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Blast Corps
Reviewed by Tobias Condit-Schultz Whether you like it or not, it's your choice, but hopefully this review will help you decide. Get the game at Amazon.com!
I'll start with the fun factor. The game is really fun, that is, before you have to start going for time. Blowing up buildings with a lax time limit is very innovative and very cool. The gameplay is very simple; blow up all buildings in the way, and if you want to do better, everything else, too. It is very fun, although when you have any vehicle besides the Ramdozer, the bad control pretty much destroys the fun. Fun Factor: 85%
The graphics. They are fully polygonal, as everyone says, and if you zoom the camera in as far as you can go (which isn't so far) you can see that most of the vehicles are very detailed and elaborate. The buildings also all look cool, some especially when you blow them up. The only thing that would even need detail improvement in my eyes (level of DETAIL, I mean) would be the rockets from the Ballista, they look really pathetic, a white rocket with a blue cap. The people that 'talk' to you also look pretty bad, although it's interesting to hear what they say. Graphics: 97%
The music is very good, as one would expect from Rare. It has lots of rock'n'roll, and techno, although they do re-use the tracks a lot, but luckily, there's just enough tracks for you not to notice. Music: 100%
The Sound FX. It's above average, containing everything from the explosions of buildings to the high-pitched engine of the Ramdozer, to the weird 'vee-duh' and 'blotty-deel' sounds that the Thunderfist and Tumbler make. It didn't impressive me all that much, though, although the pulsing of a close missile carrier and somewhat limited amount of speech is cool. Sound FX: 70%
Originality and Plot: This game is very original, the blowing up of buildings with a demolition team has not been done before. This is the kind of game that clones will be made off of, i.e. how many clones Doom had after it was made. The plot isn't that great, though, no matter how original, Rare could have done a better job there. Originality and Plot: 90%
Replay Value. Not much. There are no difficulty levels, although the Do it faster! and Platinum modes (after you beat everything else) make for short-term replay value. Once you beat Platinum, which is hard, though, gives you a victory message and a pat on the back (so I've heard). If you want a game that will last forever, get Wave Race, forget this game. Full Replay Value: 45%
Control. The Control is good and precise with, sadly, ONLY the Ramdozer. All the other vehicles have control that usually makes you want to cry they suck so badly. Most of them seem to have a lot of trouble destroying anything with their chosen modes of destruction. In fact, the only sure-fire way of destroying buildings is to dive-bomb them, works whether you jump off a mountain or pebble, use the Skyfall or Van. This is great for people who hate the Backlash and want the easy way out, although Rare could have done better with the 'fall' axis in this game. On the whole, the control of most vehicles must 'be mastered,' which was not a good decision, it makes for terrible control always. Control: 35%
Frustration Factor. Not particularly high, although not particularly low, either. The first time around the 57 levels, 'normal,' has almost no frustration factor (except for the pac-man re-writes). Then, when you get to the time attack, that is, get a gold time on all missile missions, it isn't terrible, although Diamond Sands is frustrating. In fact, the frustration doesn't come until you get to platinum. If you foul up once anywhere, you'll not make the cut. In fact, you'll find yourself restarting all the time once you mess up, which is not very nice since then you have to wait another six seconds while the stoplight blinks to green. May not seem bad now, but when you mess up continuously and have to restart all the time, those six seconds seem like the world. On the whole, though, two-thirds or almost no frustration is good. Frustration Factor: 75% (I rate my frustration from bottom to top, that is low numbers mean high frustration, high ones mean low frustration.)
The views. The views in Blast Corps are, simply put, NOT GOOD ENOUGH. They used the traditional 'three levels of zoom' that arrived with Super Mario 64, which was just NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THIS TYPE OF GAME. You usually will want the camera to zoom out farther, or go lower to the ground. They almost always seem to come up short, which makes for a sad state of affairs when you want to get the overall picture of the area around you. There is no map function, which was sorely needed when you had so inadequate views, except to find out what buildings the carrier will crash into. Views: 30%
Overall: A fun game, until you get to Platinum levels. I sadly think it was a waste of money, it's a much better idea just to rent and not buy, and I think I was ripped off. This game is what I call a 'renter game,' with little or no replay value. Rent it for week until you beat it, is what I would recommend, then you'll find that what I'm saying is true.
Average: about 69.6%
Overall: too short, high frustration, I'll give a 65%
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