Yo Joe! Gamers have long cringed at the mere thought of movie-based titles. It’s because, unfortunately, most suck. Bad camera, horrible controls, awful graphics; you name it. Is G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is one of those title? Or does the game finally get rid of the stereotype that all movie tie-in games are awful?
Honestly? No, it doesn’t. The team behind the title, Double Helix Games, have delivered a less than par game, with the G.I Joe name behind it. The game is summed up like this, “Go to objective, shoot bad guys, get next objective, shoot more bad guys, rinse, repeat.”
G.I Joe is a very linear title, and is most definitely aimed for kids. Controls are simple, R2 to shoot, L2 to strafe, X for cover (and also to roll), and R1 to switch between characters. The game features an aim and cover system, though aiming is extremely annoying. It does feature a target lock (L1), however it doesn’t make up how frustrating the aiming system is. Sometimes you’ll aim at something you don’t want to, and take about 5 seconds to respond to where you wanted to aim in the first place. At least the cover system is better, with a simple click of X to lock on to a surface. Holding R2 to shoot gets you out of cover, and releasing lets you go back in.
Gameplay is not awful, but it isn’t good either. You run around with two players (two can be human, or you can play by yourself with a partner you choose), and shoot your way through the level. You start the game with two characters, Duke and Scarlett, and eventually unlock more players as you go along. Back to levels, which are played out in a very linear fashion. You basically run from checkpoint to checkpoint, shooting some baddies in between. This goes on throughout the entire game.
You have no control of the camera in this game, which is quite annoying and can be quite obstructive. At some points the camera would go off and the player would be out of sight, and so on. The game is played from sort of a over-the-top angle, which could have potential, but did not reach it. At all.
Enemies are very plain in the game. You have your COBRA guys, who shout the same lines over and over, and robots. You also have your occasional robotic spiders. They’re not very dumb, but they still walk into objects and keep walking. There are other glitches in the game too, that developer Double Helix did not catch, like shooting through objects, and running through environments.
Boss battles are quite plain as well. They’re actually a chore to beat them, and are not fun at all. One boss battle showcased you and your partner against a giant enemy ship. You had to shoot this ship over and over, until it left, and new enemies popped up. Once those enemies were gone, the ship came back, and you would repeat this process. Sigh.
