Review: Superman Returns (PS2)

The press release accompanying Gamestyle’s review copy of Superman Returns promises that the game “will create the ultimate open-world super hero experience”. Imagine Gamestyle’s disappointment when we discovered that the game is in fact an ugly, repetitive, broken mess. Given that the release of this game followed that of the successful film upon which it is supposedly based by some six months in order for the game to be improved, Gamestyle wonders how EA allowed the game to arrive in such a state.

One of the most fundamental flaws in Superman Returns and one that is virtually criminal for a movie tie-in is that save for starring Superman, the game bears almost no resemblance to the film. Whilst EA might have gotten away with this in the sixteen-bit era when it was mandatory for all games of films to be 2D side-scrolling platformers, the modern game-buying public, not unreasonably, expect games of films to feature events from the film. Of course, some liberties have to be taken, a straight conversion of a two hour film wouldn’t make for a very interesting game. Rockstar showed us how it should be done with their superb adaptation of The Warriors. That title sympathetically and respectfully expanded on the world glimpsed in the film for the first two-thirds of the game, reserving key events from the film for the last third.

But EA have ignored the lessons from Rockstar's title. Instead of tangling with Lex Luthor, saving Lois Lane from certain death, taking snaps as Clarke Kent or even learning a little bit about how Superman came to be the protector of Metropolis, the player is asked to fly from one end of Metropolis to the other in order to put out fires, smash up a few meteors or more likely defeat a bad guy such as Metallo or Bizarro and knock about their foot soldiers. And that’s pretty much it. The missions are incredibly dull and repetitive and make for an incredibly unengaging gameplay experience. You can’t even go too wild during a fight. The health of Metropolis serves as Superman’s health (sensible, given the man himself can’t be hurt) so cause too much damage to the city by flinging cars and bad guys around and it's game over. Admittedly, the CGI cut scenes (voiced by the stars of the movie) follow the film, but they are almost totally removed from the in-game action and it’s almost as if they belong in a different game.

There’s an attempt to artificially elongate the game in that missions must be found by exploring the drab city of Metropolis and travelling to the correct part of town before they appear on the map but given that there’s little to distinguish one part of Metropolis from another, this soon becomes an exercise in tedium. Worse still, stray too close to a mission while exploring and it will start, regardless of whether you want it to or not. Metropolis itself is not a place that encourages exploration either. The city is little more than street after street of ugly identikit buildings and there is little to make the city feel alive, something really required to make free-roaming games work. The citizens of Metropolis wander around like zombies, seemingly ignoring the fact that Superman stands amongst them. Grand Theft Auto III created a more convincing city in 2001.

It’s not just Metropolis that’s lacking in the looks department though. The animation employed on Superman, the star of the game, is woeful. He runs in a way that Gamestyle has seen no-one run before and the combat animation is terrible. Superman’s punches frequently don’t connect yet still cause damage and the ranged attacks of some enemies seem to disappear yet still hit Superman regardless.

The problems don’t end there however. The camera is incredibly twitchy, requiring almost constant adjustment in order to be able to see what’s going on. It frequently gets stuck on buildings and other scenery. The target lock on system is a total shambles and was clearly never finished before the game was released. If facing multiple opponents, there’s no way to cycle through them once you have locked on to one. Sometimes despite pressing the target lock button the game totally loses the target, or fails to find one in the first place. Players are required to put out burning buildings with Superman’s breath and it becomes an immensely frustrating experience when you can’t lock onto the fire but instead have to “hit and hope”.

Even the control system doesn’t work properly. In the first instance, it’s badly designed and unduly difficult to use, not to mention unresponsive. Buttons are unnecessarily given two purposes, most notably the button to launch Superman into the sky is also used as part of some melee combos, leading to some unintentionally hilarious mid-fight launches. Secondly, the melee combos are ridiculously convoluted in any event, so it becomes easier to simply wade into battle and mash the buttons in order to progress.

So there you have it; an ugly, repetitive, broken mess that fails to deliver on every level. If you want a good movie tie-in, buy the Warriors. If you want a good open-world super hero title buy The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Whatever you do, don’t spend you hard earned on this, you might encourage Superman to return. Gamestyle doesn’t think we could stand it. 

Rating: 3 / 10

Words by Andy Lucas