Thor: God of Thunder Review

Most video games based on films have been very disappointing in my experience, they either lack a good storyline or just copy the film entirely, so there are no surprises if you have previously seen the film. I recently saw The Avengers, (which I fell inlove with and ended up seeing a further 4 more times!) which then prompted me to see the individual Marvel films again. I realised that I actually really liked the Thor film because I really sympathised with Loki’s background story (plus Tom Hiddleston is one of my all time favourite actors). Learning that Tom actually performed most of the narration for the Thor game (along with Chris Hemsworth as the voice of Thor, of course) meant that I had to get the game to try it out!

I have never before been impressed by a game based on a movie before, but from a Game Art point of view, this game is visually beautiful. The realistic feel of the models and the texturing is impressive as the characters actually look like the actors. The game shows a lot more of the layout of Asgard (which I felt was lacking in the film) and also illustrates in great detail the other realms and their inhabitants mentioned in the movie, as they are playable levels.

Although the models look realistic, the animation and overall movement of the characters lets the whole game down tremendously. The movement is not believable at all and makes the characters look really slow. I have been told by friends that this is the case for other games produced by Sega, especially the other Avenger's games. 

The lip syncing also makes the game an unrealistic experience, as although the actors from Thor are used for the voices, the models don’t seem to be saying the words properly. I personally felt that maybe the voices had been recorded in different languages and the same animation had been used for each language, like a badly dubbed film.

The storyline is different from the film and so makes the game more interesting as it explains more about the different realms and the relationship between the main characters. The levels are quite repetitive and the game-play reminds me a lot of Fable 2 as the conflict and controls are very similar. There is also an option to upgrade things like special attacks and the heath meter, once a certain amount of points have been collected, which is similar to many games.

Overall I would give this game a 3 out of 5 because the graphics are excellent and I like that the actors from the film have done the character voices, but the animation and the repetitiveness of the levels let it down.