Captain America is the latest in the never ending onslaught of movie tie in games, created solely to cash in on the excitement for the newly released movie. These types of games are well known for being rushed through development and unpolished, but Captain America: Super Solider is shockingly a pretty damn good game. Taking inspiration from other much more popular games, specifically Batman: Arkham Asylum just swap out Batman for the ever patriotic soldier Captain America, and switch Gotham's infamous prison with a Hydra castle base and there you have it. Its easy to critizce a game for shamelessly ripping off another games proven formula, but against all logical thinking, Captain America actually pulls it off, mostly due to the fact that there really isn't anything like Arkham Asylum on the market, so for this being the first game to ape those mechanics its much more forgivable.
I cannot stress enough how much like Arkham Asylum this game is, the combat system is literally lifted straight from that game, with a heavy emphasis on counter and dodging and then rolling into your punches from there. Cap's shield is basically a bigger more in your face version of the batarangs which you can use by boomeranging it into up to 5 enemies or as the end result of a long combo in which you slam it into the enemies face. Enemies are mostly canon fodder but a few unique brute type enemies and some shield throwing resistant foes mix it up well enough. I must stress that even though this combat mechanic is lifted almost exactly from Arkham Asylum its no less fun, its easily the best part of the game, jumping and dodging between 20 henchmen slowly bringing each of them to their knees and knocking them out with a well placed fist to the jaw or kick to the groin. Its no less fun than it was a year ago and its infinity rewarding as you upgrade your abilities and are able to reverse counter attacks or "weaponize" enemies and turn them on their allies.
The environment you traverse over the course of the game are all set within a single massive Hydra castle, and while its is technically an open world-- as you can choose to go to different areas of the castle at your leisure-- major plot specific places are scripted. The levels are massive, but there are load times in between all the major segments of the castle like the courtyard, estate, orchard, etc. While the levels are huge, moving through them is linear you start at one end and you get to the exit, entering the rooms along your way: there isn't much divergence. There are some straight up open levels, with multiple floors and paths to various secret areas but for the most part the game is linear in its level design. Thankfully even though the game mainly takes place in one location the different areas of the castle are greatly varied, from a church to a mansion and several outdoor levels and predictably the secret science division and prison underneath the massive castle grounds.
Captain America doesn't do anything new-- seriously nothing new-- but it borrows from a great game successfully which results in a thoroughly enjoyable experience from beginning to end. The occasional platforming sequence is impossible to fail making it boring, add to that unimaginative boss fights that are straight up disappointing once completed and what you have is an above average movie license game, but a decent action adventure game. Captain America is definitely a surprise given the level of shoveled crap most movie games are filled with. And so with its lengthy campaign, fantastic combat mechanics and an overall good if not great level of design, Captain America is one of the better movie tie in games, and a legitimately fun few days of patriotic entertainment.
I cannot stress enough how much like Arkham Asylum this game is, the combat system is literally lifted straight from that game, with a heavy emphasis on counter and dodging and then rolling into your punches from there. Cap's shield is basically a bigger more in your face version of the batarangs which you can use by boomeranging it into up to 5 enemies or as the end result of a long combo in which you slam it into the enemies face. Enemies are mostly canon fodder but a few unique brute type enemies and some shield throwing resistant foes mix it up well enough. I must stress that even though this combat mechanic is lifted almost exactly from Arkham Asylum its no less fun, its easily the best part of the game, jumping and dodging between 20 henchmen slowly bringing each of them to their knees and knocking them out with a well placed fist to the jaw or kick to the groin. Its no less fun than it was a year ago and its infinity rewarding as you upgrade your abilities and are able to reverse counter attacks or "weaponize" enemies and turn them on their allies.
Captain America doesn't do anything new-- seriously nothing new-- but it borrows from a great game successfully which results in a thoroughly enjoyable experience from beginning to end. The occasional platforming sequence is impossible to fail making it boring, add to that unimaginative boss fights that are straight up disappointing once completed and what you have is an above average movie license game, but a decent action adventure game. Captain America is definitely a surprise given the level of shoveled crap most movie games are filled with. And so with its lengthy campaign, fantastic combat mechanics and an overall good if not great level of design, Captain America is one of the better movie tie in games, and a legitimately fun few days of patriotic entertainment.
(3 out of 5)
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