War of the Monsters : Web Wombat: Games

Fans of classic horror and science fiction rejoice, for this next game on the PS2 is more than just a lame attempt to cash in on the success of the famous Rampage series.

To be honest, I found the whole the concept behind War of the Monsters (WotM) to be utterly engaging, and together with a schlock-horror feel, the game harks back to a time when horror was just hitting it's stride: the 40s and 50s.

First came the radio, with the likes of the famous 'War of the Worlds' scaring the crap out of countless Britons, then with the advent of the 'television' things quickly got very scary - but looking back today, they do look kinda crappy...

I guess humans as a species must learn to immunise themselves against this spooky stuff - the better the CGI, the better our psychological defenses are. Oh wait, I think I'm ranting... Just imagine the horror movies we'll be watching in the year 2403... Wow, I can't wait to be cryogenically frozen for my time-travelling journey...

Ahem. So anyway, the 50s era 'monster attack' phobia is cleverly utilised in WotM, permeating almost every facet: From the font used in the title, to the background colours, to the campy music, to the crisp visual style - Incog Inc. has captured the 50s horror period with panache.

The intro is great, and has a nice amount of humour to boot, though the story also involves aliens, so anyone stuck in a bunker since the mid-1950s will get a real fright from this (yeah, I know there's a few of you out there).

Simply put, an army of highly-advanced extra terrestrials, getting about in 1950s style flying saucers (complete with woo-woo sounds), invade Earth with one objective - putting a stop to Scientology. Oh yeah, and to destroy all humans as well.

Before long, the alien aggressors are laying waste to Earth's forces, but when all nations unite and the greatest minds pool their knowledge, a special pulse emitter is developed. Hope builds, and then the pulse emitters are activated... The flying saucers are crippled and much booze is imbibed!!

But the imbibing comes to an abrupt end as another problem surfaces...

The inactive flying saucers start to weep an icky sort of fuel, which is like nothing ever seeen before - though sources say that it did taste like maple syrup. Contaminating the air, the water and everything inbetween (yes, even anti-matter), the toxins start to affect flora and fauna, and soon mutations were evident.

Robot-dude pulls out his katana blade of justice

Before long, colossal monsters starting appearing as the DNA of many beings was torn asunder. They starting trashing everything and humankind was again thrust into a state of utter dispair.

But perhaps for the sake of a cohesive plot, the monsters decide to fight each other, and War of the Monsters is born.

It's inevitable that comparisons will be drawn between this game and Midway's classic monster brawler Rampage, and in a few ways it's justifiable.

The way you can climb buildings is very Rampagey, as are the fairly simple melee attacks and combos, but sadly one cannot reach inside buildings and chomp on distressed damsels to increase health, as was the case in the aforementioned C64 classic. Schucks...

On the flip-side however, the game is a marketed improvement over Rampage, both in terms of graphical acuity and also gameplay, the only major quibble being the fairly repetitive nature of the game - though this can be overlooked, thanks in large part to the incredibly high production values.

There are a number of game modes on offer, from multiplayer free-for-all fights, to survival mode and the core game mode: Adventure. In this last mode you'll basically play through a dozen missions, three of which will be against some rather intense (both figuratively and literally) boss monsters.

There is good reason to play through the Adventure mode too. On one side you'll earn points that can be spent on 'goodies' like unlocking secret characters and costumes, new levels and other play-extending extras. On the other side you'll get to see how your chosen monster/robotic fiend/demi-god came into being, kind of like a back story.

An average day in the life of a mutated monster freak involves kicking the crap out of another monster, 'coz that's what one does when one's so big and fulfilling challenges are hard to find. A typical fight starts out with two monsters starting in different parts of a given level - let's say a sprawling metropolis for arguaments sake.

The controls are pretty straightforward, with the only exceptional function being the ability to auto-lock on your foe by holding L1 and R1, which comes in very handy. You can inflict damage and also evade damage in a number of ways, the most basic to punch and block.

