G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Developed by Double Helix Games and published by EA, comes the Wii version of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. With movie/video game tie-ins becoming standard practice for major publishers, more or less, will this Wii title perform any better than its DS counterpart?

Much like Static, who reviewed G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra for the Nintendo DS, I didn’t grow up with the toys/animations being a staple part of my childhood. To be honest, I thought G.I. Joe was one guy, but in the context of this game, G.I. Joe is actually a group of soldiers. Whether this is in line with the history of G.I. Joe, I don’t know, neither do I care. I’d imagine the game’s plot is loosely based on the Stephen Sommers film, which in turn is loosely based on the toys… at best.

As you can probably tell, I don’t have high hopes for this. To me, these movie cash-ins rarely produce quality enjoyable games. And much like Static, I don’t have the chair-of-nostalgia to sit my arse on and think, “Well, I liked it as a kid, it will forever be a part of me. Therefore I will like anything to do with it, due to irony and laziness.”

This may sound like I’m dumping on it before I even play it, but I’m not. I’m just letting you know where I stand. Not every gamer coming into this title will have grown up with G.I. Joe; and I’m one of them. Gather round and let the review begin…

Set as a third-person action game, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra centres round a group of elite soldiers. The intro sees the Baroness being held captive in a cell guarded by various members of G.I. Joe. From out of nowhere, Cobra soldiers teleport in and teleport back out with the Baroness, and Heavy Duty too, as roles get reversed. Starting off as Duke, and Scarlett, it’s your mission to rescue your fellow Joes and stop whatever it is that MARS (a weapons developer gone-rogue) and Cobra are up to. Simple, no?

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra has gone for the cooperative approach, encouraging gamers to play with a friend by implementing two on-screen characters in simultaneous play. For gamers playing on their own, the second character will be controlled by the A.I., but gamers can also switch between the two by pressing the – button.

The first mission takes you through the basic controls; like shooting, and crouching/vaulting over objects that provide you with cover. Unfortunately, this game doesn’t make a favourable first-impression with me. Very early on in the game, my partner (the computer controlled Scarlett) got stuck behind a fallen tree; trying to vault over it. Resorting to taking control of her, I had to manoeuvre her myself; and thought if this is going to happen frequently, this game isn’t going to be very fun to play.

When firing your weapons, an auto-aim system is implemented. This, I feel, takes away some of the challenge that could have made this game feel more worthwhile. There seems to be more of a challenge in avoiding shots, as opposed to being a good marksman. You can select which enemy/object to aim at, and repeatedly press or hold down the B button to fire. Although this makes firing whilst moving about possible, I can’t help but wonder if a slightly different method could have been used instead. But for the most part, it works, if a little mediocre. You can also make your characters perform a melee attack but pressing down on the d-pad, or by giving the Wii remote a little shake.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is quite a simplistic game, really. Every mission has you picking members of G.I. Joe to form your 2-man team. From there on, it’s basically destroy everything/everyone on the proceeding level and rescue captured personnel. Something that you put up with during the first few levels, but as the game moves on, you start losing interest in the whole thing.

Throughout the levels, there are environmental objects that can be utilised as cover. Whilst crouched behind such objects, your health bar replenishes a lot quicker. Unfortunately, I ran into the same problems that Static did in the DS version.
As good as these places are to regain your health, and avoid enemy fire; they don’t last very long until they’re ripped to shreds. I have a suspicion that the developers wanted something to replace the tired method of picking up “health packs”, but realised that if you could cover behind something that was indestructible, it would render the game too easy. In situations where you’re under attack by high numbers of enemies, you soon find yourself trapped in an open area with nothing left to duck under.

Every G.I. Joe has their own special combat action in the form of a devastating attack, or an impenetrable defensive move. Gamers can build up their special combat actions by killing enemies and destroying enemy structures. You can store up to 3 charges at any one time, and use them by pressing the C button. Another nice little feature is the use of Acceleration Suits. These are power ups that you gain by killing enemies without taking damage. When your Accelerator Suit meter is full, you can press the + button to activate it. When you’re suited up, your speed temporarily increases and enemy fire does not affect you. Special combat actions are temporarily out of use; but you do get an unlimited supply of tri-stinger missiles. Pressing down on the d-pad will also give you a speed boost, allowing you to crash through cover, or send more powerful enemies flying.

