Here's a game from the very bottom of the pit of monotony otherwise known as Titus software.
PROS:
- Great voice-acting.
- Lets you feel the thrill of flying around the city.
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CONS:
- You are unable to see somewhat 12 feet away.
- Superman gets stuck when you hit a bridge,
- Full of pointless and tedious tasks.
- Underwater isn't much different than being above the water.
- Little direction.
- When you're running at super speed, you can pass through solid walls.
- Absolutely horrible controls.
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Gameplay: 2 - As you would of probably expected, in this game you are able to fly around metropolis as Superman, this can actually be quite exhilerating surprisingly, but once the all of the thrills wear off (which doesn't take very long) you will realise exactly how horribly Superman 64 really is.
In level one, you will spend just slightly more than half of your time flying through rings, I never really understood why Superman needed to fly through these rings. After you have finished your first set of rings, you will have to save two cars from being destroyed by Lex Luthers henchmen, but the problem is that it only supplies you with six seconds to do so, so by the time you have finished reading the objective shown at the top of the screen, the cars have probably been destroyed by then. Then an intensely annoying message at the bottom of the screen appears saying "Luther wins". Once you have finally managed to complete this seemingly impossible task, you will have to fly through another set of rings, after flying through the second pair of mind-bendingly monotonous rings, you will have to pick up a police car and take it to the other end of a street within the set amount of time, this objective is almost as pointless as flying through the rings. After all that is done, you will have to fly through some more rings, then have to fight off some shadowmen who can quickly and easily be tossed of the side of the building with a simple and singular punch. Then you will have to (you guessed it) another set of mind-bendingly monotonous rings, then you will have to use your freeze breath to freeze some tornadoes, then more rings, rings, rings, by now the rings have probably driven you to insanity.
Did I forget to mention that when you go underwater (the first time you will do this is probably going to be during one of the ring challenges) there isn't really much differences to being underwater than there is above water, (with the exception of the back ground) you still fly the same way, walk the same way, and you can stay underwater for as long as you like, without having to come up for air.
After you finally manage to complete level one (which I doubt most people will) you will be shown a message at the bottom of your screen saying "Superman wins!" HA! More like Superman loses! Once you manage to do so, you will probably feel a mixed emotion baggage of pride and shame.
Sound: 4 - The sound was actually pretty well done surprisingly, particularly when it comes to voice-acting, when you first start level one, you will hear Superman proudly say "There's no time to waste!" it sounded pretty seamless and cool didn't it? But unfortunately it feels like this is the only phrase Superman ever says throughout the entire game, this can become very annoying after the third or fourth time you heard Superman randomly blurt the same phrase out.
Plot: 3 - Now heres a plot so underdeveloped that there are occasionally times where you question that the plot even exists, it starts off with a breif and thoroughly lackluster cutscene showing three characters disappear into a somewhat mysterious portal, then Superman will end up in the centre of metropolis flying through rings with a fog 12 feet in front of you. According to the instruction booklet, the three characters were Supermans love interest: Louis Lane, one of Supermans closest friends: Jimmy and Supermans boss at the Daily Planet who's name escapes me. The instuction booklet also says that the fog is Kyrptonite fog that was made to slow Superman down, judging by the speed Superman appears to flying at, that statement is practically implausible. It also claims that Lex Luther sent the three characters into a virtually version of Metropolis and Superman has to save them, in order to do so you have to complete various tasks and fly through numerous mazes to find your friends. The biggest question of the storyline is: Since when was Lex Luther the Riddler?
Graphics: 3 - Because of the so called 'Kryptonite fog' you are unable to see more than 12 feet past your own nose, but of you ask me, it looks more like a bad excuse for Developers Titus software to not bother to add any detail to the environments whatsoever, it's just plain sloppy, simply sloppy. But even if the environments were detailed, they would probably still be pretty bland and ugly to look at anyway. The only truly redeeming factor is the character models, in my honest opinion I think the models were actually pretty good, but evidently they weren't nearly another to save all the rest of the games truly horrible graphical problems. In spite of just about all of the main character models were well done, it appears that the developers didn't really bother too much about the average enemy, considering that they are normally just some 2D shadows with guns, oh come on! This is even more sloppy and carelessly produced than the so-called 'Kryptonite fog.'
Overall: 3/10
All and all, I honestly believe that Superman 64 is a bit underrated, although I will admit it is still a pretty boring game, but it isn't absolutely terrible, the redeeming part of Superman 64 is the brief thrill of soaring around metropolis, and thats pretty much really, afterwards you will probably think that it will be pretty hard for Developers Titus software (or more like 'Tedious software') to be able to top this truly horrific game.
Thank you for reading my honest review of: Superman 64