Barbarian,
the latest addition to the arena fighting scene, is the story of a land
under siege by evil magic that can only be lifted by a hero who will
rise from the ranks and bring about the prophecy which promises
salvation from darkness. Sound familiar? Perhaps it is, but hearing the
particulars may be half the fun on this one. I first saw this game at E3
and wasnt overly impressed, but there are some definite plusses to this
game that are a welcome surprise in the finished product.Barbarian
sports a quest, versus, and fairly thorough training mode. There are
eleven characters to choose from, broken up into the categories of the
"good," the "bad," and the (not ugly, but) "lonely." All of the
characters are connected to the evil Arch Mage Zaugg, whether they have
been terrorized by his evil minions or recruited into his service. The
interesting thing about the storyline of this game is that when you play
the "bad" characters, they have a compelling enough history behind them
and seemingly solid reasons for joining the dark mage that you find
yourself bonding with them as anti-heroes. I credit this to a style or
writing that, had this game really allowed itself to evolve into a true
quest game, would have been exceptionally powerful. But more on the
story in a moment.
Each
character has eight specialty moves and six unique magic capabilities.
You can train on each character if you want, or pull up their combo
menus during a battle, but it really isnt necessary, as most of the
attacks are only slight variations on a theme. There are the standard
weak and strong attacks, bonus "rune" magic attacks that you can obtain
by performing specific attacks, blocks, throws, and interaction with
objects. With each win you are given points to improve your ability
scores. As your ability to lift increases, you can interact even more
with certain elements of the environment. Each character is preset with
certain scores, and one of my extreme pet peeves was that the female
fighters were almost too weak to compete in the beginning of the game
without messing with the AI or number of games to win options. Ok, so
maybe this was their push for realism, but hey, its not like this game
is really striving for realism in any other department, so whats up
with that?
Besides their normal weapon attacks, characters can grapple
opponents, pick up and throw objects, or use them as a swinging weapon.
In an amusing addition, even fallen thugs can be picked up and wielded
against your opponents. The movement of this game is further developed
by the ability of the characters to make huge jumps and even swing on
monkey-bar-like scaffolds. The only move that wasnt normal fare was a
roll function (and would have been a better use of the L2 button, which
was a way for novices to complete combo moves with no time restraints).
The only time you can roll is when you are getting up from an attack,
and I missed the ability to dodge attacks quickly with a well-timed roll
before getting clocked. What this game may lack in other areas, it
certainly makes up for in what I would call an incredibly frenetic
fighting style. I felt at times like I was a Dragonball Z character or
Yoda fighting Count Dooku in Episode II. This type of movement initially
put me off when I saw Barbarian at E3, but I have decided that I like it
for a change of pace.
One of the
things that heightens the frenetic style is the tiered arena settings.
There are staircases to mount, towers to fall from, water to splash
around in, and ledges and rock formations to climb onto. In addition,
the items that populate your screen can almost always be used to widen
your playing environment. While the graphics arent as detailed and
sumptuous as some titles we might mention, theyre a solid and
interesting component. The only problem that comes with the environments
is the limited camera ability and the fact that there are only two
angles to choose from. The "all" choice is a wide-angle shot that
doesnt move well around rocks and other obstacles, and theres nothing
that pisses me off more than getting clobbered by the undead when I
cant even see to do anything more than punch buttons randomly. The
"character" choice is problematic as well, being so tightly focused on
the front of your character that you cant see your opponent half of the
time. This is a big issue for any game, but especially worrisome for a
fighting game that is playing with imaginative arenas.
Another option that actually makes some difference in the game is the
ability to set the AI level of your opponents. The default is set at 5,
topping out at a score of 10. In the quest mode this doesnt really seem
to have as much effect, and Im not sure why, but it makes a much larger
difference in the versus computer mode. AI is a misleading term, as
increasing it pretty much just bumps up the computers speed and combo
attacks. It also has the function of becoming a "mirror fighting style."
By this I mean that the computer will match your moves if you get in a
rut. For example, if you tend to jump a lot and use more of an aerial
fighting style, then the computer will match that. This makes the need
to use all the tricks in your fighting bag more important, because the
computer at AI-10 will almost always kick your butt if youre
predictable. Face it, no matter how fast your fingers are, the chip will
always win when it puts its "mind" to it.
The sound
effects are standard fare (although I did like Stitch the Undeads
cackle) but what is pretty darn fabulous is the musical score. It is in
the style of Basil Poledouris (Conan soundtrack) and even though it fell
short of that (hey, nobody is as good as Basil in my book), its attempt
brings a great sonic backdrop that is wholly unexpected in its quality
and range. The voice acting of the narrator earns two thumbs up from
this reviewer as well.
The versus mode has the ability to chose teams with four color
designations (if you are using a multitap, you can actually play four
players) and allows you to add a companion to help you as well as the
ability to add up to four thugs to increase the melee potential. There
are two costume choices for each character. On a more important note,
the ability to import a beefed up character from your quest game is a
welcome addition. The only downside I saw to the versus mode is that it
doesnt keep track of your wins if your playing against the computer,
and theres no sense of progression to getting some cool reward like you
get on games like Tekken. I guess maybe they figure if youre playing
solo, youll most likely be playing the quest mode. Which leads me to my
final point
the story in quest mode.
I feel bad for the writers of this game. The fact that Barbarian was
designed to be an arena fighter in the strictest sense of the word makes
giving it an RPG feeling just a tease. The designers tried valiantly to
broaden things, but each time the parameters brought things to the same
conclusion; each character (ten total) has his or her own story and
plays through eleven unique "chapters" of plot (you do the math), but
each must be ended with the words I came to dread
"they attack!"
Granted, the game doesnt profess to be an RPG, but heres my point.
Although the plot is sometimes over-dramatic in its execution (and
Barbaria is a lame country name), the ideas are compelling and it made
me really want to branch out into more story-driven actions that may or
may not have included fighting. Perhaps if there were more cut screens
this would have satisfied my yearning for more. But although this leaves
me wanting more from the game, I have to give kudos to the writers for
making me feel like sitting and listening to their storytelling rather
than going out and cracking skulls--or at least putting the cracking on
hold for a while. Some of the characters are definitely in the "old hat"
category (although most RPGers will tell you that tradition and
continuity arent always a problem, rather they are comforting), but
there is enough diversity that I didnt have a problem with boredom.
Perhaps the voice acting helped me get sucked in, but it was compelling
nonetheless.
Barbarian has an interesting, frenetic fighting style, layered/tiered
arenas and object interactivity that put it on the plus side. It
attempts to add choices in versus combat if you have friends that can
come over and indulge with you, and it strives to add depth to the quest
storyline by a semi-effective branching effect. The musical score is a
shining moment. However, this game is still pretty short. Even when the
computer is "cheating" and you have to win 2 out of 3 games to become
victorious, it doesnt take that long. And the quest side is more a
tease than anything else and doesnt have much replay value as far as
game play goes. For me, this game falls into the rental category. The
plot is definitely worth a run through, but I cant imagine the versus
mode being strong enough to allow it to maintain a permanent place on my
shelf. So on goes the quest