A game with great potential, but it never truly fulfills that potential
Enter Deathwatch a game in which you kill or be killed. A modern day gladiators. You are Jack, just Jack. A hard-boiled Marine who just entered deathwatch out of nowhere. There is more story to this game than the back of the case lets on. Nothing to the levels of Final Fantasy, but it definitely deeper than other games in the genre.
Gameplay: Madworld is a game that does not come out everyday. Your whole objective in most of the stages is to kill for points. The more creative your kills the more points you get. This is also where I believe Madworld missed its potential. To get your creative kills you have to stick signposts and tires on and into your enemies then pin them on a rosebush or some other type of enviromental kill. I will say that there is not much variety as I truly expected. Most of the objects you get to use are either signposts, tires or their variants. If only there were more things you could use. Luckily, there are weapons you use to break up all the monotany. Not many though. (you do unlock two more weapons after you beat the game). Then there are also the bloodbath challenge mini-games. Some of which are hit and miss games like money shot and man golf. There isn't too much variety in the minigames there are essentially only like 5-6 of them some of them have a 2nd version(death press, money shot, man darts) Let me also say that there is a horrible lock-on system in this game and the camera is not very good. you can recenter the camera and that is all. If you hold the camera button for a couple seconds you will lock-on to a foe and do the same to unlock an enemy. This game would have benefitted from a z-targeting like system from Zelda.
Graphics: Madworld has a very love it or hate it artstyle. The game looks and feels like you are playing an interactive graphic novel. Very Sin City-esque. The only colors you will see are black white and red. The game looks good though. There are some framerate hiccups every now and again nothing very serious though.
Sound: Like the graphics the music in Madworld has a love it or hate it feel to it too. Since a lot of people (at least here on Gamespot) do not like Hip-hop. The soundtrack is surprisingly good and the fits the game very well. The announcers are very hilarious and they made me laugh on a number of occassions. There dialogue does tend to repeat quite a bit and that can get a little annoying.
Lasting appeal: This game will last most people around 5 hours although I beat it in about 4 hours. You will unlock two new weapons after you beat the game and you get to play on hard mode. I have not played hardmode yet, but I heard that it was a pain in the ass. There is also a multi-player mode where you and a friend can compete in bloodbath challenges. Nothing too great, but it is fun for awhile.
Wrap-up- All in all Madworld is a great game that could have been excellent but it just missed its potential. The game makes great use of the wii remote. The Chainsaw feels so natural and some of the deaths are really awesome. Boss fights are cool too and the ending kills have a sort of God of War feel to them. This game will only last you about five hours on your first playthrough, but it is a really fun couple of hours. I would reccomend this game to any core gamer looking for something interesting to play. Hopefully this game will sell well enough so we can get a sequel and Platinum Games can add refine things to the formula.