Godzilla Review.
The premise behind Godzilla as a franchise isn't particularly complex; a giant monster fighting other giant monsters, usually in a Japanese city. So you wouldn't think that making a game about this would be at all challenging, just have some really big monsters fighting in a destructible city environment. And in the latest Godzilla game, this is basically what you get; unfortunately due to some weird/poor design and aesthetic choices, the whole game feels like it had potential, but ultimately misses its mark.
The one thing that you will notice straight away is how the game looks and sounds. I'm playing the PS4 version, and to be blunt, the environments and buildings are incredibly bland looking and look as though they belong on the PS3, but even then that would be an insult to the PS3 hardware. Although to be fair, most of the monster models actually look pretty detailed and their roars sound very authentic. But however good the monsters look, it doesn't excuse how poor the rest of the game looks/sounds, especially with the standards set by current generation games being so high. While looking through the options menu, I found an interesting setting; the game lets you change the graphics to monochromatic 24fps, complete with film scratch filter over the top, just like the original 1954 movie. It's definitely a fun throwback to include, but the game can be so dark at times, having it in monochrome makes it almost impossible to see anything.
Now onto how the game actually plays. I can almost guarantee that you've never played a game that controls quite like Godzilla does. You would assume that since this is essentially a third-person action game, you'd use the left stick to move and the right stick to control the camera, and for the most part you'd be right. However, using the left stick only lets you move forward/backward/strafe left and right. If you want to turn on an axis, you have to hold L1/R1 until you're facing the direction you want to go. Just let that sink in for a moment. To turn your character, you have to hold L1/R1. It did take a little while to get used to since its such an unorthodox control scheme, but after a while it does make you feel like a giant, lumbering colossus. Which is the whole point I suppose.
You only have a few attacks at your disposal which are mapped to the face buttons and shoulder buttons. The square button is your basic light attack, which can be used in a quick 1-2-3 combo. The triangle button is your heavy attack, the X button lets you charge forward and grants brief invulnerability, and the circle button lets you shoot atomic breath; but only if your temperature gauge is full. Pressing both L1+R1 at the same time makes your monster roar and makes them invincible for a short time. Pressing R2 when your temperature gauge is full will send out a shockwave, destroying buildings or pushing back enemy monsters. This is something I was constantly using since the AI nearly always backed me into a corner and this was the only counter I had. Not all monsters have the same attacks, but I'll get to that later on.
There are several modes in Godzilla; God of Destruction (story mode), King of Kaiju (arcade mode), VS mode (lets you battle online against other players), Evolution mode (lets you upgrade/unlock monsters using materials you get from fighting them), and Diorama mode (lets you display figures in various scenarios) and the Kaiju Guide (an encyclopedia of all the monsters from the movies). The story mode has you playing as Godzilla, who rises from the sea to destroy generators because they house G-Energy. As you go through various locations you encounter various monsters. There are some things that make this mode interesting; you play as both the monster and the humans. Whilst you'll primarily be crushing building and generators, there are spots on the map where you can swap to a camera crew very briefly to get a cinematic shot of the destruction taking place. As the story progresses, it has multiple branching paths which means you'll have to play the story mode several times to go through every path.
It'll be in your best interest to destroy everything you come across too, whether its generators, buildings or even small bridges since every time you destroy something, you grow in size. You start the story mode at 50 metres tall, and enemy monsters you encounter can vary in size from 55 metres to 100 metres. Facing off against a monster that is 100 metres tall doesn't happen very often, and in my experience when this happens you'll usually only be around 60-70 metres tall so you'll be at a huge disadvantage as they'll be much stronger. If you manage to finish the story mode and Godzilla is over 100 metres tall, you'll unlock the final mission which is a nice nod to the climax of one of the movies. After you've finished the story mode once, you're free to go through it again with any monster you like, and there is quite a selection of monsters; which several Godzilla variants including the 2014 version and SpaceGodzilla, Mecha-King Ghidorah, Mothra (both larva form and final form), Gigan and many others. Each of these monsters has their own attacks and some can even fly for short periods of time, making some encounters quite easy.
VS mode is quite sparse in its options, only having 2 monster battle or 3 monster battle available. I was quite surprised at how smooth the game was though; after playing several matches I encountered no lag whatsoever. However there is no balance at all since some of the monsters can fly and fire lasers at the same time. Although, there isn't much strategy to playing online so I didn't really find monster balance that much of an issue. Evolution mode lets you increase monsters abilities using items you get from completing story missions or beating an arcade opponent. Unfortunately, it seems as though you'll need to constantly replay these modes over and over and over again just to upgrade one monster. Diorama mode lets you arrange figures you unlock into various fight scenes, but you unlock figures the same way you do upgrades; so getting all the figures will take a long time. The Kaiju Guide is interesting since it details when monsters were first used in the franchise, statistics such as height and weight and what year they premiered in and lots of other trivia such as where they originated from. You'll unlock entries in the guide whenever you unlock or encounter monsters so it doesn't take that long to fill up which is nice.
Overall then, Godzilla seems a bit like a wasted opportunity. There is a bit of fun to be had here smashing building and fighting giant monsters, and the online component works surprisingly well. However, the subpar visuals and highly repetitive nature of the gameplay make this a game I can only recommend if it's incredibly cheap. Or free. Even then I'd think about it for a bit.
Godzilla is available on the PS3 and PS4 systems for around £36-£44 (prices taken from Amazon UK)
