Review: Captain America: Super Soldier (360)
Verdict: B+
Coming out in time to tie in with the movie Captain America: Super Soldier arrives on the Xbox 360 with a bang. The game takes place within the movie universe and tells the story of Captain America and his team attacking a Hydra base during World War II. The game takes many cues from Batman: Arkham Asylum, which makes this one of the better superhero games.
The game begins with a tutorial mission where Captain America is fighting in the trenches and assisting US soldiers. The game then airdrops you into the outskirts of a Hydra base. The base is made up of a small town, a large mansion, and several bunkers. As you progress in the game you will find that the sewers connect to other areas in the game and you can backtrack in order to power up Captain America or to find various collectables. While there are no major story twists it is interesting to see how Captain America and his team battle substantial odds and beat down the nearly endless minions of Hydra.
The gameplay is great, the controls are very responsive and it is easy to pull off impressive looking moves. The game does have quite a bit of exploration and has very few respawning enemies. The collectables are easy to find and there are extra spots for them to spawn if you missed them earlier. Most of the collectables are for the sake of achievements; however, the schematics that can be found make it easier to beat down the various enemies you come across in the game. There is a minor stealth element, wherein Captain America can instantly knock out a surprised enemy, but there is no stealth only sections and even though you save other soldiers there is no escort mission. Quick time events are few and far between. The majority of the QTEs are done during fights and are nothing more than rapid button presses. The only annoying part about the QTE moments is that most bosses require you to perform a QTE to end the fight and if you mess up the boss will regain health and you must beat them down to that point again. Finally, there are moments where you can control turrets which add some variety to the gameplay.
The graphics look very good and the game supports 3D for those who have 3DTVs. Captain America looks just like his movie counterpart and has some very accurate alternate costumes. In addition the various villains are designed to fit in the movie world which adds notable comic book villains such as Madam Hydra and Iron Cross into the game. There is a good amount of décor in the base and mansion, but the majority of the area is designed to look beatdown from war. This makes things look more realistic due to the lack of décor in the bombed out areas. Overall, everything looks great and there are very few graphical glitches.
The sound design is also very solid. The music fades in and out with the action and the ambient effects are passable. The voice acting is very good, Chris Evans gives it his all as Captain Americaand you can tell he was having fun voicing the character. In addition most of the team is voiced by their movie actors with a few exceptions (Red Skull, Armin Zola, and Howard Stark). The replacement voices are fairly good, but the actor for Zola plays him differently than the Toby Jones in the movie. Some of the most amusing parts of the voice acting are the various comments made members of Hydra during the challenge mode. It is obvious that care was taken with the design of the audio in Captian America: Super Soldier.
The game progression is very straightforward and after going through the game once you will know what to expect. The only reason to go back through the story is for achievement gathering or attempting a higher difficulty. As you progress in the game you will also unlock various challenges that can be accessed from the main menu. The challenges are fun, but add very little to the game. The majority of the achievements can be gathered in the first play through with little trouble. Overall the game will run about ten to twelve hours, more if you are hunting the collectables or achievements. The challenge mode will add a little more to the time to the game.
Captain America: Super Soldier mixes combat, exploration, and story with fantastic results. The game has great controls, nice graphics, well designed audio, and enough action to keep the player coming back for more. The major downside of the game is that it is linear and the challenges do not add much to the game. If you are a fan of the movie or the comic book you will enjoy this game. If you loved Batman: Arkham Asylum then you will also enjoy Captain America: Super Soldier. There are not many good super hero games, but Captain America: Super Soldier is one of the very few exceptions. It is very fun to play and after it ends you wish there was more. Captain America: Super Soldier is highly recommended and is very much worth a run.
Pros:
-Gameplay is fun and easy to get into
-Lots of exploration
-Great voice acting featuring movie cast members
Cons:
-Feels short
-Limited upgrades
-Only 10 Challenges
