War of the Monsters: Impressions

**sleeve** · 19 Jan 2003, 03:31 PM

Lost in the excitement over Panzer Dragoon Orta was the release of Incog Studios' multiplayer fighting game War of the Monsters. Developed by the creators of the Twisted Metal series, WotM is a Power Stone-style smashfest that pays homage to the great sci-fi and horror flicks of the Atomic Age: Them!, Godzilla, King Kong, Ultraman, and others. Expect a full review of the game shortly. But in the meantime here are some impressions to tide you over.

WotM's presentation is top-notch. The game comes with a cool poster and full-cover manual written in mock-tabloid newspaper form. The title screen and menus are built around a drive-in theater theme; go the "snack shack" to set your options, go to the film room to select your saved game, etc.

There are eight selectable monsters available at the start. It's a pretty good range of beasts and will likely suit most tastes: some of the standouts are a Godzilla lookalike, a Japanese robot with electro-katana and jetpack, a four-armed lava monster, a giant praying mantis that can fly, and a giant ape. Each monster has a long-range attack, two buttons for short-range attacks (heavy and light), and two special attacks (long- and short-range). Each monster also has preset button combos that you can discover with a little experimentation.

The game looks absolutely gorgeous. It runs at a constant 60-fps and the environments are varied and fully destructible. So your opponent just climbed a skyscraper? You can either climb up after him or bring down the skyscraper. Each arena is filled with objects you can pick up and either throw at your opponent or use as a melee weapon. All of this is easily accomplished with a cursor that automatically locks on to anything nearby that can be moved. Just push the circle button.

I've not had a chance to test out the 2-player mode, but there are three single-player modes: Adventure, Endurance, and Free-for-all. Adventure is your typical story mode, with various opponents and bosses. Adventure mode is short but quite challenging, and the bosses are pretty cool. Endurance mode is also good fun; see how long you can last against a perpetual stream of monsters. Free-for-all is basically multiplayer mode with AI bots and it's entertaining, but the AI has a tendency to gang up on you, making play modes such as Sudden Death frustrating. Victories in Adventure and Endurance Mode earn you tokens, which you can then use to purchase new playable characters, alternate skins for the monsters, new levels, and unlockable minigames like dodgeball.

So far the game is quite fun, if occasionally frustrating. I'll have a more detailed rundown for you when I post my review, so stay tuned.