gargoyles, this is spaced out with intermittent apearances by Bizarro. Now I have to say, it is quite satisfying pummeling the crap out of Bizzaro time and time again. Something about it is just damn good fun. Other than Bizarro however, it's still just more of the same.

Bean · 12-23-2006, 09:47 PM

Ok, I finally beat the game. Unfortunatley I didn't realize I had beaten it until about 20 minutes afterwards. I actually kept playing the game without knowing I had beaten it...

Total game time: 4 hours 29 minutes 36 seconds.
My level of satisfaction: BLECH!

Cymro · 12-24-2006, 12:18 AM

Surely Superman would return for something more than just his PS2...

12-21-2006, 12:49 PM	#1 (permalink)
Bean The Awesome One Join Date: Dec 1969 Location: Canada eh! Posts: 5,055	Superman Returns for PS2 I don't buy alot of PS2 games, in fact, the last game I bought brand new before this one was Star Wars Battlefront:2 the day after its release, and I still play it almost daily. However this Xmas season, my mother sent me, along with a few nice sweaters, a check. So I decided to go out and splurge. I picked up some surround speakers for my girlfriends computer, and a copy of this new PS2 game. (Ahhh, God Bless Walmart) I stayed up late last night playing this game for about 2 and a half hours. Now, half asleep and on my second Red Bull of the morning, I wish I had of gone to bed... Let's start with the Graphics. The graphics aren't that spectacular. They're average at best. The in game cut scenes featuring the likeness of Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey are actually pretty good representations of the actors. The scenes of Routh however are ridiculous. From Supermans over chiseled muscular features, to that same "I've had too much coffee" look in his eyes actually had me laughing out loud to myself at points. Explosions are average for a PS2 game, when really they could have been so much more. Storyline. Well obviously the game doesn't follow the movie scene for scene, and it's good because the pace of the movie wouldn't translate well into a video game. Within the first ten minutes of the game, you find yourself forced into gladiatorial competition on Warworld while trying to return to Earth from Krypton. While this does serve as a great psuedo tutorial on the game controls, it seems very tacked on as a plot. So far, I haven't gone far enough into the game to really judge the rest of the plot. I've been treated to a few cutscenes with the aforementioned characters starting the buildup to Lexs big plot, but nothing very involving as of yet. Controls. The controls are better than what I was expecting. Combat is relatively easy to master once you go through the Warworld level. The only complaint I have in this regard is changing your selected superpower. In the game you have the ability to use 3 different superpowers besides the standard strength, flight, speed etc. You have two "Super breath" options. Hot and cold, and there are two degrees of each. You also get the classic heat vision. The problem is how you change between the three. It's done using the D pad, which presents a problem if you need to change quickly as it requires you to take your thumb off of the analog stick and thus stop moving. Not really convenient, but it's not that hard to deal with. Gameplay. And here we have both the best and worst part of the game. SR goes with the trend of more modern games like Spiderman the Movie 2, and Grand Theft Auto in the idea of free roaming. You are free to fly around the city of Metropolis at your own whim. And let me tell you, there is nothing quite as exhilirating as doing a "power launch" where you crouch down like Neo in the Matrix, and propel yourself hundreds of feet into the air. While flying, there is also a super speed option by holding down one of the R buttons. Flying at superspeed long enough treats you to Superman breaking the sound barrier. There is no effect on the gameplay by doing this, but it looks damn cool. Now the PROBLEM with the gameplay... redundant redundant redundant.... Maybe I'm being too harsh, and maybe it gets better later on, but right now I've done what is essentially the same mission at least 12 times, with no noticeable storyline progression. Even worse, is that these "battles" crop up randomly, and with almost no time in between them. In SR, Superman is basically invincible. The catch is that the city itself has "health" that decreases with every bit of damage to the city, cars and pedestrians the villains do. When the city runs out of health, basically, you die. Game over. Now for a city the size of Metropolis, (And the in-game city is HUGE) this doesn't take very long. You can go from full health, to almost nothing if you are unlucky enough to be on the other side of the city when an "alert" crops up. Oh? Did I mention collateral damage? Careful with that heat vision Supes, every car you toast knocks the health meter down a little... I would be so much more impressed had the developers seen fit to space out the battles a little, or even give you an option in the menu to slow them down (No game difficulty settings at all). This major complaint isn't just a nuissance itself, but it detracts from the games biggest attraction of free roaming, in the way that you literally don't have time to do it. Here they've created this huge wonderful representation of Metropolis for you to explore and fly through like we've ALL dreamed of doing at one time or another, but they don't really let you do it.... Audio. Well, I played the game on a television without surround, just the basic speakers, and it was unimpressive. The voiceovers of all the major characters so far use the actual actors (with the obvious exception of Brando). Most of the lines are taken almost directly from the movie, but changed slightly. Probably to avoid legal issues I would assume. The change however is usually enough to make a fan of the movie cringe... I was absolutley devastated to learn that the original theme, with it's momentous "Dum da da dum dum dum.." buildup is not used. I understand there would be liscensing issues etc... but jesus, they got the three major character likeness', not to mention their voices, they got the title of the damn movie, how much more would it have cost them to put the actual music in there? What you get is obviously trying to be reminiscient of the famed title theme, but fails as badly as it possibly could. Instead, the music is as tedious and repetitive as the gameplay. What it comes down to, is as I mentioned before, I rarely go out and buy a brand new PS2 game. I'm usually content to rent, borrow, or buy second hand a few months after release. Sometimes however, I do take the chance. Sometimes that pays off, like SW Battlefront 2. And then other times I kick myself for days wishing to god I could return a PS2 game for nothing more than dissatisfaction. Can you guess which category SR falls into? I'll give you a hint, I'm gonna go play Star Wars some more. At least the surround speakers I got sound really nice.... __________________ "I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing." --James T. Kirk