Different characters have different combos too, which is always nice for the fans, and combatants also have grapple/throw moves, and you can even simply pick up your foe and throw them into a building, which results in all sorts of extracurricular destruction.

New TV show: "When Buildings Strike Back"

Indeed, the cause and effect idea works well in WotM: the gameworld is deliciously destructible. Okay, pretend we're still in the huge metropolis, and a big ape is fighting a very big praying mantis.

Mantis flies over a couple of sky-scrapers (some characters can fly/hover) and is about to thwok ape on head, but ape picks up school bus and quickly lobs it at mantis, which expodes on impact, sending him sprawling into another building, half destroying it and causing more damage to said insectoid.

You can climb buildings, which I reckon should be an Olympic event, and there's even a few special items you can pick up, like massive radio antennae.

Rip 'em from their concrete foundations, and if you can hit your enemy with one of these, it will impale them and then they have to button mash wildly to remove it - which is visually hilarious and tactically brilliant, as they're usually stunned for a few seconds.

Apart from the kick/punch/block/grab moves and combos, all characters have ranged attacks, which will drain an energy bar. This energy bar refills with the collection of powerups and also when you dole out the hurt. Some ranged attacks have homing properties, while others are just dumb-fired, but are usually much more devastating.

And then there's the omnipresent special attacks, likely to induce much grinning among the meek. When your 'special' meter is full, you can execute one of two attacks - close and long range. These attacks not only inflict large amounts of damage, they also look amazing, and some of the characters' specials are eye-poppingly good.

And while I'm popping oculars, how about them pretty pictures, eh? What's that, you haven't played the game, hence your attempt to read the review? Oh yeah. Right.

The graphics are really cool, and while at first it was more of a nostalgic buzz to see how faithful to the classic era the game is, turns out that WotM is actually an intricate and very detailed meshing of polygon artistry.

It's not pushing the envelope or likely to overheat the PS2's GPU - just a good looking game. I guess a lot of the wonderment comes from the environments, which are just teeming with tiny terrans.

You'll see cars scoot past, have your vision obscured by massive buildings and get to pluck battleships from the oceans and piff them at rivals.

Not all levels are city-based, but the majority are. This shouldn't be viewed as a bad thing, as the massive cityscapes offer a lot in terms of basic strategic ploys. First there is the climbing option: Simply climb a building and get a bird's eye view of your surrounds. Such a high vantage point also bodes well for projectile-based attacks, whether thrown items or your character's special/long-range attacks.

Someone's been watching too much pro wrestling...

When battling it out in the concrete jungle, close combat also becomes much more intense.

There's less room to move and big combos will often result in your foes being forcibly slammed into buildings - which causes more damage and sometimes brings said building crashing down on your foe. Pretty tasty stuff, really.

Motion capture is pretty good (one imagines it would be hard to mo-cap a massive electricity-based entity, though) and all the characters move with fluid, generally realistic motions.

Collision detection is impeccable, and this makes every impact - whether from a fist or a flying cannonball - look all the more satisfying, and perhaps it is that which lies at the heart of this game: satisfaction.

While the gameplay can get a little monotonous after extra-long sessions, the crisp graphics, authentic sound samples and olde-skool play mechanics make this game a keeper.

While there are all sorts of extras to unlock and the adventure game and multiplayer mini-games and so on and so forth, the simple act of a picking up a giant lizard and hurling him into a peak hour traffic-jam is hard to top. That said, this is one of the better party games going round, and multiplayer frolics will be a firm favourite amongst social gamers.

Its weird mix of massive explorable levels and 'lite' one-on-one fighting will ensure it appeals to many tastes, and with fairly solid controls, well balanced and highly animated characters and a plethora of game modes, War of the Monsters is quite the surprise package.

Game: War of the Monsters
System: PS2
Players: 1-2
Memory Card: Yes
Developer: SCEE
Distributor: Sony

Rating: 80%

(Ratings Key/Explantion)

War of the Monsters is on the shelves now.

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