It is no secret among gamers that movie licensed games often fail to deliver a memorable gaming experience. Comic licensed titles often tend to be just as bad, and a combination of the two often result in a rushed, terrible mess of a game. The fates foretold that my journey into Asgard would not be a pleasant one, but the desire to wield Mjolnir was too great. As a massive Thor fan, I had hoped for simply a decent representation of the god of thunder and his world. Does Thor’s game manage to succeed were the games of his fellow avengers, Iron Man and the Hulk, have failed? Did Sega actually use their marvel license correctly and manage to produce a decent game? Verily, I say thee nay! The story of Thor seems to act as a prequel to the events of the film. The game begins with a siege on Asgard by the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. Thor manages to repel the invading goliaths, but a major Asgardian is killed in the process. Loki convinces Thor to seek revenge, whereupon he unknowingly releases a great evil that will bring about Ragnarok to the nine worlds. Thor must battle his way across the nine worlds in order to make it back to Asgard and put an end to both the deadly creature and Loki’s schemes. The story does manage to include a large amount of the Thor mythos, ranging from the aforementioned frost giants to the dwellings of massive trolls, but the cheesy narration and terrible cut scenes manage to prevent Thor’s journey into mystery from being a memorable one.
Like most movie games, Thor’s graphics fail to impress. The game does utilize the unreal engine, but character animations and backgrounds simply feel rushed. Thor’s cape flows awkwardly, defeated enemies disappear before they even have the chance to hit the ground, and flashing lightning simply doesn’t look very flashy. The games massive bosses often do look impressive, and their animations are certainly the highpoint of the game. Thor’s journey takes him through various regions of the nine realms, ranging from icy peaks to lush jungles, but these areas all feel very bland. Thor’s graphics may be lacking, but the true appeal of this game lies in smacking mythological creatures in the skull with a large hammer. So how does the combat portion of the Odinson’s digital tale fare? The gameplay of Thor should feel familiar to anyone that has played an action title in the last five years. The x button is used for melee attacks, the y button unleashes various lightning and wind-based powers, and the b button is used for grappling. Players can combine all three of these attacks to form unique combos to dispatch the god of thunder’s foes. Much to the joy of Thor fanboys, the god of thunder can also throw his hammer at his foes with the right trigger button. The left trigger button is used for blocking and players can use the Lb button to doge attacks in a similar manner to that of Starkiller’s force boost in the Force Unleashed series.
Thor’s Y button attacks use up Odin force meter, which can be replenished by using the y button to finish off grappled foes. Thor can save up his Odin Force meter and unleash a powerful lightning storm that clears the screen of all enemies. While Thor does have a nice range of attacks, which can be upgraded as the games progresses, the problem lies in the fact that the combat is simply not very fun. Thor’s hammer attacks seem to lack a certain umpf factor, as the player never truly feels like he/she is wielding a mighty hammer. The hit system simply is lacking in terms of impact. The player should feel like he/she is wielding the thunder god’s greatest weapon, but Thor might as will be using the walking stick of his alter ego Donald Blake. Collision detection can be poor, with grapples being whiffed more often than not. This is a major problem because the game requires you to use grapples to finish off giant foes and bosses. As an action gamer aficionado, I was especially disappointed with Thor’s subpar combat system. The system obviously tries to emulate other action titles, such as the God of War series and Conan the Barbarian, but ultimately fails due to poor hit detection and the game tries to freshen up the experience by throwing a few traps and puzzles in Thor’s path, but these often prove to be more tedious than challenging.
Thor’s platforming sequences are particularly painful, as shoddy camera angles and terrible jumping mechanics often result in Thor’s demise. Much like his comic counterpart, Thor is able to use Mjolnir for flight. The problem with this is that Thor can only fly at certain locations, which are marked by a glowing marker in the sky. Thor’s puzzles primarily consist of using his hammer to open doors and activate glowing rune stones. These puzzles are extremely repetitive and you will often wish that you could skip entire sections of the game due to their poor implementation. Ultimately, Thor: God of Thunder fails to deliver as both an action game and as a Thor game. Sega clearly put effort into incorporating Thor’s background lore and they did an admirable job of incorporating a rogue’s gallery pulled straight from the Marvel comics, but they ultimately failed in delivering a fun gaming experience. I cannot even recommend this game to fellow Thor fans, as the repetitive combat, unmemorable puzzles, and shoddy platforming prevent this adventure from even achieving rentable status. “I fear we are in the bowels of Hel, my friends. I fear we have died. And this is the punishment for all our sins and the sins of our fathers.” - Thor
