The popular Adult Swim cartoon in video game form. Is his legal fee reasonable or will it have fans screaming Objection?
The game's premise is easy enough to grasp. You assume the role of one Harvey Birdman, attorney-at-law, and you will find yourself in a number of weird and just plain crazy scenarios. For instance, one case finds Harvey being robbed of all his office furniture and supplies, and the situation gets twisted around in such a way that he ends up defending both of the primary suspects. The game spans four cases, similar to that of the Ace Attorney series, but with one critical difference. The cases are nowhere as long or intricate as their competition and so the game ends rather quickly. I was probably able to plow through the game in around 3 hours or so.
If you've ever played one of the Phoenix Wright games, you feel right at home when it comes to the play mechanics. It basically breaks down into two phases: exploration and court. In the exploration phase, you have free rein over where you want to go and what you want to do. That is, you can move from location to location, examine items of interest which occasionally get added to your evidence, and of course talk to anybody that you think might shine some light on your case at hand. You won't have unfetered access to every area of interest to you as some start off "locked" at the beginning and you can only gain access to them after speaking to the correct individuals or providing them with something of interest.
For the court phase, you are required to cross-examine the defendants and/or witnesses and coax them into telling you what they know. Here's where the game begins to break down. You have two options at all times: you can 'Press' them for more information, or you can 'Present' evidence that contradicts their statement. If you 'Press' a statement that isn't relevant, that is to say, it won't further the story along, you'll receive a statement from Harvey somewhere along the lines of "I see nothing wrong with this" and that's about it. That makes it quite obvious what statements you need to 'Press' or 'Present' evidence to, and as such it reduces much of the game's challenge.
Despite the shortcomings of its gameplay, the production values are quite good. The sound effects and music are solid and often taken straight from the show, and the voice acting is spot-on. There are no poorly delivered lines in this game at all, though fans of the show may be disappointed to know that Stephen Colbert did not lend his vocal talents to the game, so we have a stand-in doing the voice for Phil Ken Sebben, who is not nearly as good as the host of The Colbert Report.
The visuals are good, but they pale in comparison to recent games like God of War or Crisis Core. The game looks good, but not great. Every character and action animates smoothly and you might think to yourself that you're actually watching a lost episode of the show rather than playing a game. This is actually, to quote Spider-Man, its gift and its curse.
While the visuals are high quality, it suffers in the gameplay area. More often than not you're simply watching the game rather than playing it. Talk or present a piece of evidence to a character, and the conversation plays out as a cutscene. Examine that death ray blocking your window, and you'll be treated to a cutscene. Move to a new area... well, you get the point. It's almost more of an interactive movie rather than a game, or you could even compare it to something like to Dragon's Lair, where you simply watch things play out and occasionally input a command to keep the action going.
There's little to keep you coming back as well. There is no deviation in how the cases play out, so you'll know who to question and what evidence to present at what time. There are moments in the game where you get to pick from several dialogue choices, and each one usually elicits a different response. If you're a huge Birdman fan you may find yourself playing through the game multiple times just to hear every response, but there's just not enough of a reward to justify the time being spent. There are also a few secret videos that you unlock through certain dialogue choices, but there's only one hidden per case, so you can easily unlock them all the first time through and simply be done with it.
By no means is Harvey Birdman a poor game, in a sense of the word. The mechanics behind it are solid, as are the voice acting and the writing. This is a game that is genuinely funny and will have you laughing, or at least chuckling lightly. Unfortunately, it's plagued with a case of "not-enough-gameplay", or just plain "not-enough-game" if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty. Diehard fans will love the game and what it does, but even then you might be better served just buying the DVDs. There's definitely not enough content to justify the $30 price tag, but it would certainly make a most entertaining rental.
Presentation: 7.0
Graphics: 7.0
Sound: 9.0
Gameplay: 4.0
Lasting Appeal: 3.0
Tilt: 8.0
Overall: 6.3