Shrek might be a beautiful looking game, but underneath, it's all garbage.
Pixar has been the undisputed king of CG films in years past, churning out humorous and visually dazzling classics (Toy Story 1 and 2, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., etc.). This summer, DreamWorks came out swinging with Shrek, chock full of pop culture references, a massive, extremely likeable ogre voiced by Michael Myers and the most advanced computer animation to hit a theater screen. Naturally, publishers quickly grabbed for the development rights to the film, eventually landing in the hands of TDK Mediactive.
Shrek takes place after the events of the film, but that detail has little significance, seeing as how beyond the introduction, there is no plot to be followed. The magician Merlin has gone berserk, and is causing havoc to the nearby villagers. In order to keep anyone from stopping his reign of terror, he has locked himself up in a desolate, dark tower and shrouded the area with a deep fog. In order to push back the fog, Shrek will have to complete a number of “Good Deeds,” each weakening the power of the fog, eventually opening new areas.
The massive power that the Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2 provide for developers means that our eyes are in for constant treats, but sadly, that doesn’t mean that gameplay will improve in the same fashion. Shrek is a prime example of this in action; it is a fantastic graphical showcase for the Xbox hardware, but once past that, adult and child gamers alike will have a hard time finding anything to keep their interest in his adventure. To its credit, however, developer Digital Illusions has spent their development time on Shrek to craft an endearing, colorful world for Shrek to explore. From the swamps of Shrek’s home to Prince Charming’s castle, the textures are of the absolute highest quality, as are the environments, lighting effects – every corner is brimming with detail. Digital Illusions has taken the Xbox’s strengths and put them to amazing work in Shrek, making it eerily similar to the actual film.
Once the coat of glaze melts off your eyes, the pitfalls of Shrek become readily apparent and quickly sink the gameplay experience. The gameplay is based around completing objectives for the different creatures and characters inhabiting the game’s several worlds (Mother Goose Land, Sweetsville Industrial Park, Creepy Crypt, Prince Charming’s Castle, Molasses Sewers, Red Dragon Castle and Merlin’s Dark Tower Fortress of Pure Evil), with two being constant all the way throughout: collecting the Pink Fairies and Easter Eggs. Within completing a few missions, the game’s frustrating nature shows itself in full force; despite the idea that Shrek would be made with a children’s audience in mind, the difficulty level has been nowhere adjusted to fit that.
Right from the get go, a mission objective had me turning off five whistles before the factory’s workers were able to repair them. Due to Shrek’s loose control combined with the worker’s ability to repair whistles in record time, the only way to reach the goal is to drag each worker to a spot in the area where their AI will become confused and they will not be able to navigate back to the whistles. Why would the target audience even think of that solution? You have to perform that same task in several of Shrek’s missions, simply because the enemies move at a freakishly fast rate. And while explaining mission objectives through a narrative story is cute, it results in confusion over what the actual objective is; many times, it gives you absolutely no hint as to where to look (i.e. “Find the speaker to make the skeletons dance!”).
It should also be noted to not only Digital Illusions but to developers all over the globe: farts on their own are not knee-slappingly hilarious. Sure, they might be funny as an in-office joke to tell in a drunken furor, but not here. At ever turn the game includes a crack about Shrek’s chronic flatulence problem, and not only does it probably throw Shrek into deep fits of depression that have resulted in the abomination of a video game we now find ourselves with, but it is also the complete opposite of “humorous” or “funny.”
The fact that Shrek isn’t a top-tier title does not come as a surprise, but with all the work that went into making it visually outstanding, taking the time to bring the gameplay up to standards would have really paid off. As it stands, the release of Shrek seems to have come only to coincide with the release of the movie’s DVD.
