Earlier in the year, Marvel created a mini-series called ‘Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects’ where several main Marvel heroes were captured by an unknown enemy and injected with a serum that transformed them into darker variations of themselves. Needless to say, most of these heroes managed to regain their true identity. So, based upon this comic, Electronic Arts have tried to deliver a game that should in theory be the best ever Marvel game with an outstanding line up of super heroes and villains, but did they succeed?

Gameplay:

What type of game could you class ‘Nemesis’? Is it a ‘beat-em up’ or a ‘one-on-one fighting’ game? The answer is both which should be a good thing considering the line up characters range from Spiderman to Elektra but unfortunately the game lacks any real depth in both areas. The ‘Versus’ mode is where you can play one on one against the cpu or a friend using any of the characters and locations but in order to select everything you must first unlock them in the single player ‘Story’ mode and this is where the main fault of the game lies. The ‘Story’ mode is the biggest let-down I have seen for ages considering the abundance of Marvel games that have recently been released. Each character has a number of story chapters for you to complete which in turn than unlocks the next character and so forth. Each chapter requires you to beat up the enemy when they appear with one or two chapters resembling the ‘Versus’ mode when you are to battle one of the other main characters. Sounds good enough but the problem lies with the lack of fighting moves for each character. Even though every character is different, the moves are exactly the same, so if you remember what button does what for one hero, than you more or less know exactly what to do for all the others. The enemies are very simple to destroy and won’t take you very long to plough through the numerous chapters to the point that it actually becomes quite boring and repetitive. After each chapter you unlock a trading card or another part to a comic story which can be seen in the ‘Awards’ section which in my opinion is not much of an incentive to continue playing. The only saving grace for this game is the storyline which has been writing by one of the top comic writers. The ‘Versus’ mode can be played online as well as against a friend offline, but just like the ‘Story’ mode, there are not that many moves to make this game interesting enough.

Graphics:

Graphically is where this game stands out. The artistic work is fantastic with each character drawn in detail with superb lighting effects. Most of the scenery is destructible with enough objects for you to pick up and throw at the enemy. The movement of your character is fluid and responds well to your controls but none of this will distract you for far too long.

Sound:

The voice-overs are ok but nothing to write home about and the sound effects are the usual array of explosions, kicks, punches etc. The soundtrack is quite nice and fits the environment and action.

Longevity:

The ‘Story’ mode will not take you long to complete if you can be bothered to unlock all the characters for the ‘Versus’ mode. The online mode might extend the life of this game to a certain extent but that’s about it.

Round Up:

With an abundance of Marvel games available at present, you will be hard press to find a reason to purchase this title. On paper this should have been one of the best, but it has fallen well short of the mark and I can only recommend this game as a hire title because that is all the time you will need to finish the game and realise how repetitive it is.

Pros:

• Storyline and Graphics.
  
• Live.
  

  Cons:
  

  • Repetitive Action.
    
  • Too easy to complete.