Wrath Unleashed – PS2 – Review

Usually when someone
mentions LucasArts, how many times do the words “fighting game” come to mind?
That’s what I thought … not many, especially considering there really haven’t
been any of them by the Star Wars producing company (except for Masters of Teras
Kasi if you want to count that one). Well, LucasArts’ newest venture outside of
the Star Wars universe is an interesting blend of strategy, fantasy, and lots of
creature and monster fighting combined called Wrath Unleashed. While it’s
nothing that will revolutionize the gaming industry, it turns out to be a pretty
entertaining title.

Wrath Unleashed puts players
in the role of one of four Demigods, each representing a different elemental
realm (earth, wind, water, and fire) and battling for ultimate supremacy over
the planes of existence. Each Demigod comes to the battlefield toting with them
the creatures of their realm to do battle, ranging from things such as unicorns
and centaurs to giants, golems, and even dragons. The game consists of a map
made up of hex spaces that you or your creatures will move around on in a turn
based “one action per turn” format, and when two opposing creatures or players
occupy the same space, the game changes from a map based hex board to a fully
controllable battle between the two opposing forces, complete with magic, melee
skills, and a block button. Also, each hex space on the map may contain the
element of one of the sides, which allows the monster or player who represents
that element to gain an additional bonus to their attack and defense abilities
for the combat round. Have I confused you yet? I’ll explain more in detail as we
go, so read on. 

There are a couple of
different modes that players can choose to fight in, the first of which being a
Battle Mode. This mode allows you to play in individual battles, single player
campaigns, or a tutorial to help you understand the game when you first get
started. In the individual battle mode, winning the game (against the AI or a
human opponent) means obtaining a certain number of points by capturing temples
around the board. Each one will be either one point or two points, and as an
example the map you are playing on may require a player to capture 7 out of 10
in order to officially claim victory. In other words, the ultimate object of the
maps is not always just to wipe out all other monsters on the board, even though
the game may appear that way up front. In the campaign mode there are missions
that will require this to be done, but that’s not the only way to play it.

Let’s talk about the board
for a second and the strategy element of the game, which may help to further
clear up and make sense of it overall. The boards that you play on will be laid
out in various patterns, with various hex spaces containing friendly or enemy
elements, temples, power crystal, portals, or neutral territories. The temples
obtain points for a victory if you are playing in individual battles (as we
discussed earlier), and some of the monsters and the Overlords themselves are
able to cast certain spells like resurrect, teleport, smite, or transfer heath
thus needing power crystals to do so. Each turn, total power crystals that you
control (represented by the spaces that your monsters occupy that contain them)
give mana to help in casting spells to help move monsters further around the
board, smite down enemies, or heal a creature that you may need but is low on
life just as a couple of examples. Now, if your opponent controls a number of
power crystals, it may be a good idea to move one of your monsters onto a space
that they control and then try and kill your opponent’s monster in order for you
to take control of it for your own. If the space that you are fighting over
happens to be on an element that your opponent controls, then they wind up
getting an advantage and vice versa, while at the same time you have to try and
watch your temples and mana crystals to ensure that you have enough magic to
turn the tables in your favor. Basically, the best way I can describe it is kind
of a chess / Risk kind of mixture that works out interestingly enough.

The fighting game element of
the title comes into play when two monsters occupy the same space, thus moving
from a hex map to a 3-D fighting game kind of screen complete with brief graphic
intros of the combatants and then full control and movement of the monsters or
Overlords involved. Each monster has a similar setup in controls in the fact
that they can launch four different attacks … a light magic, heavy magic,
special magic, and a signature attack move, each with varying times to cast and
damage done.  Tapping the X button for example will perform a three or four hit
combo to an opponent, and launches quickly, but won’t do much damage nor will it
do damage if the opponent is blocking. The special magic on the other hand may
take 2 – 3 seconds to warm up and fire off, but it also winds up doing a lot of
damage if it hits successfully and will take some health off even if the
opponent is blocking it at the time that it is thrown. Each creature enters the
combat arena with a certain amount of life, be it one to four bars worth
(smaller and faster creatures like unicorns have only one life bar while larger,
slower creatures like fire giants have three), and once all health bars have
been depleted the monster is dead and the battle is over. While ultimately it
seems like a bigger and stronger monster will always win, sometimes it all comes
down to reflexes and speed overall. Interestingly, the fighting element plays
just as much into the strategy part, since winning a battle at the expense of
most of a stronger creatures health may seem like a good idea at the time, but
you have to make sure you didn’t just open up the chance for your opponent to
place a bigger and stronger one there to defeat you and re-take their space
again.

