Incredible by name. Ho-hum by nature.
Based on the movie by the same name, the Incredibles has you playing through an elongated plot line from the movie, with a couple extra scene's thrown in. The first couple levels are promising, the promise doesn't hold up in the long run.
You're playable characters consist of Violet (for 1.5 levels), Dash (for 3 levels), Elastigirl (whom I find the most fun to play as even if it is only for a few levels), and Mr Incredible (the most frequently played character).
What's good:
There's definitely lots of beat-em-up action happening in this game and with the exception of a few switch puzzles it's pretty mindless fun (in a good way).
When playing as Mr. Incredible they try to break up the button mashing with the occasional gun-turret sequence.
Elastigirl - She is the most fun to play as. I found she was the most easily controlled, and had the best moves. I would have much preferred her being the main playable character. That alone would've brought up the score a whole point for me.
Some variety - The developers tried to mix up game-play a little bit with Dash and his beat-the-clock racing levels, and Violet in her one level of moving in stealth. Although I didn't find the Dash or Violet levels very fun to play, there is one level where they team up, and that one was pretty good.
Extras - There's bonus artwork to unlock, and there's also a battle mode you can enter where you play as either Mr. Incredible or Elastigirl and take on countless foes just to see how long you can last.
What could have been better:
Mr. Incredible - He is slow and cumbersome to control. It gets very frustrating particularly when taking on the Omni Droids. Unfortunately since he's who you'll be playing as the most, it brings down the whole experience of the game.
Lost potential - Sometimes you think something cool is going to happen, then it doesn't. For example, you see an empty velocipod, you hop in, and think "Awesome. I get to drive a giant saw blade around!" only to find out that the flight path is on rails, and you just need to man the cannon. I found the Violet sneakin'-around-level is also pretty weak and the overall level-design itself feels uninspired, and just wasn't exciting.
Balance - Although most of the levels won't provide much of a challenge, the Omnidroids in the game put up quite a fight. They make the difficulty level very unbalanced. Syndrome's guards aren't hard at all to take out, but the Omnidroid is faster than you, I found it unpredictable, and many of it's attacks have no defense that I've found other than luck. The exception to this is the final Omnidroid you face, which is surprisingly easy in comparison and very predictable. When the hard parts do arise in the game, much of the difficulty is not due to challenging level design; that in itself would not be so bad. The difficulty comes from poor controls and a crazy camera. This is simply frustrating.
Absent Lock-On option - with a debilitating camera, and a ridiculous auto-targeting system, this game is in DESPERATE need of a lock on option.
Final Word:
If you loved the movie, and want to beat up a lot of people, then you may find some find some fun in this game. Of course having the sluggish Mr Incredible as your lead hero takes a lot of that fun away. I wouldn't recommend picking it up for anything more than a bargain price.Read full review
