A Criticism of A Game from a Beloved Brand

02-09-14 11:45 PM

EideticMemory is Offline

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EideticMemory

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A Criticism of A Game from a Beloved Brand

Released in 2009, Lego Battles immerses you in a land of warring lego characters. Through 6 different modes and freeplay, you act upon a variety of battle objectives, from destroying enemy buildings to larger enemy units, such as dragons.

With distinct time-period themes for each game mode, this game’s primary appeal focuses on younger players, but there are opportunities for older players to find it enjoyable.

Since I find the game expensive when buying new, I hope to help you decide whether it’s worth the cost.

My critical analysis aims to look at the game itself without bias from the popular “Lego” brand of its title.

Without further ado, let’s jump in!

Graphics: 5 / 10
The graphics do have the simplicity of lego games, but they aren’t impressive in a game where building is limited to single clicks for entire creations and the individual legos aren’t apparent.

While I don’t find difficulty differentiating the different characters alone, their proximity to each other left me searching for the correct unit.

While this may simply be due to the small screen of the DS, the designers should have helped the player with options to locate specific characters.

The true “lego” nature of the game appears mostly in the cut scenes. Short and humorous, their appeal targets younger players.

With mostly sprites and simple graphics for buildings and the surrounding layout, it’s only the cut-scenes that raise the score to 5 / 10.

Sound / Music: 3 / 10
While I found the title song track repetitive, the music in Lego Battles is surprisingly decent. Many play softly with songs lead by drums and electronic harmonies. The sound effects drown out the music, but in a bad way.

The sound effects are often and repetitive. There’s no doubt about it, they’re annoying. The sound of units breaking and the annoying screeches of different units in battle made me turn off the sound when playing, every time. While their simplicity and emphasis on breaking / building do fit with the Lego nature of the game, they result in a quick headache when played continuously.

The clips are a reprieve and feature the only decent combinations of sound effects of the game.

Needless to say, music / sound was a weakness to the game. 3 / 10.

Addictiveness: 7 / 10
While the activities are undoubtedly easy, I found the game incredibly addictive. The simplicity and objective-based story-mode kept my attention for a few days, but the free-play mode was one of the saving graces to the game; it entices both older and younger players alike.

The free-play mode is simple, allowing unrestricted access to buildings with only one goal, lasting as long as possible. While I found the six modes easy, the free-play keeps increasing in difficulty.

Since multiplayer requires more than one person to own the game, I did not have the opportunity to try it out. I do feel that the possibility multiplayer adds to the addictiveness, since advanced players can face each other and AIs, allowing for challenging matches.

Within a week of playing the game, I grew tired of the six story modes and focused primarily on free-play. The easy objectives quickly lose addictiveness over time. While this problem does appeal to younger players, it results in a loss of fun for everyone else.

The decline of addiction to the story modes over time reduces the rating to an impressive 7 / 10.

Story: 4 / 10
In the six modes, simple story lines do exist. They provide for surprisingly interesting gameplay, such as facing aliens on an unknown planet.

However, the cut-scenes only provide a cursory glimpse of events and there’s virtually no complexity. There meant to explain objectives in a humorous way.

Without any true complexity, the story only rates 4 / 10.

Depth: 7 / 10
With dozens of objectives to complete across the six game modes, there is surprising depth to the game.

For amateur players, finishing all the story modes may take anywhere from 10 to 15 hours. The simplicity of objectives can make the game annoying after a few hours, so it’s likely that you’ll play beat it across a longer period of time and not in a single sitting.

With many options for buildings, you can choose your route for survival and implement your own mental maps for the best defense.

With the many, many missions spread out over six story modes, the depth scores 7 / 10.

Difficulty: 2 / 10
The underwhelming difficulty of AI in story modes coupled with simple objectives make the difficulty virtually non-existent.
Only after several minutes of playing in free play mode did I end up facing actual difficulty.

Without any natural difficulty, this category can only rate low.

2 / 10.

Overall: 5 / 10
My holistic comparison of important categories leads to a mediocre overall score of 5 / 10.

The weaknesses were very pronounced with only a few strengths. The lack of complexity and difficulty loses game-play for older players, while making it instant gratification for younger kids. The strengths mostly centered around the free-play mode, which is actually decent.

Since I received the game as a gift from my parents, I felt it did give me several hours of enjoyment. However, I would not recommend buying it new and give a word of caution if you’re over 13.

As legos are enjoyed by all ages, I was disappointed that the game was mainly for younger kids, but I’m sure it would make a great gift.

You might buy it if you:
1. want instant gratification out of a game

2. want to play over a period of time instead of in one straight run

3. need a fun gift for your younger family members or friends

For those three cases specifically, the game works nicely.

I found re-examining LB a difficult experience.

It was hard to reject a game from a brand that I love, but it’s necessary to be unbiased or the brands will use your faithfulness to their advantage. I’m interested to see what your experiences were and what you think.

Thank you for reading!

