Comic book games used to have a pretty bad reputation until the last generation or two and a couple of amazing gems like Batman: Arkham Asylum. But games based on movies based on comic books? Outside of Spiderman, they still stink pretty badly. Knowing this, I walked into Thor not expecting much. But in truth, there’s actually quite a bit of stuff thrown around in this game that makes it a bit more enjoyable than I first imagined. I then realized I was just trying to find something good about this game.

ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE

Hammer Time - I had to struggle with something good to say about this game, and about all I can say is that Sega did try to cram a lot of cool moves into this game. You got a mix of strikes with magic attacks rounded out by grapples. Since much of your damage is dependent on magic, grabs present a little bit of strategy since using different inputs will restore your health or magic with different orbs. Grappling larger creatures becomes more complicated since you have to maneuver your way around them to reach different parts of their body. While this seemed interesting at first...

BY ODIN'S BEARD

Grappling - The boss fights often require you to grab your foe, and while it’s cool at first to bash away at an ice giant, climbing all over him, it never seemed clear what was going on. There are arrows to indicate where to leap, which I assume was supposed to be in order to evade attacks, but my inputs never seem to go where I was pointing them. The game never really does a good job of explaining what to do, and the one chance for this game to stand out goes down the drain in a muddled mess.

Directions - What should be a fairly straightforward action game ends up being an exercise in frustration when platforming elements are introduced. Thor isn’t the best jumper around, and only has a single jump along with an air dash to get around. There was a section where ice platforms disappeared after I landed on them, only for me to reach the top and the only two left started to disappear as well. The camera pulled out automatically, showing me no discernable path whatsoever. Also, there’s plenty of destroyable scenery except when it’s not.

Glitches - The destructible scenery likes to work when it wants to, or only in the most specific places. I’ve never played a game that needed so much work in its final release. Enemies will sink into the floor and still move around, Thor himself will get stuck in many places, and the frame rate chugs constantly, even when no enemies are present. It’s just another reason to dislike this game, but overall...

Phoned In - Everything reeks in this game, saying let’s make a movie tie in with only 6 months to do it. The graphics look like they were pulled out of a free texture collection, everyone runs like a robot, and all of the characters have that flat face with flapping lips that seems to be present in all cheap movie games. It’s like that Dreamworks face, something that you can’t describe very well, but it’s always there.
 

I kept trying to give Thor a chance, but much like Sega’s effort with Iron Man, expect to be disappointed if you have any decent taste in gaming whatsoever. Thor plays very okay with a lot of annoying touches and a terrible presentation. With plenty amazing action games like God of War and Dante’s Inferno out there, you don’t need to play this trash.

- Kyle