Be warned, there may be more bugs than you bargened for.
Throughout the brief 10 stages of the game, players will alternate between the two roles as and indirectly take part in a surprising well told story featuring Hollywood actors Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thorton as they voice the roles of scavengers in the search for hidden treasure of the desert. Occasionally, you'll come across the two humans as the plot unfolds witnessing their venture and yes, even coming in direct contact with one of them. However, the tale comes to an abrupt conclusion presented with a laughably dated cinematic which requires much needed substance.
The second after Billy Bob Thorton's moody introduction and take control of the Tarantula, you'll immediately spot the highly detailed visuals populated in this unique action game. The very hairs coating the spider are almost individually rendered, and the movements of not only the tarantula, but every creature in the game are captured with striking realism. The same level of detail can be seen on the scorpion as well. Its shell, along with other exoskeleton armored creatures, display a smooth reflective surface and animate beautifully. Deadly Creatures barely cuts any corners when it comes to the creatures' graphical presentation. However, the same could not be said for the rest of the game. Some levels in the game look fantastic and are heavily detailed when others don't quit hold up. Certain environments lack adequate detail and at times make the creatures feel a bit out of place since there is far more geometry on them. An example towards the very end of the game, you will be pinned against another creature enclosed in a ring of fire. However the flames in the game look more like orange smoke than actual fire. Another example takes place around the same time; as you vertically climb up the front end of a door, a scenery of the abandoned desert will be shown in the background, looking like a flat painting. Deadly Creatures may showcase some of the best visuals on Wii yet, but within this title there exists a sort of imbalance, separating characters from their environment.
As mentioned before, there are 10 chapters throughout the course of the game. Every other chapter will alternate the roll between the scorpion and the tarantula. At the beginning if this title, there are only a few distinctive differences between the two playable characters. As you make progress, you will be rewarded with points for each creature you defeat ultimately adding up to unlocking new combat moves. This is where the differences start to branch out. For example, the tarantula will eventually be able to execute moves with the IR, such as using its web to reach new surfaces, and the scorpion will gain the ability to bury underground followed up by a surprise attack, and execute brutal finishers in quick time events. Players will come to realize that this game employs a surprisingly deep combat system which becomes more dynamic as progress is made, chaining basic attacks along with the aforementioned special attacks. The scorpion, being built for battle, has more offensive attack options. The tarantula is the more agile out of the two, being able attack enemies from above and afar. Both the Wiimote and the Nunchuck are used appropriately, avoiding the overused waggle fest. There are also a few unlockable exploration abilities reminiscent to other titles such as Zelda and Metroid. Keep in mind that the system isn't as robust as those titles. Games such as Zelda set the players in a free roaming world, Deadly Creatures follows a more linear path and there are far fewer abilities available throughout the game. Unfortunately being that this game can be beaten in 10 hours or less, players won't really get the opportunity to play around with and fully master all the attacks in their arsenal. By the time you unlock your last move, the story will be nearing its conclusion. There are some hidden collectables and grass hoppers which can increase your maximum health, but there's not much else this game offers outside of mild exploration.
Insects aren't the only bugs that present issues to the player. It comes to no surprise that with a game pushing the Wii to ambitious graphical heights, occasional technical bugs are likely to occur. The game suffers from load times that happens a bit too often, some occur in awkward places. Here's what I mean by awkward, a few times in the heat of battle, the game is forced to load. A very strange occurrence since everything should have been processed before battle. As for the rest of the game, most load times takes place between sections of the chapters; much like what occurred in games like Half-Life 2. Luckily unlike Half-Life, the game won't have to also load once you return to the place which you've already came. Hiccups do occur now and then, but the real deal breaker happens when an enemy all of a sudden glitches onto a wall and remains there. This interrupts the flow of battle when the player now has to knock the enemy out of the wall in order to resume the fight. Towards the middle of the game when I first encountered an armored lizard, he backed up into a wall and got stuck in defense mode. Unable to attack him, I my only option was to restart the game. Any glitch that forces a player to restart the game is unacceptable, and should have been addressed before the game's release. One more issue which needs to be mentioned is the overall camera system. There are only two options available on how to control the camera: you can go into first person view by holding the 2 button, or reset the camera by tapping down on the D pad. There's no way to swing the camera around which becomes a hassle when trying to find grub and especially during battle. The camera is often slow and unable to keep up with these obstacle filled environments, but what really bothered me is when at times the camera will literally get stuck on an object like it's a physical being. You can't reset the camera while it remains in its stationary spot, making it impossible to catch all of your movements. So, you'll need to return to the camera where it'll unlatch from whatever it got stuck on. There are many of these issues that are littered through the game. Thankfully, for the most part it doesn't render the game unplayable.
Rainbow Studios should be given much credit for their work on a completely original title on Wii, breaking away from the conventional games that we've come to expect. They succeeded in both tapping into the Wii's true graphical capabilities and delivering a game that the more dedicated gamers would enjoy. Despite the largely detailed visuals, well scripted storyline, and overall production value, there are some very noticeable technical issues that hold the game back. Never the less, this is a title that Wii owners craving for something different should get their hands on. Consumer support might give this game another go, hopefully addressing all the complications that it presents which could eventually turn this into a note-worthy franchise on Wii.