Released last week to poor reviews, alien invasion flick Battle: Los Angeles runs 116 minutes long. The video game tie-in lasts less than half of that.
Published by Konami Digital Entertainment and developed by Saber Interactive, Battle: Los Angeles showed up on Steam and Xbox Live Arcade last week to little fanfare, with the PlayStation Network version dropping later today. I downloaded the Steam version the other day during a fit of post Dragon Age II boredom, hoping to pass a few hours with some mindless shooting action.
I did get the mindless shooting action. A few hours? Nope.
The game immediately drops you in the boots of a marine fighting against the alien hordes that have invaded Los Angeles. You’ll fight your way to a police station, pick up some survivors, escort them out of danger, stumble upon some sort of mother ship, destroy it, and the credits roll.
On standard difficulty this took me all of 40 minutes to make it to the end credits.
As first-person shooters go, Battle: Los Angeles is on the low end of the quality spectrum to begin with. The shooting feels loose, the voices are repetitive and bland. The scenery isn’t bad, and I did enjoy the way items like cardboard boxes shot apart when I fired at them. In fact, shooting cardboard boxes might have been my favourite part of the game.
Priced at $US9.99 on Steam and the PlayStation Network, 800 Microsoft points on Xbox Live, Battle; Los Angeles doesn’t offer very much bang for the buck. Here in Atlanta I can get into a showing of the film for the same price and be disappointed for longer without having to exert my delicate button-pushing fingers. Plus I get to buy overpriced popcorn. Yum!
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