Captain America: Super Soldier

Captain America, Marvel Comics' shield-carrying, star-spangled wartime hero, finally gets the video game treatment that he deserves.

Captain America: Super Soldier, the pseudo tie-in set in the same universe as the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger flick, may rank as one of the few film-based games (although its a loose connection) that's actually worth the price of admission. In fact, in my time with the title during a SEGA showcase this past Friday night, I can say that Captain America: Super Soldier is an action-packed game that deftly mixes brawling, platforming, and light puzzles.

Captain America: Super Soldier opens with Steve Rogers infiltrating a Hydra castle (by skydiving, parachuteless, through its roof) and battling the Nazi minions of the nefarious German madman, Red Skull. It's an exciting backdrop for the in-game action, and gives the title a unique feel in an industry drowning in buff space marines.

I was pleasantly surprised by Cap's nimbleness. Longtime Captain America fans know that Rogers represents the physical peak of human perfection, so he moves like an Olympic-level gymnast meets martial artist meets parkour master. As such, the in-game Captain America can backflip over enemies during combat, briefly wall-run, and unleash a high number of reversals, and hard-hitting melee moves that incorporate fists, feet, and shield. It all flowed together very nicely, and allowed me to string together some impressive combos.

On the topic of Captain America's iconic shield, it's creatively implemented to give gamers a sense of what its like to be in the super soldier's boots. It can be used to defend attacks, stun one enemy, ricocheted to take down many targets at once, or deflect bullets back at Nazi gunmen.

Successful attacks of any type build a super-meter that let you unleash Crippling Strikes, devastating one-hit blows that take down enemies quickly. Even after seeing a number of Crippling Strikes several times, they never got old thanks to the tight closeup of the impact and accompanying bulletime-like slow-motion effect. Captain America also has Tactical Vision, the video game representation of Rogers' combat sense, which lets you find interactive items in the environment. Developer Next Level Games smoothly mixed the action with the platforming. Vaulting from rafter to rafter gave the good solider Spider-Man like agility. As you play a super soldier, you can't miss a leap, but if your timing isn't correct, you may take enemy attacks as you move along.

Captain America: Super Soldier features detailed character models and smooth animation, but in a couple of areas the camera got a bit wonky. This didn't happen very much during combat where are wide open spaces to engage in combat, but in tighter areas, making quick turns threw me off a bit. The game has three different Cap costumes: Classic, Ultimate (with goggles), and Movie. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will be 3D compatible.

The game was written by Marvel scribe Christos Gage, but it the title isn't bogged down with Metal Gear Solid-levels of cutscenes and dialogue. There's just enough to keep the story moving along nicely.

Captain America: Super Solider will be out for the Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, and DS in July 2011.
