E3 Report: Comic Book Super-Hero Games
May 18th, 2006 by Bob Buskirk
2. Superman Returns
EA
Along the outer wall on the gigantic EA booth was the highly anticipated game for the upcoming Superman Returns summer movie. Although the game is only 40% complete in its production (according to the graphic constantly displayed in the lower left corner), it certainly has promise. Following the often-used sandbox style of gameplay, Superman Return’s (the game) is set in a virtual Metropolis with 8000 buildings in 80 square miles. EA has created a very cool flight system that is Superman’s primary method of travel (obviously!) around the virtual Metropolis. The flight system in action was visually quite awesome. It reminded me of the scene from Matrix Reloaded when Neo flies through the city with the cars and debris trailing him. Superman’s speed breaks the speed of sound, and in addition to slick sound effects, the screen blurs as he navigates around the massive Metropolis with ease.
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The primary abilities that Superman has for missions are his heat vision, freeze breath, super breath, x-ray, and super strength. These all come into play when completing the stated "20-30 hours of playable content." EA decided that Superman cannot die in the game, however as his duty is, Metropolis (yes, the entire city) has a health meter of its own that is the primary health bar. The environment is entirely destructible, as demoed by picking up the Daily Planet’s globe and hurling it down through the city streets. A large amount of the environment can be grabbed by Superman and used to defeat his foes. There are also unique combo moves, such as the 12,000 fists, that can be used by Superman in fighting the 9 super villains found in the game. Out of these 9 super villains, 2 were created specially for the game with DC’s assistance.
Although the game visually was far from completion, Superman Returns looks to really shake up the super hero gaming genre in the same way that the movie will shake up the super hero movie genre (or so we hope). The sandbox gameplay may be something that is overused by EA in their games, however putting this in the unique universe of Superman whose powers are just awesome amounts to a fantastic game in the end. Even from the reactions of other observers nearby, everything that EA is putting into this game is incredibly exciting. Look forward to playing this beauty of a game this fall.
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