[Review] – Deadliest Warrior: The Game

[Gamercide]

Deadliest Warrior:  The Game

Developed by: Pipeworks Software

Published by: Spike Games

Platform: Xbox 360 (XBLA)

Players: 1-2 (2 player versus, online and offline)

Rated M for Mature by the ESRB

Link to Purchase from Microsoft

The Breakdown

8 of the fiercest warriors in history battle it out to see who the Deadliest Warrior is in this brutal fighter.  Based on a TV show of the same name, what can we expect from this game?  Does the game deliver, or is it just another mediocre tie-in?  Read on to find out!

The Important Stuff

Let me start off by saying one thing that will blow your mind: This game plays like Bushido Blade. If you haven’t played Bushido Blade, shame on you. If you have, then that last sentence may have you wondering how I could even compare the two. Allow me to explain. In Bushido Blade, most battles are won by a single, unparried strike. While you may not be able to kill your opponent in one hit in Deadliest Warrior (unless you hit them in the head just right), it only takes one or two combos to end the battle. It has the same essence of fast paced fighting.

Another similarity to Bushido Blade is the damage system. Like Bushido Blade, you can damage your opponents limbs by aiming your strikes at them. For example, if you perform a mid attack and damage your opponents arm, you can stop them from using that pesky shield, two handed weapon, or projectile. But why just injure the offending limb when you can remove it altogether? Deadliest Warrior takes this even further by allowing you to perform amputations and even decapitations. That’s right, you can cut your enemies’ freaking heads off! While most limb removals will instantly kill a warrior, they can survive the loss of their left arm and continue swinging away with their right. There is even an amusing achievement for ending the battle like this with a finisher, entitled “Flesh Wound”.

The controls in the game are very simple. There are five attack buttons. High, mid, and low attacks are mapped to Y, X, and A respectively. B throws or shoots your projectile, and RB performs a character specific attack that stuns your opponent, such as a shield bash or kick. LB lets you switch to your mid range weapon. You can also block with the triggers and dodge with the right analog stick, essential moves for your survival. There are no complicated moves to memorize, as all combos only use the face buttons, and the highest combos are 4 buttons. Brutal fatalities called Finishers are as simple to perform as holding two buttons while your enemy is at critical health.

There are 8 characters in the game, all from very different time periods. They are the Apache, Centurion, Knight, Ninja, Pirate, Samurai, Spartan, and Viking. While a couple of them may play very similarly, such as the Spartan and Centurion, most of the characters have a very distinctive style. Each character has a close, mid range, and long range weapon. You can unlock an alternate weapon in each category, as well as alternate armor, by playing through arcade mode and beating the mini-games therein. You can also change the color of each warrior’s armor from the options in the main menu, which is a nice touch.

The graphics are fairly good for an arcade game. There are some minor clipping issues, such as swords going through shields and sheaths, and some instances where having the air in front of your face stabbed is lethal, but nothing too major. On the positive side, the game does a very good job of deciding when to make your enemies limbs and head go flying.

After completing the game with all characters, Challenge modes appears in the main menu. Here you can play Survival, a mode where enemies spawn one after the other in the same level without the load times or health resets in between, making it much more fun when you just want to fight several enemies. There is also a variation of Survival called Survival Slice, a mode essentially the same as Survival but with a twist: limbs fly off incredibly easily, making the mode much messier and even more entertaining.

Tips and Tricks

- Having trouble getting a combo in against an opponent? Get close to them and block until they attack, then unleash your combo as soon as they are done.

- Projectiles can instantly end a battle if they hit the opponent in the head.

- If you don’t have a shield, you can’t block projectiles. Dodge them to avoid damage.

- You can string together combos if your opponent doesn’t block fast enough. Careful, though, as having your attack blocked will stun you.

Reaction

Overall, Deadliest Warrior was a very pleasant surprise for me. Because it was a tie-in game for a TV show (which I have never seen, by the way), I expected a mediocre game, but what I got was something that has the essence of an amazing old PS1 fighting game.

At only 800 Microsoft Points ($10), Deadliest Warrior is a steal. Sure it’s no SoulCalibur or Street Fighter, but the game is excellent for the price. What’s more, you can unlock Samurai armor and a Samurai helmet as avatar awards in the game, which could cost upwards of 400 Microsoft Points ($5) alone in the avatar marketplace. The game also has some fun achievements, such as Black Knight (remove all limbs from a knight) and That Was Sparta! (kill 300 Spartans).

My only complaints are the small amount of maps to play on and the very annoying lack of a lobby for playing multiplayer with your friends, forcing you to leave the match entirely and start it again to change your settings, level, and character. A lobby would be relatively simple to patch in, and there may be DLC with new maps and even characters in the future, so these complaints are minor.

I highly recommend Deadliest Warrior to anyone who enjoys fighting games. Even if you aren’t a hardcore fighting game fan that knows how to do all the ultra combos and whatnot, the game is simple enough to get into for pretty much anyone.

AudaciousKevin gives this game a 9 out of 10!

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