Post-apocalyptic ethics and Lego heroes
By Lou Kesten |
July 15, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MILITARY shoot 'em ups get a moral dilemma in "Spec Ops: The Line," where Americans take on each other. Meanwhile, in other new video game releases, Batman has a family-friendly Lego makeover, while fellow superhero Spider-Man is left looking a little, well, threadbare.
GIs and CIA battle it out
Military video games are generally so gung-ho about combat they might as well be recruiting posters for the armed forces. There isn't much time for rumination when you're racking up the kill streaks - you have to assume the cause you're fighting for is just. Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.
"Spec Ops: The Line" (2K Games, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, US$59.99) doesn't let you off the hook so easily. Yes, you will slaughter hundreds of people over the course of its single-player campaign. No, you won't feel good about it.
"Spec Ops" takes place in Dubai six months after it has been demolished by an apocalyptic sandstorm. Luxury hotels and skyscrapers have been abandoned or toppled. Only a few refugees remain, along with a US Army infantry unit led by Colonel John Konrad. After receiving a distress call from inside Dubai, your three-man commando team is sent to investigate.
Konrad's name and "Spec Ops" are takes on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," by way of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War film, "Apocalypse Now." Parallels are deliberate: The diary of the game's protagonist, Captain Walker, is reminiscent of Captain Willard's film narration. A game character called Radioman channels Dennis Hopper's photojournalist. And though "Spec Ops" is set in the near future, its soundtrack features Vietnam-era nuggets like Deep Purple's "Hush" and Martha and the Vandellas' "Nowhere to Run."
As your team approaches the sand-choked outskirts of Dubai, you encounter refugees who try (with gunfire) to stop your mission. But as you venture further into the city's decadent palaces and casinos, you stumble into a war between CIA agents and Konrad's "Damned 33rd" infantry. The enemies here aren't terrorists, drug lords or aliens. They're your fellow Americans.
"Spec Ops," created by the Berlin-based Yager Development studio, doesn't tackle specifics of US foreign policy, but its vision of apparently crazy Americans running amok in the Middle East is unflinching. It's hard to imagine a US-based developer trying to pull this off.
While the story is riveting, the gameplay offers nothing particularly fresh.
Family-friendly Batman
"The Dark Knight Rises" is due at the multiplex in just a few weeks, but the Christian Bale version of Batman won't be getting a video-game doppelganger. Instead, fans of the Caped Crusader can enjoy "Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes" (WB Games, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, US$49.99), a more lighthearted, family friendly romp.
The designers at the UK-based Traveller's Tales have hit upon a successful formula: Take Lego-ized versions of beloved characters like Harry Potter and the "Star Wars" gang. Set them loose in brightly colored versions of familiar settings where they can destroy the furniture and build new devices out of Lego blocks. Throw in some clever but not too challenging puzzles and enough collectibles to keep the kids busy for weeks.
"Lego Batman 2" adds a few new elements, most notably some first-rate voice acting, that energizes the confrontations between Bruce Wayne and a rogue's gallery of villains. (And other heroes, too: Batman's surly attitude toward Superman is hilarious.) Also, the game world is more open than usual, so you can freely explore Gotham City in between story missions.
There are dozens of playable characters as well as an assortment of suits that give Batman and Robin special powers. And cooperative play is available throughout, making "Lego Batman 2" one of the best games available for parents and kids to play together.
Spider-Man returns
It's been five years since Spider-Man's previous appearance in movie theaters, but Marvel's webslinger has been plenty busy on video-game consoles. Since 2007, he's headlined four games and made guest appearances in at least four more. None of them have been particularly outstanding.
Fans have been hoping that a new movie Spidey might reinvigorate the video-game franchise. But while the Quebec-based developer Beenox has given "The Amazing Spider-Man" (Activision, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, US$59.99) some new tricks, it still feels a little threadbare.
Moviegoers beware: The game takes place after the events of the latest film, and it blithely spoils a couple of major plot points. The upshot is that a few more human-animal hybrids (like the movie's villain, the Lizard) have escaped from the labs of Oscorp Industries. Meanwhile, robotics whiz Alistaire Smythe has shifted Oscorp's research focus, creating an army of mechanical behemoths to take down the mutants.
Spider-Man, being somewhat of a hybrid himself, is stuck in the middle.