A Criticism of A Game from a Beloved Brand

Released in 2009, Lego Battles immerses you in a land of warring lego characters. Through 6 different modes and freeplay, you act upon a variety of battle objectives, from destroying enemy buildings to larger enemy units, such as dragons.

With distinct time-period themes for each game mode, this game’s primary appeal focuses on younger players, but there are opportunities for older players to find it enjoyable.

Since I find the game expensive when buying new, I hope to help you decide whether it’s worth the cost.

My critical analysis aims to look at the game itself without bias from the popular “Lego” brand of its title.

Without further ado, let’s jump in!

Graphics: 5 / 10
The graphics do have the simplicity of lego games, but they aren’t impressive in a game where building is limited to single clicks for entire creations and the individual legos aren’t apparent.

While I don’t find difficulty differentiating the different characters alone, their proximity to each other left me searching for the correct unit.

While this may simply be due to the small screen of the DS, the designers should have helped the player with options to locate specific characters.

The true “lego” nature of the game appears mostly in the cut scenes. Short and humorous, their appeal targets younger players.

With mostly sprites and simple graphics for buildings and the surrounding layout, it’s only the cut-scenes that raise the score to 5 / 10.

Sound / Music: 3 / 10
While I found the title song track repetitive, the music in Lego Battles is surprisingly decent. Many play softly with songs lead by drums and electronic harmonies. The sound effects drown out the music, but in a bad way.

The sound effects are often and repetitive. There’s no doubt about it, they’re annoying. The sound of units breaking and the annoying screeches of different units in battle made me turn off the sound when playing, every time. While their simplicity and emphasis on breaking / building do fit with the Lego nature of the game, they result in a quick headache when played continuously.

The clips are a reprieve and feature the only decent combinations of sound effects of the game.

Needless to say, music / sound was a weakness to the game. 3 / 10.

Addictiveness: 7 / 10
While the activities are undoubtedly easy, I found the game incredibly addictive. The simplicity and objective-based story-mode kept my attention for a few days, but the free-play mode was one of the saving graces to the game; it entices both older and younger players alike.

The free-play mode is simple, allowing unrestricted access to buildings with only one goal, lasting as long as possible. While I found the six modes easy, the free-play keeps increasing in difficulty.

Since multiplayer requires more than one person to own the game, I did not have the opportunity to try it out. I do feel that the possibility multiplayer adds to the addictiveness, since advanced players can face each other and AIs, allowing for challenging matches.

Within a week of playing the game, I grew tired of the six story modes and focused primarily on free-play. The easy objectives quickly lose addictiveness over time. While this problem does appeal to younger players, it results in a loss of fun for everyone else.

The decline of addiction to the story modes over time reduces the rating to an impressive 7 / 10.

Story: 4 / 10
In the six modes, simple story lines do exist. They provide for surprisingly interesting gameplay, such as facing aliens on an unknown planet.

However, the cut-scenes only provide a cursory glimpse of events and there’s virtually no complexity. There meant to explain objectives in a humorous way.

Without any true complexity, the story only rates 4 / 10.

Depth: 7 / 10
With dozens of objectives to complete across the six game modes, there is surprising depth to the game.

For amateur players, finishing all the story modes may take anywhere from 10 to 15 hours. The simplicity of objectives can make the game annoying after a few hours, so it’s likely that you’ll play beat it across a longer period of time and not in a single sitting.

With many options for buildings, you can choose your route for survival and implement your own mental maps for the best defense.

With the many, many missions spread out over six story modes, the depth scores 7 / 10.

Difficulty: 2 / 10
The underwhelming difficulty of AI in story modes coupled with simple objectives make the difficulty virtually non-existent.
Only after several minutes of playing in free play mode did I end up facing actual difficulty.

Without any natural difficulty, this category can only rate low.

2 / 10.

Overall: 5 / 10
My holistic comparison of important categories leads to a mediocre overall score of 5 / 10.

The weaknesses were very pronounced with only a few strengths. The lack of complexity and difficulty loses game-play for older players, while making it instant gratification for younger kids. The strengths mostly centered around the free-play mode, which is actually decent.

Since I received the game as a gift from my parents, I felt it did give me several hours of enjoyment. However, I would not recommend buying it new and give a word of caution if you’re over 13.

As legos are enjoyed by all ages, I was disappointed that the game was mainly for younger kids, but I’m sure it would make a great gift.

You might buy it if you:
1. want instant gratification out of a game

2. want to play over a period of time instead of in one straight run

3. need a fun gift for your younger family members or friends

For those three cases specifically, the game works nicely.

I found re-examining LB a difficult experience.

It was hard to reject a game from a brand that I love, but it’s necessary to be unbiased or the brands will use your faithfulness to their advantage. I’m interested to see what your experiences were and what you think.

Thank you for reading!

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02-10-14 10:40 PM

sonicthehedgehog57 is Offline

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sonicthehedgehog57

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EideticMemory : Another great job Eidetic, and I like how you emphasize the fact that even though it does belong to a series you enjoy alot you will make sure not to be biased in any of the sections you find could've been better. Nice Job once again!