Captain America: Super Soldier is a third person single player video game developed by Next Level Games and Published by Sega. The game is loosely based on the film Captain America: The First Avenger.
The story of the game takes place during the events of the film, explaining Captain America's adventures against the Red Skull and Hydra all over the planet as established in the film. Chris Evans, Neal McDonough, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan and J. J. Feild reprise their roles from the film.
I rented Captain America on a whim. I had actually been looking for Gears of War 3, and couldn't find a copy, so the Captain would end up having to entertain me over the weekend. I got more then I thought I would.
I was surprised to see Sega pop up on the title screen, and was even more shocked at the decent graphics when the game started up. This was just a movie tie-in game, so I didn't expect much. The game, simply put, is Batman: Arkham Asylum with a Captain America skin on it.
You play as Captain America, of course, and have easy access to his shield (which you can fling like a batarang at a number of enemies). The game is presented in a third person perspective viewpoint, which works perfectly. The camera can be controlled with the right analog stick and you can center it any time by pressing the stick down. One thing I liked about Captain America is that the camera isn't up close on you like the one in Batman was. This allows for a bit more freedom to look around, and not run into the few camera problems Batman had.
As the Captain you'll end up heading into a Castle in the mountains of Bavaria to stop a plot by Red Skull and Arnim Zola to produce all sorts of super soldiers (like you). The game has an open world field, allowing you to go just about anywhere, but the problem is there's no point to. There's plenty of things to collect, like film reels and ceramic eggs, but there's little point besides small bits of XP and achievement hunting. People who love searching every inch of a game will love searching for all the little stuff.
Speaking of XP, you'll level up three skills in the game. Your attack, health and shield abilities will go up over the course of the game. By the end I had two upgrades left, so I guess I should have searched out all the small things to collect. As the Captain, you already feels powerful, with the upgrades it only gets better.
The combat is not as smooth as Batman: AA, but it's pretty close. Button mashing will get you no where, it's all about rhythm and making the button presses at the right time. The Captain will float around fighting off three or four guys easily if done correctly. And the ability to save up your energy to use special moves is satisfying. There's something great about hitting someone with your shield and hearing that BONG sound.
The story is okay, nothing really to complain about. You beat up a bunch of henchmen, fight a few super soldiers, then more onto the bosses. It's rinse/repeat with each level. Sometimes you'll have to set a charge to blow something up, or hot wire (seriously) some equipment. It's nothing too challenging or mind numbing, falling somewhere in between. I can say that the longer I played, the more I wanted to see where we'd be taken next in the game.
There are a few Prince of Persia-esc sequences that have you jumping and wall running, which are easily done with timed button presses. I liked these sequences because they were easy to pull off, and there were no frustration. Often when games have these moments getting the jumping and button presses down right can be frustrating. Here's it's fluid and downright fun.
The only annoying parts I found in the game were the higher end enemies who appear with little to no clue as to how to beat them. The "screamers" gave me the most trouble, but even that wasn't too bad to deal with. The world is open, you can go just about anywhere in the castle, but getting lost (even with the map) is easy and for the most part having the world so open was pointless because there's no side missions. So why have such an open world experience with nothing to do but collect small items?
The achievements are a bit of a mixed bag. There's plenty to get by just completing the campaign. There are others for playing the challenge missions (small missions testing your fighting skills). The rest are for collecting items scattered throughout the game. While I found a lot of items, I didn't come remotely close to finding everything. Achievement hunters will easily finish off all of them here, as there are none that are overly challenging.
The game's ending leaves it open for a sequel, and honestly I hope they make one. Captain America: Super Soldier proved to be a great movie tie in game. They adapted another great game and put their own coat of paint on it. And let's be honest here, if you're going to copy a game, copy one of the best made.
While I can't suggest people pay the full sixty bucks for the game, if you can find it on the cheap or are looking for a weekend rental give Captain America a shot. Even with it being a movie tie in game, you'll find it's a fun adventure that doesn't stall out after a few hours.
Overall Rating: 4/5