Ultimately as you can
probably tell, there is a good mix of strategy and fighting that the developers
managed to put into the game overall to make a unique mixture of gameplay styles
that will probably cater to fans on both the fighting and strategy sides of the
fence … for a short while. Ultimately, there are a couple of things that really
hinder what could have been a great gameplay experience. For starters, playing
one elemental Overlord versus another really isn’t going to do a whole lot in
the ultimate outcome. While I’m glad that they didn’t just use a simple “fire
beats wind which beats earth etc.” formula like I would have expected, using one
element or another means nothing except for some variety in creature colors and
some minor cosmetic changes. Ultimately, monsters found on all sides of the
field are the same, while one may be green and have horns while the other is red
and doesn’t have horns or something like that. If a fire giant goes up against a
golem, it’s pretty standard that it’s an evenly matched battle even though they
look a tad bit different. Anyways, you get the idea.

The second issue I ran into
lies in the overall fighting system itself. I’ll definitely give LucasArts some
props for implementing it into the game to break up standard board game play,
but the controls are just not tight and solid like I would have liked them to
be. Instead, it seemed like they were just way too sluggish, whether it be for
bigger or smaller creatures, and overall all of them felt like they pretty much
moved at the same speed. Also, there are no actual combos to pull off or to
learn, which would have helped in overall enjoyment, and rather focuses on who
can get the most attacks off or block the most versus using a fighting strategy
similar to other popular 3-D fighters out on the market.

Lastly, one thing that I ran
into which was really an annoyance more than a gameplay problem was in the load
times. Every time you switch screens from strategy map to fighting match, be
prepared to sit and see “Prepare for Battle” with the loading bar for about 10
seconds or so, then you get to see the 10 second loading screen once more when
you exit battle and move back to the board. While playing in the beginning while
not much is happening isn’t too bad, once you get to the point where battles are
sparking off pretty frequently, you’ll audibly hear yourself huffing in
exasperation more than once. There is the option to just let the AI duke it out
and skip it altogether, but where’s the fun in that?

Overall, I have to say that
even with its issues, I personally enjoyed and have a lot of fun with Wrath (but
as a reviewer I have to make sure I call it like I see it). If you are a
strategy game fan who doesn’t mind some action mixed in, then this could be a
good game to check out. Fighting game fans looking for something deep like
Tekken or Soul Calibur aren’t going to find that level of fighting here
unfortunately, but may still get a kick out of the strategic element of the game
which has been mixed in to give you something a little more. Ultimately, if you
are deciding on whether or not to purchase Wrath Unleashed, I would definitely
recommend a rental prior to signing on the line for it. 

Gameplay: 7.4
I thought that
the mixture of strategy and fighting were really neat, but there are some issues
to be aware of. The fighting controls seem very sluggish, and even the faster
style creatures seem to move as slow as the bigger ones which kind of makes them
lose the competitive edge. Also, the ability play a couple of different ways was
neat (and there is even an option to build your own army), but picking one
element or Demigod over another does nothing more than some color changes or
cosmetic differences in similar monsters.

Graphics: 7.2
Overall, I
thought that the monsters themselves looked really good, but there are just too
many repeated models to really make the different teams feel unique. The arenas
that you battle in also had some differences to them like rocks, spike traps
from the ground, or crystals jutting up from the earth, but overall the graphics
looked a little outdated and not up to modern PS2 standards.

Sound: 7.5
The sound in
Wrath wasn’t too bad, and there are even some bars in the background music that
have kind of a Star Wars feel to them. The monsters will of course roar and
stomp around the field, but nothing that really stood out as impressive or
intimidating.

Difficulty: Medium
The game overall
is quite easy to pick up and get into even for the beginning player. Making some
wrong moves can wind up costing you the game, so a lot of the overall difficulty
will rely on your moves and the plays that you make.

Concept: 7.8
The concept to
Wrath in my opinion was really, really good … especially in two markets that can
be a little overdone in this day and age. I think that addressing issues
mentioned above in a second version could possibly produce a really top notch
title.

Multiplayer: 7.9
Personally, I
really liked jumping on and going at it two player style, especially with some
of my friends who really enjoy fighting games (and some of them chess). Sadly,
there is no multiplayer mode for online play which would have really added to
the overall experience in my opinion. There is the ability for up to four
players (free for all or team battles) using a multitap as well.

Overall: 7.4
While this game
is definitely not going to be for everyone, I personally have a lot of fun with
it. If you are a strategy or fighting game fan, I would recommend at least
giving it a try for the weekend from your nearest rental store if you think it
may be something that you would like.