1st Impressions: Shrek the Third is a classic example of a really bad movie based game, and that's pretty much it.
The Bad: Poor voice acting, aweful graphics, gameplay is a mediocure, childish rip off of God of War, it just isn't much fun.
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Movie-based games have gotten a very bad reputation for being really bad. On rare occasions, there is a good one that breaks this trend. 2007 has some titles that give gamers hope such as Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. Unfortunately, Activision has been 0 for 2 as far as their movie based games go in 2007. Spider-Man 3 was a disappointment, and so is Shrek the Third. The only difference is, Spider-Man 3 was playable, but had some glaring issues. Shrek the Third is a completely uninspired game that is a blatent God of War rip off that just isn't fun.
You play as a variety of characters including Shrek, Princess Feona, Sleeping Beauty and Puss in Boots. The game follows the movie's story to some extent, but the story itself isn't one of the game's problems.
Let the monster rant begin...
The gameplay for Shrek the Third is an almost identical rip off of God of War. You may not have blades of chaos, but Shrek can preform some very similar, but obviously dumbed down finishing moves and chests are opened the exact same way as in God of War. You collect orbs aka Ferry Dust that fills your rage "Ogre Power Meter" just like you fill your Rage of the Gods meter. You rely a ton on combos, but the bosses aren't very hard, so you don't need to do much to defeat them. The voice acting, which is one of the biggest draws of the movie, is really bad in the game. The voice acting here make's Tobey Maguire's sleepy preformance in Spider-Man 3 seem amazing. If Mike Meyers and Eddy Murphy are in this game, they should be ashamed of their preformances. To top that off, the character animation is dreadful. The graphics look at least as bad as a PS2 game, if not slightly worse. The music is decent, and some of the combat can be fun for a little while, but overall, there isn't much to be excited about here.
The game's achievements are pretty easy and consist of you collecting things and just playing through the game, but not even easy achievement points make this game worth playing. It's a pretty darn bad game that should be avoided and is a classic example of how a movie based game should not be.
Overall, this is a game that should be avoided at all costs. It doesn't even have a slightly amusing multiplayer mode like Bomberman: Act Zero has, so it's a game that you should honestly just leave to rot on a dusty bargin bin shelf.
Gameplay: It's a blatent rip off of God of War that is repetitive and not very enjoyable.
Graphics: It looks worse than a lot of PS2 games.
Sound: Mike Meyers and the gang should be ashamed of their preformances, if they are in the game at all.
Value: If you must play this game, rent it at most. I wouldn't even recomend that.
Final Thoughts: This is one Ogre that should stay in his swamp...