30 Jul, 2010
It’s an age old question, who would win in a fight? A Spartan or a Samurai? An Apache or a Ninja? Ghandi or the Pope? Ok, the last one is yet to be tested, but the rest all have answers courtesy of Deadliest Warrior. In Deadliest Warrior: The Game you play as one of 8 ancient warriors (The Apache, Ninja, Roman centurion, Pirate, Spartan, Samurai, Viking and Knight) and fight to the death against another one of the warriors. If you’re familiar with the TV show then you will know that it is awesome and luckily the game captures this.
Deadliest Warrior: The Game is a download only title. Naturally this limits the amount of content that is in the game, cutting down on warrior numbers and game modes. The singleplayer may be seen as pretty limited as the only really worth while game mode is Arcade mode. Arcade mode sets you up against each and every warrior in turn, until eventually you become the ultimate (or deadliest) warrior. A couple of quick-timed challenges also feature during the mode. the primary reason of playing this mode this is purely to get cool new weapons and armour for your warriors. Other singleplayer game types actually seem rather pointless as nothing is really achieved, and the bulk of the gameplay (after everything is unlocked) is multiplayer. Multiplayer is essentially a fight to the death between you and some other guy over a set amount of rounds. There is something worryingly satisfying about brutally finishing off you opponent whilst imagining the pure rage that is seeping through their body. And it’s this feeling that keeps you coming back for more. Granted it can be seen as awfully repetitive, but there’s something about watching a Viking warrior decapitate a Roman centurion with one swift spear throw that is oddly captivating.
Each warrior has a total of 6 weapons at their disposal. 2 short-range weapons, 2 mid-range and 2 projectile weapons. Obviously, weapons vary hugely from warrior to warrior, and choosing the right weapon for the job becomes incredibly important in order to succeed. What I have noticed however, is that some characters have weapons that are so unbelievably easy to spam attacks with an ultimately with. Let me give you an example. The ninja, that crafty bastard, has a ball and scythe weapon (the name escapes me) that has such ridiculous power and range that no matter what warrior he is against he will no doubt kill, if he gets a combo going. On top of this there are certain ‘special moves’ that warriors can use. These vary from the devastating (if hit) grenado of the pirate, to a blinding black-egg attack of the bloody ninja. These moves can be temperamental in terms of actually hitting the opponent, but again they can often be spammed over and over again to great effect (and annoyance). Now these grievances aren’t huge, and no doubt will be fixed, but for now the game has a slight unbalanced quality about it that some players could find very frustrating.
So deadliest warriors isn’t a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. Work around the minor annoyances and get into the groove of the character moves and you actually have a pretty decent fighting simulation. Graphics are good and there is gore galore, which is always nice! Now, i’m not going to tell you to get your arses online and go download it, but at least give it a shot. You may find yourself like me, spending hours trawling through games, getting ever more addicted to slashing and hacking limbs of angry opponents. Viking FTW
[rating: 4]
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