Early impressions of Marvel Entertainment’s new game just released on the AppStore…
I was expecting this to be a movie tie-in game, and while its release is obviously to do with the film’s relatively recent release, this game is more in line with the comics than the film. The game is released through Marvel themselves instead of Paramount Digital – who generally handle titles based on Paramount funded movies – and features an original story by Marvel writer Bryan Glass, which is illustrated through the use of comic book-style cut-scenes.
After playing through some of the game’s levels it seems this does not feature earth and instead is mainly based on Asgard and the other realms. Along with the Warriors Three you must defeat waves of Dark elves, Ulik and trolls and get to the bottom of what your evil broth Loki is up to.
Available as a universal App for both iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, the game is presented in a third person 3D perspective. If you’ve played Hero of Sparta from Gameloft, then you’ll be right at home here. Gameplay is of the hack’n'slash ilk and sees you running with a virtual analogue stick, and attacking with a combination of blocks, hammer attacks and magic action buttons. Your proximity to enemies will decide on which hammer attack Thor will perform (basically activating one of three different battle animations). Combined with the magic attack which summons lightning from the heavens, you can unleash special attack such as the earthquake attack. This ground shattering pound, knocks down all enemies in the immediate viscinity.
Graphically the game looks good, with a definite cartoon look to it. It actually looks very much like Gameloft’s Spiderman: Total Mayhem. The camera is fixed and moves around you for the best, or most dramatic angles.
What makes this obviously not a Gameloft game of course, is the solid voice work, which is a great addition… I even picked out a female voice from one of the cut scenes that belongs to the same voice over artist that plays Asajj Ventress in the Clone Wars Tv series.
So far I’m enjoying the game. It’s not exactly challenging, offering pretty dumb enemy AI. But, it is a good button mashing romp. Now that I’ve seen the film, I know more about the characters than before, and so I’m eager to find out more about the story on offer here. Look out for my review later. In the meantime check out our hands-on footage of the game running on iPad here (captured through HDMI):