"The Amazing Spider-Man" becomes exciting only when you step outside its main story and take to the skies. Swinging between the skyscrapers of Manhattan is exhilarating, and the new "web rush" feature, which lets you pinpoint your next goal and zip right to it, is very handy when you're trying to find the stray comic-book pages hidden all over town.
GIs and CIA battle it out
Military video games are generally so gung-ho about combat they might as well be recruiting posters for the armed forces. There isn't much time for rumination when you're racking up the kill streaks - you have to assume the cause you're fighting for is just. Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.
"Spec Ops: The Line" (2K Games, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, US$59.99) doesn't let you off the hook so easily. Yes, you will slaughter hundreds of people over the course of its single-player campaign. No, you won't feel good about it.
"Spec Ops" takes place in Dubai six months after it has been demolished by an apocalyptic sandstorm. Luxury hotels and skyscrapers have been abandoned or toppled. Only a few refugees remain, along with a US Army infantry unit led by Colonel John Konrad. After receiving a distress call from inside Dubai, your three-man commando team is sent to investigate.
Konrad's name and "Spec Ops" are takes on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," by way of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War film, "Apocalypse Now." Parallels are deliberate: The diary of the game's protagonist, Captain Walker, is reminiscent of Captain Willard's film narration. A game character called Radioman channels Dennis Hopper's photojournalist. And though "Spec Ops" is set in the near future, its soundtrack features Vietnam-era nuggets like Deep Purple's "Hush" and Martha and the Vandellas' "Nowhere to Run."
As your team approaches the sand-choked outskirts of Dubai, you encounter refugees who try (with gunfire) to stop your mission. But as you venture further into the city's decadent palaces and casinos, you stumble into a war between CIA agents and Konrad's "Damned 33rd" infantry. The enemies here aren't terrorists, drug lords or aliens. They're your fellow Americans.
"Spec Ops," created by the Berlin-based Yager Development studio, doesn't tackle specifics of US foreign policy, but its vision of apparently crazy Americans running amok in the Middle East is unflinching. It's hard to imagine a US-based developer trying to pull this off.
While the story is riveting, the gameplay offers nothing particularly fresh.
Family-friendly Batman
"The Dark Knight Rises" is due at the multiplex in just a few weeks, but the Christian Bale version of Batman won't be getting a video-game doppelganger. Instead, fans of the Caped Crusader can enjoy "Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes" (WB Games, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, US$49.99), a more lighthearted, family friendly romp.
The designers at the UK-based Traveller's Tales have hit upon a successful formula: Take Lego-ized versions of beloved characters like Harry Potter and the "Star Wars" gang. Set them loose in brightly colored versions of familiar settings where they can destroy the furniture and build new devices out of Lego blocks. Throw in some clever but not too challenging puzzles and enough collectibles to keep the kids busy for weeks.
"Lego Batman 2" adds a few new elements, most notably some first-rate voice acting, that energizes the confrontations between Bruce Wayne and a rogue's gallery of villains. (And other heroes, too: Batman's surly attitude toward Superman is hilarious.) Also, the game world is more open than usual, so you can freely explore Gotham City in between story missions.
There are dozens of playable characters as well as an assortment of suits that give Batman and Robin special powers. And cooperative play is available throughout, making "Lego Batman 2" one of the best games available for parents and kids to play together.
Spider-Man returns
It's been five years since Spider-Man's previous appearance in movie theaters, but Marvel's webslinger has been plenty busy on video-game consoles. Since 2007, he's headlined four games and made guest appearances in at least four more. None of them have been particularly outstanding.
Fans have been hoping that a new movie Spidey might reinvigorate the video-game franchise. But while the Quebec-based developer Beenox has given "The Amazing Spider-Man" (Activision, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, US$59.99) some new tricks, it still feels a little threadbare.
Moviegoers beware: The game takes place after the events of the latest film, and it blithely spoils a couple of major plot points. The upshot is that a few more human-animal hybrids (like the movie's villain, the Lizard) have escaped from the labs of Oscorp Industries. Meanwhile, robotics whiz Alistaire Smythe has shifted Oscorp's research focus, creating an army of mechanical behemoths to take down the mutants.
Spider-Man, being somewhat of a hybrid himself, is stuck in the middle.
"The Amazing Spider-Man" becomes exciting only when you step outside its main story and take to the skies. Swinging between the skyscrapers of Manhattan is exhilarating, and the new "web rush" feature, which lets you pinpoint your next goal and zip right to it, is very handy when you're trying to find the stray comic-book pages hidden all over town.
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