I’ll be honest; I’ve been on kind of a comic book kick lately. With multi-million dollar blockbusters based on superhero franchises released every summer, breaking records at the box office in the process, it seems that I’m not alone in that regard. Films like X-Men and Spider-Man popularized the sudden resurgence of comic books being very prevalent and relevant in today’s pop culture, and films like Iron Man and The Dark Knight have only solidified the legacy of America’s favorite heroes on the silver screen. And with every superhero film, there needs to be a companion game, so says Sega.

Sega’s track record with superhero movie video games isn’t exactly spotless. While I have never played them myself, the pair of Iron Man games have been critically lambasted. Thor: God of Thunder, one of their most recent offerings, is, quite simply, an abomination. With this in mind, I wasn’t exactly going into Captain America: Super Soldier expecting to be blown away.

And well, I wasn’t. That’s not to say that Super Soldier is a bad game. It’s not. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the title. I was expecting to be dreading the entire experience like I did with Thor, but that wasn’t the case. Is Super Soldier the best action-adventure game ever? Certainly not. It’s probably not even in the top five or ten video games based on comic book properties. With all that being said, it may just still be worth a look.

Unfortunately, I have yet to see the new Captain America: The First Avenger film, so I am not entirely sure if Super Soldier is a prequel or takes place during the events of the movie. That being said, I can still do a once-over when it comes to the storyline of the game, and the overall plot-line of Captain America’s place in the Marvel universe as well.

Captain America is just as the title of the game suggests–he’s a “super soldier”. Once a rather weak member of the American military during World War II, the government used an experimental serum on him to beef him up to help battle the evil Axis powers and stop their attempts at world domination. Oh, and he throws a shield at people to break their face and stuff.

That’s the gist of it. I don’t want to get into too many details because I don’t want to ruin the potential plot of the movie for anyone, but with a game like this, the story takes a backseat anyway. Super Soldier does a pretty bad job of telling the story, but that’s to be expected and I can even accept it. It’s not a big deal. The focus here is the action-oriented gameplay, and that’s where Super Soldier truly excels.

Taking a cue from Arkham Asylum, Super Soldier uses an advanced, dynamic combat system that is both fluid and impressive. Instead of mindlessly mashing on buttons to defeat enemies with recycled attack animations, Cap responds naturally to enemy attacks, and counters their strikes not unlike the way Batman did battle with the lunatics in Arkham. Not only that, but the combat system is surprisingly deep. There are so many different combinations of attacks to implement and each enemy requires a different strategy.

And it seems that some lessons have been learned from the travesty that was Thor: God of Thunder. Thor had the tendency to bog down the gameplay with a ton of repetitive and unfulfilling boss battles, but Cap avoids this. Instead it focuses on challenging the player by having swarms of enemies attack Cap at once, resulting in much more satisfying battles, and due to the deep combat system, it never gets repetitive.

Of course, a game can rarely survive with only one good game mechanic. I’m sorry to say it, but the battle system is really the only overly “good” thing about the game. However, the battle system is very, very good, and it rivals that of the one Rocksteady created in the uber-popular Arkham Asylum. That, along with the license, probably makes this game a must-play for any comic book nut.

The rest of Captain America is split up into curiously linear platforming segments as well as collect-a-thon…ing. The platforming isn’t bad, but I’m not kidding when I call it “linear”. All it amounts is to pressing one button. The game may throw a wrench in there every now and then by making you turn Captain America around to look in a different direction, but that’s about as complicated as it all gets. As far as the collect-a-thon aspect goes, the environments are absolutely packed with collectibles to nab, to the point that it’s almost obnoxious. The game tries to use a free-roaming mechanic like the one found in Arkham Asylum to complement the collect-a-thon element, but it fails to do so. In the end, this open-world element is more detrimental to the experience than anything else, forcing players to back-track at awkward moments that seriously hurts the game’s momentum.

Graphics-wise, Captain America is good-looking, which quite frankly, took me by surprise. The textures are detailed and impressive, the screen is often busy with a multitude of enemies and environmental detail, and the character models are gorgeous. The animation is a little stiff, but overall the presentation, especially the graphical side of the coin, is fantastic. Captain America’s shield in itself is beautiful.

Now, the other side of the coin, the audio side, is not nearly as impressive as the graphics. The voice-acting is very questionable, even though it apparently uses the actors from the film reprising their roles. Not only that, but the game has the tendency to have the audio cut out, only to resurface after the level has been completed. There was one level which had Cap placing explosives on machinery and the explosions didn’t make a sound. Curiously, Cap’s grunts when he was performing backflips and rolling around were still very audible…and very annoying.

Super Soldier is of surprising length. The game averages 8-10 hours for an initial playthrough, and after that, there are achievements, multiple difficulty settings (that actually change the gameplay quite a bit), and a Challenge Mode. On top of all that, there are a million collectibles to find hidden throughout the environment. For a completionist, there’s a lot to do in Super Soldier after the credits roll.

Like I said, at the top of this review, this game may just be worth a look, if you are a fan of Captain America, Marvel, the film, or if you want something to tide you over until Arkham City hits store shelves. It’s not worth the full $60 pricetag, but I’d definitely say that if the game interests you in the least, you might as well give it a rent.

SPOOK’S PROS AND CONS

Pros

• Excellent combat system
• Plenty of content
• Impressive graphics…especially that shield (mmm)

Cons

• Not much to the game besides the excellent combat system
• Technical issues like freezes and audio cut-outs
• Occasional screen-tearing

FINAL SCORE: 6.5/10