At the end of every level, the points that you accumulate during the mission gets totalled up with all the bonuses you earn. These Battle Points can be used to purchase other members of G.I. Joe; giving you more choice on who to play as in your missions. Good, but this is only possible if you have collected the relevant dog-tags in the first place. Come on! One or the other.

Some of the loading screens seem to take forever. To help kill time, the developers have inserted various G.I. Joe facts that pop up for you to familiarise yourself with. I imagine they appeal more to the hardcore G.I. Joe fans. For example, did you know that the first G.I. Joe talking toy was introduced in 1967? As you can guess, these facts aren’t something that you’d pull out during a chat with friends down the pub.

There’s a total of 16 characters to unlock in the Team Roster section. More than the DS version; but then, that’s kind of expected. Still, 16 characters is very substantial; each with different skills and weapons, it should provide you with enough variation when tackling those missions.

Every now and again, you’ll have the chance to utilise some of the vehicles in the game. My first encounter with these was the Arctic mission where I could take advantage of an armoured snow tank with gun turrets attached. Sounds useful, but they are a pain to manoeuvre. Very sloppy controls indeed; if it wasn’t for the added fire power and temporary protection from enemy fire, I wouldn’t go anywhere near them.

For all the collectors, there are a number of items to find and some are more difficult than others. Throughout the game, there are Battle Files (that provide the player with extra information on G.I. Joe members, Cobra, Vehicles, Playsets, and Intel Files), 64 pieces of concept art, and a total of 4 movies to find and unlock.
This feels very skimpy, considering that one of the movies is the introduction sequence, and another is the closing credit sequence. So really, there’s 2 movies to find and unlock. Not that I’d be watching them over and over again, but if I was investing my time and effort into collecting these items, they should be worth it.

The sound design in this game is nothing special neither. Filled with conventional scores that can be found in any action game, I found the sound effects were not much better. Gun-fire all sound interchangeable; even though there’s supposed to be a wide range of weaponry. The voice-acting isn’t too bad, it’s clearly the best of the worst.

The visuals are pretty decent, with levels containing quite a fair amount of detail. It’s a shame that they look expansive, but there’s only so much that you get to walk on. So in that sense, the levels are quite restrictive at times.
I also ran into a couple of bugs early on in the game, where half of my surroundings disappeared and was replaced with some background renders. In short, this game feels very rushed, both in concept, and execution.

Unfortunately, you can’t change the camera view in-game so sometimes, you find yourself in a position where the only way to see what’s around you is to move; which isn’t always the safest thing to do. This doesn’t make things more tense and suspenseful like the old Resident Evil games, it just makes things annoying.

Overall, this is a very mediocre game. I felt like a kid again when I was playing this, not because I am/was a G.I. Joe fan, but because I sniggered like a child when I heard a character in-game was called Snow Job. Terrible, I know, but sadly, that was the most entertaining aspect of this game.

What makes this game difficult in any sense of the word is the amount of health your characters have. Instead of taxing puzzles, or intimidating enemies that need to be taken down and shown a lesson, your worst enemy seems to be your health bar and the places that provide cover (which are obsolete at times).

While there isn’t any part of the game that’s appallingly bad, that doesn’t automatically put it in the “good game” category. It may be fine as a present to a younger gamer, but that doesn’t justify the fact that this game performs below par. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is just your average movie spin-off; that I suspect will end up selling for under half its RRP in the next several months. G.I. Joe? More like Average Joe.

+ Supports cooperative gameplay
+ Very simple gameplay (although this can easily be a negative too)
+ No arbitrary motion controls (mindless remote waggling)

- Sluggish load screens
- Controls feel awkward at times
- Cannot alter the camera view in-game
- No multiplayer mode(s)

Score – 4/10