9-5 Gaming: Beowulf, Movie Games suck don’t they?
I was able to get a demo copy of the Beowulf game based on the movie by the same title (Duh). Regardless if we are talking about the game or the movie I can only come up a resounding “Meh.”
As someone who follows the trends of 3D programs and the art mediums they are used in I was delighted when I saw that Beowulf was being made. My heart promptly sank when I saw who was doing it. It is something of great achievement when you create a fully realized motion capture world and use the technology of the day to pull off something so interesting. That is where it stops though because no matter how interesting it might be how they made the movie it still looks a great deal like crap.
Motion capture, or MoCap for idiots, captures a great deal of information and transfers that information to have a live model respond accordingly in the 3D world. No matter what though it always ends up looking forced. With that statement I have a nice seaway into the review of the game.
Beowulf the game is yet another forced title in an appeasement to the “get it out on time and make me more money” gods (aka Time Warner).
If you have played any of the God of War series you have already played Beowulf. Simply take your crazed murdering Kratos, take away the swords, and stick in the very shiny Beowulf. This is up to and including most of the magic/rage/whatever powers. Just like in God of War you generally find that you use one spell and none of the others. Right up to the quick time wall climbing, sea serpent killing, troll smashing, decorative flower arrangement, animal husbandry, and so on, events. Whatever isn’t a kick or punch is a quick time event.
Hooray for the quick time goodness!
All in all it isn’t a bad thing that it is modeled after a great game, but when you get that close to the same thing you lose originality points and we are basically skinning our favorite games. If you are a huge fan of the movie then god help you. Help your self to this game through as it really is basically the same thing as the movie with just a hint of back story and ass.
If you know the poem of Beowulf you might know it has served as inspiration to legends like Tolkien. However the game warps the very concept of the poem and story to meet it’s needs. Grendal’s mother is much more involved, Grendal cries like a baby instead of prattling on angrily in really old English gibberish, and you get slammed with cut scenes so hard your teeth rattle from the force feedback. I would tell you more about what happens but I honestly don’t know. I was attacked by multiple “Grendle Mothers” at one point and in my shock I actually looked up the poem to figure out what reference they used to come up with that; the answer was none at all. I won’t bother to mention the troll they threw in because the poems fails to as well.
All in all it’s crap and I don’t recommend it. Go grab God of War and play it endlessly and realize it is only a cash cow because it was made right. This cash cow was made to simply bank of a major work of literature. If there was a known author he/she would rise from their grave and bounce this horrible paycheck Ubisoft is trying to cash.
My Chi hopes Iron Man is as good as they say.
