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Intro Pitfall Harry has returned, only now he is younger and oodles hipper. Sporting a baby face, our hero resurfaces to tackle an adventure that is filled with perils that are both by design and unintentional. Gameplay: 6/10 Ever since Sonic came about, companies have been obsessed with the idea of giving game characters attitude. Ignoring all the one-timers, even classic characters like Rayman have had the misfortune of being transformed in an attempt to connect them with a new audience. I don't like this. Sonic, I don't mind; but taking an established character and running them through the Do the Dew-o-matic makes me cringe whenever I hear or see them. While I feel about the same way in regards to this new Harry, there is also a colorful cast that will bring some levity to situations, with Harry providing the horrible punchlines that youngsters will probably find hilarious. Strangely enough, older gamers will most likely enjoy the jokes up until Harry's part. This is either by accident or an ingenious design to keep everyone entertained. I'll go with the latter, since there were some genuinely funny parts. The crew will be met slowly though, because a nasty plane crash has left them scattered about, leaving Harry to don the role of a hero and see to their safety. He will save some generic clones that act as fellow passengers, but he also meets up with other scientists, adventurers, and even a love interest (complete with melodramatic scenes). Along the way he will also befriend a jaguar that acts as the games Scarecrow. It isn't a bad bunch; the group is pretty typical, but they aren't seen often and the jaguar's goofiness is handled well. Gathering treasures will be also being a priority, but one that comes after saving the other passengers, of course...ahem. The game world consists of jungles, underground caverns, snowy mountaintops, and plenty of water and lava. Instead of breaking the game up into levels, the developers opted to separate it by sections and requiring certain items or moves to gain access into new portions. While this keeps the world seamless, it's also one of the things I disliked the most. Despite a nice map will help the player navigate back and forth, it won't be uncommon to miss or forget a passage and spend too long going in circles looking for it. This backtracking makes even the best sections annoying. Sure, they might have been fun going through the first time, maybe twice, but the enjoyment quickly deteriorates with each passing afterwards. Navigating these areas will require the use of several items: pick axes, dynamite, and also weapons like a slingshot and a tribal mask will be acquired. These will be needed to tackle the many obstacles that lie around the areas, including walls of ice, fallen boulders, or crazy natives. Conquering the environment is fun and all, but most of better moments are when elements from the past releases are successfully implemented into 3D, namely vine swinging and using alligators as springboards. While using alligators can be made difficult by a camera that seems to get worse the longer the player is in an area, swinging from vines is done very well; I'd say that it is not only on par with past Spider-Man releases, which have had a great sensation of motion since his appearance on the Genesis, but often superior as the weight from Harry's feet are used to increase the momentum of the swing. Unfortunately, even the best of adventurers will find themselves repeating several sections because of technical problems. Polygon clipping caused me to go through barriers and Harry's magical sideways slide caused me to fall off branches and ledges, despite being on them with both feet. The developers did spare gamers some difficulty by not taking away any life from falling at any height, but that doesn't solve the problem of having to repeat a nearly finished section because an invisible force pushed them off an edge and the auto-grab couldn't grasp anything. Populating the various locals are extremely bland enemies, and annoying ones at that. Whether it was the sounds they made, their ability to become very accurate at the most opportune moment, or the times when they decided to just up and run in circles, I had to try to enjoy knocking them around. The selection is also slim. There are other adventurers, that all look alike, different natives, that are all similar by what faction they are in, and animals, that all look like in regards to what they are; so, all penguins look the exact same, all alligators look the exact same, and so on. If backtracking didn't deter from the enjoyment enough, killing clones of enemies that are part of only a handful to begin with also makes the game repetitive. Making combat slightly less than fun is that most moves are exaggerated, with even the simple punch attack sending Harry going forward, which, fortunately, led to more close calls than actually falling off; an odd decision was made that doubled combat moves as basic moves, like having to do an attack to jump high enough to reach a ledge, which did lead to problems as the game didn't always recognize the timing and would perform the attack rather than the intended non-combat move. The Lost Expedition is hard
to recommend. The game isn't necessarily bad; it's just not balanced well. Much
of the game is very easy, but backtracking so much will confuse younger gamers
while more experienced players will finish it in a few days. Pitfall 1
and 2 are included, but I'm not really sure just how much that will extend
the replay value. There are also items that can be collected and sold to Shaman
for special moves, extra health, all items marked on maps, etc., so completists
can always go back through to get all of them. Despite the repetitive feeling,
bland enemies, and technical glitches, the game moves at a brisk pace and some
sections were designed well. The humor also worked more than I thought it would. Graphics: 7/10 Sound:
6/10 Control:
2.5/10 I could've been somewhat lenient about
all of this if I hadn't experienced a problem with the controls freezing. Right
before fighting a boss, the controls locked up. This also resulted in Harry not
being hurt by attacks, meaning he would never die and there was no way for me
to pause, move him, or hope to salvage any of the progress I made. Restitution
was only possible by resetting the game - thank goodness I had saved about 15
minutes prior, because anything more and I fear a game disc would've been tossed
out a window. Such a grievous problem is only compounded by the smaller to moderate
issues that accompany it. If you don't experience this, then you're in for a moderately
frustrating experience, but nothing that can't be adjusted to within a section
or two. Overall: 5/10 [ top ] | |||
