Developer: Live Action Studios
Publisher: Konami
Release Date: Out Now
Players: One
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Developed by Live Action Studios and Saber Interactive (who were at one time rumoured to be involved in a Halo: Combat Evolved HD remake), Battle: Los Angeles is a downloadable release on Xbox LIVE Arcade (also available for PC Windows download via Steam and PS3 on the PlayStation® Network) and acts as a companion to the spectacular Columbia Pictures feature film. You play as Corporal Lee Imlay and fight alongside characters from the movie to defend the city of Los Angeles from an alien attack force.
Within the first seconds B:LA’s bright, clear graphics please the eye but the lack of subtlety in movement were disappointing. It feels like you take a step every time you move no matter which direction you move in. In a game that consists almost entirely of covering and shooting this lack of finesse is annoying, but not fatally so. A ridiculously short sprint ability (hold 'LB') makes things more difficult than they need have been, it feels like you take no more than six steps before stopping and gasping for breath, I think Cpl Imlay must be seriously asthmatic, and also have high blood pressure and possibly suffer from gout. A small but effective arsenal consists of an M16 assault rifle, a sniper rifle, rocket launcher and frag grenades. On a couple of occasions you get fire a turret machine gun mounted atop a stationary Humvee.
The bony aliens themselves look quite good and die in pleasingly bony-ragdoll fashion, they don’t move too quickly and are relatively easy to shoot due to a lack of variation in their AI—they tend to appear in an area (sometimes by leaping to a raised position) and then shoot & cover in a predictable way. Gameplay mostly consists of picking them off from a point where you can duck safely back into cover because they are, at least, aggressive and accurate with their powerful laser–type weapons. Fortunately they have big bony skulls so one-shot kills with the sniper rifle will see off a good percentage of them. B:LA features Havok physics so players can destroy various structures, vehicles and even an overpass to eliminate the aliens.
Apart from the lack of subtle movement B:LA isn’t a bad game at all, it looks good enough and there's often a lot going on on-screen, providing some spectacular moments. The problem is that the game’s missions are linked with comic book-style cut scenes with the bare minimum of animation added (it looks like they used the artist’s story boards instead of doing expensive FMV sequences) and some of the plot’s most potentially eye-catching moments are shown in this less than impressive format. Also there’s the brevity of the game to mention-on “Hard” it took me just over an hour to complete and replaying the game through a second time for achievements and therefore skipping the cut scenes, it was all over in 35 minutes! I mean, c'mon guys, a game shouldn't be over quicker than the movie it's based on. Presumably Saber just ran out of time or budget, and it shows. On the good side, at a price of 800 Microsoft Points from Xbox Live Arcade (the PS3 version will cost $9.99/ £6.49 on PSN) B:LA certainly doesn’t overprice itself and if you enjoyed the movie you’ll most likely enjoy this, but whatever you think of it, such a blockbuster probably justified a more polished and epic video game.
Best Bits
- Some spectacular moments. - Good sniping action.
Worst Bits
- Twitchy movement and aiming. - It’s really short, but not as short as your sprint. - Most cut-scenes are done in comic book fashion.
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