Clash of The Titans is a hack and slash action adventure game developed by Bandai Namco games based on the 2010 remake of the movie. The story follows the half-human half-god son of Zeus, Perseus. Perseus was found and raised by a poor human family in a fishing village on the island of Paxos. One day soldiers from the kingdom of Argos arrive on the island to destroy the statues of the gods in their revolt against the gods. The gods don’t take kindly to this and destroy the village and killing Perseus’ family. So now Perseus is on a quest to avenge his families’ death and defy the gods by saving the kingdom of Argos and defeating the Kraken.
The main focus of the game is the combat, which has the basic hack and slash mechanics. There’s a light attack and heavy attack which can be used in different combinations to chain them together and do even more damage. The game actually has a decent amount of combos that can be used on the ground and in the air. There’s a lock on feature that lets the player know how much health an enemy has and supposed to help you concentrate your attacks on them. The lock on feature in this game is broken and inconsistent. When facing multiple enemies it seems to work until another enemies walks in front of Perseus or just between him and an enemy then it will switch targets for no reason, also with projectile attacks it doesn’t seem to always aim them at your enemy. While there is no blocking in the game there is dodging which is used by holding down the right trigger and flicking the analog stick in a direction and when an attack is dodged perfectly the game goes in slow motion which is a little satisfying.
The way most fights will end in Clash of the Titans will be by either soul seize or sub-weapon seize. Soul seize is available after beating down an enemy enough to be able to suck all of the energy out of them and replenishes Perseus’ Soul Gauge. Soul is used to power sub-weapon abilities which are gotten through sub-weapon seizes. Sub-weapon seizes are available once an enemy is either beat down enough or a certain condition is met and then it activates a quick time event. Most of the quick time events are very easy and not even a challenge since it doesn’t actually matter what button you press. The sub-weapon seizes look neat the first couple times they are done but after the 50th time it is just boring. Once Perseus seizes an enemy’s sub-weapon which can either be a weapon or a spell he can use it from then on. Sub-weapon seizing will be the most common way to end a fight since it also gives gifts which can be used to reinforce or upgrade sub-weapons to increase damage or grant more abilities. Even though there are a lot of sub-weapons to get they feel the same and I found myself just using the same weapons throughout the game. Combat should be the strongest aspect of this game but it really does fall short and feels broken at times. None of these fighting mechanics were executed well.
Perseus encounters many mythical creatures and monsters on his journey that he must kill, some examples include satyros, succubae, centaurs, giant sand worms and harpies. There are also many types of the same monster, for instance they may be carrying different weapons for Perseus to seize, have extra armor and a shield or use different spells. The enemies are varied and if it wasn’t for the sheer length of the game would be more than enough. In the end the player just ends up doing the same thing to the enemy then seizes their sub-weapon and moves on. The bosses in this game seem to be hit and miss, mostly miss. While I felt like I was in an epic battle with the giant sandworm boss due to the sheer size of it. Most bosses though end up feeling generic. Just beat down the boss until the health is low and all of them end in a sub-weapon seize quick time event. While none of the boss fights were intentionally difficult a few did get very irritating. For example, while traveling across the river Styx on a boat Perseus is attacked by a giant flying snake called the Soul Serpent and it must be shot in its weak spots by a bow until its health it low enough. Seems easy and straightforward until you actually try to use a bow in the game and find that it is absolutely god awful. There’s a first person view that can be used but I have never experienced worse aiming controls in my life so I had to try using their not as bad but still horrible lock on system. To compound the problem even more the serpent was flying around the boat constantly and only once in a while gave a chance to hit it with a bow that didn’t do much damage. This was about 9 hours into the game and by then my patience was already worn out and caused much frustration and stress.
One of the first things you’ll notice when starting the game is the graphics. This is not a good thing though and will turn people off. Clash of the Titans looks like a PS2 game with horribly stiff animations. It also contained some glitches such as when Perseus was fighting enemies on the boat on the river Styx the ferryman Charon is there but when you move the camera he disappears and reappears. Even the cut scenes in this game look bad and just seem like lazy work. Whoever was in charge of animating the cut scene didn’t even try to make the movements of the mouths match the dialogue. For example after Perseus rescues his little sister early on in the game he asks her if she’s alright and she responds, “Yes.” She opens and closes her mouth 4 times just to say yes. Another thing is when the characters open and close their mouths they look like robots chewing bubble gum. They couldn’t have had the faces show less emotion even if they tried.
There’s been an argument raging on for years about the value of a game based on its length. With this game running for about 16 hours to play through the story mode and possibly more with challenge quests the length does not help the game at all. I’m not saying the game would have been better if it was only 8 hours long but after the first couple hours the game is painfully repetitive. It has so many problems with combat, jumping, weapon upgrading and a long drawn out story there is nothing redeeming about the game.
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