Deadly Creatures Review

Although fun and exciting, Deadly Creatures is ultimately a flawed game that's still worth a few hours of your time.

The Wii is not known for its spectacular graphics, but with THQ's Deadly Creatures, Nintendo's console has a game that really impresses. It’s a big step forwards for THQ, and particularly the developer, Rainbow Studios, who are best known for their racing games.

Those Wii owners who bemoan the look of their games now have something to shout about; it's just unfortunate that the gameplay doesn't quite match up to the beauty.

Taking control of either a tarantula or scorpion, Deadly Creatures is played across ten levels; five as the tarantula and five as the scorpion. Your goal is to negotiate the harsh desert surroundings, destroying any creature in your path as you eat grubs to unlock art from the main menu. Your opponents include a Gila Monster, Black Widow spiders, a rattlesnake and of course, human beings.

The game's story follows two humans, Struggs and Wade, who are looking for buried gold from the American Civil War. Once found, the two turn against each other and, heading back to his petrol station, Struggs manages to give the tarantula a lift. When the scorpion finds its way to the petrol station all hell breaks loose.

The game is lent an immediate air of credibility by the two human leads, voiced by Hollywood mega-stars Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper. It is the former whose Southern drawl leads us through the introduction cinematic, which unbeknownst to you, relays the action to come. As either scorpion or tarantula, the game is made more intriguing by over-hearing this pair banter on, in addition to feeling their shovel strikes reverberate through the earth.

What is instantly striking is the detail of your (anti) heroes. Rainbow Studios did in fact leak a video showing a scorpion in mo-cap, complete with dots, to suggest that they had gone to such great lengths to make this the most realistic game on the market. Of course, this was faked, but it wouldn’t have been that surprising had it been real.

The background environments are very brown and mono-tone, but this is hardly noticeable, since you'll be too busy being freaked out by how realistic the tarantula and scorpion look on the Wii. Equally impressive and most certainly deserving of a mention are the cutscenes for the scorpion’s fatalities, which put Mortal Kombat to shame.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, both the spider and scorpion consist of very different styles: the former is quick and agile and makes use of its web abilities; whilst the latter is slower, but has the strength to defend itself.

Although many have argued that Deadly Creatures is the third-party game to get Wii-mote controls right, often the game feels like a button masher, since the moves gets a little bit repetitive after about two hours of play. During the game you'll unlock new moves for your creatures, which include the first instance I’ve seen of turning the Wii-mote upside down for a move (allowing the scorpion to burrow into the ground before jumping out an striking its prey. Still, there’s really no skill going into your kills despite an array of finishing moves.

Deadly Creature's music is dark and ominous, bringing that all pervading sense of doom and dark atmosphere that you'd hope for from a game featuring arachnids as the protagonists. Add realistic scuttling and chewing noises and you could easily be freaked out by the sounds alone.

The real problem with this game lies with its longevity. There's no multiplayer option, which really is a massively missed opportunity. Can you imagine how great it would be to go one on one, spider vs. tarantula? Or have some kind of time trial through the various mazes using each of the hero’s specific attributes?

So you probably won't be coming back to the game once you’ve completed the single-player. This is despite the various nooks and crannies you can’t access until you’ve learnt the skills, such as cutting grass, digging holes, web swinging and climbing on roofs for the tarantula. As mentioned before, you can try and route out all of the grubs in the game, but this is only going to keep the most hardened gamers interested in the long run.

Apparently a playable rattlesnake was left on the cutting-room floor, so fingers crossed that it's included in the much deserved sequel and with added multiplayer. What this boils down to is that Deadly Creatures is a brilliant effort from Rainbow Studios. It has the beauty, the brains and the brawn to be a really brilliant game. And although it has some negatives, it's relatively easy to over-look these for a game that tries something completely new.

7.5/10

Rob Wheatley

---

Find out more about Deadly Creatures by visiting the Deadly Creatures game page.