Video game review: Captain America: Super Soldier

By Darragh|Video Game Writing, Writing|1 Comment

Captain America: Super Soldier

I managed to get my paws on a copy of Captain America: Super Soldier which I reviewed for Rave Magazine last week. I wish I hadn’t.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: SUPER SOLDIER [M]

Developer: Sega/Next Level Games

Platform: PS3/360/Wii/3DS

More like Captain Kleptomaniac

Picture this for a video game plot. You play a guy who breaks into a Bavarian castle, kicks the crap out of the guards, steals a whole bunch of precious family heirlooms and hunts down a scientist who claims to have unlocked the secrets of the human genome. While this protagonist might initially sound like an unpleasant, anti-science jerk, when you fill out the details – such as the guards being Nazis and the scientist being some sort of crazed Josef Mengele figure – the premise does turn on its head. Well, except for the whole looting of heirlooms bit.

Captain America: Super Soldier is yet another movie tie-in and another example of why this type of merchandising usually proves disappointing. For the record, I have little knowledge of the backstory of Captain America, other than that he is some kind of genetically engineered spandex-wearing super patriot who wields a shield instead of carrying munitions (which confuses me, considering Captain America uses his shield to inflict relatively the same amount of violence on enemies as would shooting them). The game opens in the trenches of World War II, where two American soldiers, sceptical of the legend of Captain America, are suddenly set upon by HYDRA militants, Nazi-like soldiers who carry anachronistic pulse weapons. Captain America comes to their rescue, taking out the enemy through the inventive use of his iconic vibranium shield and a variety of acrobatic martial arts moves. Cap, as he’s known to his friends, can block incoming fire with his shield and even throw it like a discus at distant enemies. He’s also adept at dancing between enemies, dishing out punishment like an aggravated Michael Flatley on steroids. After this opening scene, Cap is called on to locate the source of the enemy’s high-power weaponry and breaks into an isolated castle-cum-genetic-engineering-laboratory run by the evil Dr Arnim Zola and his HYDRA minions. Zola seems intent on unlocking the secrets of immortality and creating a super race of HYDRA warriors, partly relying on the DNA of Cap’s age-old foe, Red Skull.

Despite what seems like an acceptable plot and some great combat visuals, the game is depressingly repetitive. Every sequence seems to follow this outline: Cap ‘decodes’ a locked door by matching two numbers on screen (hardly a brain strain most of the time); Cap enters a room filled with angry Germans; Cap kicks the living crap out of them; Cap moves on to the next locked door. While some challenging robot-like enemies do replace the HYDRA soldiers later on, the premise remains mostly the same throughout. Occasionally Cap might sabotage a gun battery or pause to lift some Nazi memorabilia (one assumes he’ll sell it after the war at profit to right-wing extremists), but generally the game provides little that’s innovative or even interesting. Visuals are mostly drab, Captain America’s impressive martial arts moves proving the exception, and sound is run-of-the-mill despite Chris Evans (who plays Captain America in the movie) providing the voice of the protagonist.

It may be just me but games based on popular movie franchises never seem to meet expectations. Perhaps development cycle pressure spurred on by the tight deadlines of Hollywood might explain why this keeps happening or perhaps it’s just a rush to cash in on merchandise dollars. Regardless, Captain America: Super Solider might work for obsessive fans of the character or for those who really enjoyed the film. However, if you’re not one of those, you’re not going to be too excited by what’s on offer here.

**

DARRAGH MURRAY