Game Reviews

It's been a strange odyssey for the Clash of the Titans video game. Liam Neeson released the Kraken in late March when the movie on which the game is originally based came out in theatres. But the virtual version of that iconic sea monster has had to endure some substantial delays. It wasn't until May that the game was finally released in Europe, and it'll still be nearly a month before it arrives on North American shores. (The game, not the Kraken. At least we hope.) So with the games industry taking a collective post-E3 nap, Namco Bandai recently sent us a near-complete build of the North American version so that we could see what players can expect when Clash of the Titans finally does make that long overdue trip across the pond.If you read our original impressions of Clash of the Titans, you should have a good idea of how this action game plays. For those who haven't, though, it's a combat-driven adventure that, on the surface, invites a number of comparisons to the God of War series. While both are third-person action games set against a backdrop of Greek mythology, Clash of the Titans doesn't really go for the epic encounters and general bloodlust we've come to expect from Kratos and pals. It's a more straightforward style of action that forgoes bitterly ravaging giant creatures in favor of more strategic offerings. This mostly comes in the form of what the game calls sub-weapons, which are the secondary weapons you can steal from your enemies and use against them. Nearly all of the game's enemies--both grunts and bosses--seem to be weak against certain weapons and attacks; thus, the search for the right type of tool in a given situation seems to form the foundation of the combat.You start off playing the shoeless, tunic-wearing Perseus, an ordinary enough fellow from a small fishing village on the coast. When a group of sirens start attacking villagers, Perseus has to take up arms to defend his family and friends. Things naturally spiral out of control from there. When Perseus isn't fighting harpies or skeletons, he's being scolded by an irate Hades, who likes to pop by from time to time to look angry and, presumably, show off his savage beard. It doesn't take much time to realize that this rotating cast of mythological beasts is probably the game's strongest quality, as there's no shortage of bizarre monsters to battle