Thor: God of Thunder is, as you guessed it, a movie-tie in game for the recent Marvel superhero film, Thor. The game’s storyline does not follow the film directly and aims to take you deeper into the world of Thor and his mythology. Unfortunately, the game falls short and is more of a frustrating battle against the game’s controls and repetitive gameplay.
I played the Xbox 360 version of Thor immediately after playing the Wii version and I thought I would like it more. The Xbox 360 version’s graphics definitely take you into more fleshed out, better looking environments as well as puts you against some more impressive looking bosses and I could follow the game’s storyline a lot better since the cutscenes were “acted” out as opposed to just narrated. However, graphics do not improve gameplay and that’s what it boils down to. Despite my usual preference to the 360, this version of the game is far less enjoyable than the Wii version.
Thor plays out as a 3D brawler more than a superhero action game and features over 60 different combo moves, most of which you never have to execute because you can just button mash your way through most of the game. Some combos are essential to defeating some of the bosses but you quickly learn those moves and after figuring out their patterns, you can easily defeat them. The controls were frustrating overall as I never seemed to get Thor to do what I wanted him to do. Combos would play out too long and sometimes you’d have to hit a button twice for it to register. Trying to block or counter if you were moving or right after executing a simple attack was useless since there would be no response from Thor and you would end up just getting hammered – pun intended. There was no exploring to do in the game – just battle a bunch of baddies and then a bunch more until you reach the boss and battle him and – you guessed it – even more baddies. To break up the repetitiveness and monotony of the game, they threw in some rail-shooter type elements but that got old after a while as well.
An upgrade system allows you to upgrade Thor’s abilities and you can opt to replay the game (once you have completed it) with all the abilities intact. Yay. There are also different feats that can be achieved that give you more valor points to purchase more upgrades. Achievement hunters beware, achievements are not as abundant throughout the game and if you want to get them, you will have to try for them.
The game features an autosave system which, quite frankly, does you no good as the game would literally autosave right when you got to a save point. Be prepared to die often and try long portions of the game several times – at least the load time wasn’t too bad!
I normally complete a game before I review it but quite frankly, I ended up giving up about two-thirds the way through. The game just got overly frustrating and I really wasn’t enjoying the time I was spending playing it. I can assure you that the rest of the game will probably play out the same – frustrating, repetitious, and bland. I managed to complete the Wii version after submitting and changing the difficulty from Normal to Easy however, the 360 version does not allow you to change difficulty settings mid game and I was not about to restart it on Easy at this point.
There is no multiplayer or co-op feature in this game so couples who enjoy gaming together may want to skip it. If Norm was in the room while I was playing, he generally got an earful about how much I hated this game.
Sadly, I don’t know a lot about the Thor comic series and this game does it no favors. I have no desire to see the film as I am permanently scarred by this gaming experience. Diehard and devoted fans of this series may want to rent the game first or wait until the price drops before adding this to their Thor collection.
Thor: God of Thunder is rated T for Teen and is available now for the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, and the Nintendo DS.
A review copy of the game was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.
Check out our review Thor God of Thunder Nintendo DS review and the Nintendo Wii Version.
Recent Comments