12-22-2006, 02:46 AM	#2 (permalink)
Brikar The Dude Join Date: Dec 1969 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 3,606	Re: Superman Returns for PS2 Yeah, that's pretty much what I've heard all around for this game - thoroughly mediocre, with repetitive gameplay. It's too bad, too, because the previews looked very promising. But we STILL don't have a good Superman game... __________________ "A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown." http://olympusmans.blogspot.com http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

12-22-2006, 04:49 AM	#3 (permalink)
Stag It's me again Join Date: Jan 1970 Location: Florida Posts: 3,286	Re: Superman Returns for PS2 It seems there are very few adaptations that ever work well. Is there any Star Trek game out there that works well?? One or two, but most are mediocre and are designed to give fanboys a chance to fire phasers and fly the Enterprise - woooooo.

12-22-2006, 04:01 PM	#4 (permalink)
Bean The Awesome One Join Date: Dec 1969 Location: Canada eh! Posts: 5,055	Re: Superman Returns for PS2 Well Armada is still one of my favourite games, I would definitley say it was one of the most sucessful Trek games. Elite Force, while not my particular cup of tea, was also pretty sucessful. In addition to my original review, I have more to add about Superman... I've got about another hour or two into the game now, and it's no better. I continued playing hope that it got better. I mean I really WANT to like this game, if for no other reason than to justify the 50 bucks I paid for it. The first couple hours of the game were spent fighting "squads" of robots over and over again. Well, after I got so far I finally got to a "boss". Metallo, who is the ring leader of the ridiculously repetitive robots, grows to be hundreds of feet tall, and you're forced to fly around dodging his attacks and throwing cars and trucks at him while he destroys buildings around him. Not bad, but not a shining point. After that however, they did mix it up a bit. Instead of fighting robots over and over, now I'm fighting "dragons" and what appear to be some kind of gargoyles, this is spaced out with intermittent apearances by Bizarro. Now I have to say, it is quite satisfying pummeling the crap out of Bizzaro time and time again. Something about it is just damn good fun. Other than Bizarro however, it's still just more of the same. __________________ "I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing." --James T. Kirk

12-23-2006, 09:47 PM	#5 (permalink)
Bean The Awesome One Join Date: Dec 1969 Location: Canada eh! Posts: 5,055	Re: Superman Returns for PS2 Ok, I finally beat the game. Unfortunatley I didn't realize I had beaten it until about 20 minutes afterwards. I actually kept playing the game without knowing I had beaten it... Total game time: 4 hours 29 minutes 36 seconds. My level of satisfaction: BLECH! __________________ "I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing." --James T. Kirk

12-24-2006, 12:18 AM	#6 (permalink)
Cymro Religious Fanatic Join Date: Nov 1999 Location: Shitsville, CF63 Posts: 4,921	Re: Superman Returns for PS2 Surely Superman would return for something more than just his PS2... __________________ "Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. "But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

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