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CurseSasuke55`s LBP Review
When you first start up the game, your only option will be to hit up the main Story mode. The first three levels (which are the same that were featured in the beta, if you played that) serve as good tutorials for how to play the game. In terms of mechanics, this is about as pure and basic a control setup as you can get. The X button jumps, R1 grabs objects, and that's about it. If you grab a jetpack, you can either shake the controller or tap one of the face buttons to remove it, but that ends your control mechanics (outside of the editor, of course).
While that sounds simple, and it is, it's the level design that makes the whole Story progression the fantastic experience that it is. The first set of levels is fairly easy and will look familiar to anyone who's followed the game at all. The cool thing though is that every other level in the game (of which there are more than 20 "main" levels) is completely unique. Each themed area has three main stages, and while those generally use a lot of the same art assets and look very similar, what you're doing there in each individual area is very different. The jungle areas have you swinging from monkeys, climbing giraffes and riding on buffaloes. The Metropolis stages have you navigate sewers, hop between subway cars and drag race. There's a wild west set of levels that rely on plenty of explosives and mine cart rides, and every other section is just as varied (if not more so) than these.
Really, Media Molecule has done an amazing job of giving you something cool to do in one level, then switching it up and giving you something completely different for the next without ever really repeating ideas throughout the entire game. It's all platforming, sure, but the variance within that frame does nothing short of pushing the limits of the genre.
The art direction is fantastic.
While you could run through the game in a matter of five or six hours if you simply blazed through everything, you'd be missing a large chunk of the fun. Each level contains a ton of collectable content kept within prize bubbles, with much of them either hidden away or contained in places that will require you to explore and think to figure out how to reach them. The hidden stuff ranges from stickers and decorations that you can use at any time to full-fledged objects for the level editor, as well as clothing and materials with which to outfit your Sack person.
One cool twist here is that most levels have a few "blank" canvas spots where a certain sticker needs to go, and if you have said sticker and place it there, you'll unlock a bunch of content. So you might play through a level, notice that you don't have what looks like an elephant sticker, and then come back once you've found it a couple of stages later and unlock even more content.
One cool twist here is that most levels have a few "blank" canvas spots where a certain sticker needs to go, and if you have said sticker and place it there, you'll unlock a bunch of content. So you might play through a level, notice that you don't have what looks like an elephant sticker, and then come back once you've found it a couple of stages later and unlock even more content.
While searching and scavenging for prize bubbles will net you most of the game's unlockable content, you'll also earn a fair bit of stuff by completing each of the areas without dying. It seemed to me that this always resulted in clothing and accessories for my Sackboy, with some of them being well worth the trouble (like a pirate hook or a wooden sword). Along with the hidden objects, rewarding you for completing a level with one life (which honestly is pretty easy for the first half of the game) does very well to encourage you to come back for more.
But that's not even close to the end of the replay incentives. Clothes, stickers and objects are great to find in the plentiful prize bubbles, but if you come across a key and can figure out how to reach it, you'll unlock new challenges to play. These challenges are essentially mini-levels that generally have a very straightforward goal. One of the first challenge stages simply has you jump over a rotating tie for as long as possible while it speeds up. Later stages have you negotiate through spinning wheels situated over fire pits, run through rotating boxes with little to no safe spots, and there's even a bobsled race near the end of the game.
But that's not even close to the end of the replay incentives. Clothes, stickers and objects are great to find in the plentiful prize bubbles, but if you come across a key and can figure out how to reach it, you'll unlock new challenges to play. These challenges are essentially mini-levels that generally have a very straightforward goal. One of the first challenge stages simply has you jump over a rotating tie for as long as possible while it speeds up. Later stages have you negotiate through spinning wheels situated over fire pits, run through rotating boxes with little to no safe spots, and there's even a bobsled race near the end of the game.
