Two games, with two interesting concepts, that both don’t go nearly far enough.
Asura’s Wrath
One of the running jokes at Zero Punctuation is that game developers are more and more grudging about letting players actually do things: they’d rather buttons trigger a cutscene than actually let you, say, punch an enemy in the face or jump over an obstacle.
“Asura’s Wrath” is that concept taken to a ridiculous extreme. It achieves what it sets out to do: be an interactive anime series. Unfortunately, that means you’re going to be spending a lot of time waiting for the cutscenes to end so you can actually, you know, play the game.
And it’s unfortunate because “Asura’s Wrath” has a lot going for it: the graphics are stunning, the gameplay is a lot of fun, and the concept and how its executed are classic Capcom wackiness. There really is a lot to like about this game, but it’s barely a game. If you’ve seen gameplay previews, that’s actually a fair chunk of the gaming you’ll do.
In the end, the question boils down to “is this game worth $60?” I really want to say “yes”, but I can’t. There’s just not enough game here at that price to justify that purchase. And that’s a shame.
Syndicate
This too has something that’s a shame: this has the smell of a game rushed to a release date. And that’s too bad, because the roots of something great are here.
“Syndicate” is actually not a bad game, as it stands. It’s a shooter with fairly good enemy AI at higher levels that isn’t shy about ramping up the difficulty right from the start; mobs will be greeting you with rocket fire fairly early on. The boss fights can be annoying, but they’re thankfully not repetitive. And the way you find cover, and sometimes deprive an enemy of theirs, is pretty fun.
But it feels a lot like Starbreeze wanted to do more with the game’s central gimmick, breaching. If you’ve seen the trailers, you know the drill: you can turn enemies against each other, blow up their weapons, or make them kill themselves. It can be tricky to do in a hectic fight, but you’ll find it very useful, very fast. There’s a layer of strategy here that wasn’t developed, but obviously was supposed to be.
Good thing the gameplay is decent, because the story is awful: you’ll see everything coming a mile away.
In the end, “Syndicate” is just another sci-fi FPS with a half-baked idea. Still, if it’s successful, maybe EA will give Starbreeze the time they need to build out the game they actually wanted to make.
images courtesy Capcom and EA