The Dumbing Down of Video Games

This is listed on many sites as being the top game for the Sony PSP! Granted, the game has beautiful graphics that shine in very well done movie-like scenes. The mythological setting is also stunningly portrayed. That's it.

The actual game play is ridiculous! Your character runs around in what seems to be a never-ending quest to open chests containing floating powerballs (yeah, I know that's not what they're really called, but that's what they looked like to me). There is hacking and slashing of enemies, mixed in with the need for the player to push some objects around (the puzzle element that others are just raving about). As written, these things sound like an interesting combination for a game, but unfortunately it's just not fun. It suffers from repetitive and uninspired game play that goes something like this:  Open some boxes, hack some guys, move a pillar, slash another guy, open a box, etc, etc. It gets old really quickly. All that said, I'll now mention the worst part of the game which seems to be plaguing many of today's action games. When a boss or mini-boss or special moment of the game is reached, commands are flashed across the screen telling the player exactly what buttons to push and the order to push them in. Failure! Why not make it so that the player can react to what the enemy boss actually does, rather than pre-staging the action with so little variation?! They make it so that the player has to watch for button commands, rather than becoming immersed in the game play itself. And all this button mimicking started to make me feel like I was playing a game of Simon! What a joke. But I guess if that's all that today's modern game players expect...I guess if that's all it takes today to be voted to the top of the game list, then I guess we'll be seeing plenty more of it!

And you know, I was going to stop there and end the review, but no...there's more for me to blast out about!

Ludicrous sexual encounters! Yes, if you're unaware of this, believe me. The perverse brains behind this game thought it necessary to include suggestive scenes that include even more Simon-like button mimicking. One such scene shows two female characters apparently enjoying each other's company. The player's character walks in and interrupts them, then joins the party for some really wild video game sex!!! Hee hee! The programmers need to get out more.

I can't believe that people like this game. This is the worst game that I've played in a very long time.