To further expand your time within the story mode, multiplayer play is greatly encouraged on practically every level of the game. You'll come across sections that require two (or in a couple cases, three or four) other players in order to nab all the goodies. Fortunately, even if you don't have any friends, finding others to play with you online is as simple as choosing to "Play Online" instead of by yourself at the start of each level. Bam, instant multiplayer game.
While it's generally fantastic all the way through, the Story mode does end in a somewhat disappointing manner. The story doesn't really make a whole lot of sense throughout the game, but when you begin the last area you sort of get this idea about where the story could be heading, and that it would be awesome and interesting on many levels if it were true. It's not though, and the Story mode just sort of ends and then encourages you to go and make your own levels.
As I mentioned, there are a few disappointing spots with the game, and the ending isn't the only one. One somewhat small gripe I have is with regards to the control response, and how your Sack person moves overall. The game is very heavily (if not entirely) based on physics, and I think that left a few corners on what should have been a razor-sharp control scheme. Player acceleration (and perhaps deceleration) isn't as quick as it could be, which means that keeping your Sackboy alive between two electrified bars while the ground below you shifts around can be a little tricky. Likewise, in-air direction change can be a little iffy at times with you sometimes having more or less inertia than it looks and feels like you do, making your character occasionally over or under-respond to what you want him to do.
As I said though, my gripes with the control mechanics are relatively small ones. My biggest complaint for the game comes with regards to its use of layers, or more specifically, how and when the game decides your Sack person should change between them.
While it's generally fantastic all the way through, the Story mode does end in a somewhat disappointing manner. The story doesn't really make a whole lot of sense throughout the game, but when you begin the last area you sort of get this idea about where the story could be heading, and that it would be awesome and interesting on many levels if it were true. It's not though, and the Story mode just sort of ends and then encourages you to go and make your own levels.
As I mentioned, there are a few disappointing spots with the game, and the ending isn't the only one. One somewhat small gripe I have is with regards to the control response, and how your Sack person moves overall. The game is very heavily (if not entirely) based on physics, and I think that left a few corners on what should have been a razor-sharp control scheme. Player acceleration (and perhaps deceleration) isn't as quick as it could be, which means that keeping your Sackboy alive between two electrified bars while the ground below you shifts around can be a little tricky. Likewise, in-air direction change can be a little iffy at times with you sometimes having more or less inertia than it looks and feels like you do, making your character occasionally over or under-respond to what you want him to do.
As I said though, my gripes with the control mechanics are relatively small ones. My biggest complaint for the game comes with regards to its use of layers, or more specifically, how and when the game decides your Sack person should change between them.
You'll never know what the next stage will have in store for you.
There are three layers to the game at any time -- the background, foreground and a middle section between the two. You can move between them on your own, but the game will also switch layers for you when necessary. Examples of this would be that if you jump up from the middle or foreground, and there's a ledge in the background layer, you'll automatically move back and land on the ledge. Or, if you're on a layer and it runs into a wall while another layer continues, you'll get moved to said layer and keep on truckin'.
Usually this works well, to the point that you probably won't even notice it happen all the time. But, there are instances where it doesn't do what you want it to do, and these points stick out like a sore thumb, especially when it means your death.
Closing Comments:Usually this works well, to the point that you probably won't even notice it happen all the time. But, there are instances where it doesn't do what you want it to do, and these points stick out like a sore thumb, especially when it means your death.
As you can see, I had a ton to say in this review, but that's because there's a ton to this game. LittleBigPlanet is a massive game, one that is essentially two parts intertwined so well that they're practically inseparable. Media Molecule has created a brilliant platformer, and then given you the tools to recreate the whole thing over again, or better yet, to create your own ideas from scratch. It's not perfect - - the controls could be tighter, automatically shifting between planes can be problematic, the editor isn't quite as robust as you might hope -- but what's there is nothing short of astounding. If you own a PlayStation 3, you cannot miss this. If you don't have a PS3 yet, this is the reason to get one.
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, May 8 2009, 1:59 PM EDT
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