Ben 10: Alien Force | a Review
originally published on 08/05/2021;
Hello everyone, I am the designer of the REAL Omnitrix, the one that stops working after you use it three times and only plays shitty tunes for you, G.E.M.Simov, a being so inexplicable that I have come to tell you all about Ben 10: Alien Force, a game for the PSP.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Also, I am a gameplay designer and a writer so I got the credentials to talk shit.
Gameplay
Ah, Ben Ten. Truly, a titan of the gaming industry, according to venerable, or venereal, sources, such as Kotaku, YouTube, any online games page and, at the bottom of the list, Rule34. Oh dear.
Well, I am here to tell you why Ben Ten is, actually, not a titan of the gaming industry, but a speck in the dust, to be rolled over by glorious LocoRoco and ended once and for all. Reason 1 - this game is not made with a high difficulty in mind, because it’s got a weaker-than-average combat system. What does that mean?
It means that the player gets to only stagger enemies with their heavy or special attacks, which translates into the player getting hit, multiple times, by other enemies, while the enemy they are wailing on tanks six to seven hits, even though it is the weakest in the game, and all that for no reward, whatsoever. I get it, and so does the player: playing on the highest difficulty, appropriately titled Hero (because the Hero sacrifices himself to appease the evil gods at Monkeybar Games, just so they don’t make another Dora the Explorer game), is a sign that the player is a true gamer - a chad, if you will.
But doing so at the detriment of one’s own health, much like any hardcore game-mode in any game that has ever had it, maybe excluding Minecraft, is not a good idea. In fact, it is only a good idea if the player wishes to become a malformed abomination that reeks of soylent green - because that is the only product rich enough is nutrients to sustain their massive, 200 kilogram cadaver, grown so obese due to never getting up from their custom-made gaming chair, built for MAXIMUM comfort and TOTAL immersion into PoE, so that they can mindlessly run Maps until they, inevitably, die, due to latency.
That short little tangent is very relevant. Hardcore mode is badly designed - and Hero mode, similarly, is badly designed. Why? Because the game is not made with the intent to be played by people with hands. It’s made for children. Children who cannot comprehend the multiplication table, let alone controlling the field of battle.
While I’m on the subject of battle, let me tell you, outright, that, even on the Hard difficulty, the game is so weirdly made that it’s hard to actually die. Most of the time, the player plays as Ben, who has an infinite number of health bars, due to the fact that, when he transforms into an alien, his health bar fills up to the maximum. If he gets killed as an alien, he just transforms back into a human, and a few seconds later he can transform back into that same alien, to end up at full health.
Sometimes, though, the player is going to end up playing as other characters - such as Kevin or Gwen. Kevin is even weirder of a case than Ben, because he straight up does not take damage, due to his mechanic of becoming steel/stone/wood. The only character who CAN take damage and maybe even die in a battle is Gwen, and not because she doesn’t have a funky means of not taking damage, but because her mechanic doesn’t work, half the time.
In fact, that’s the whole issue with this game’s combat. It doesn’t work, half the time. As mentioned, heavy attacks stagger enemies… But only sometimes. Light attacks never stagger enemies, and special attacks sometimes do things, other times they don’t. The way the player experiences growth, and becomes more powerful, is via unlocking combos for their Alien forms, though the problem is that half of these combos have animation so slow that it’s actually more of a hindrance to get the new Combos, because then the player can’t spam Square into Triangle combos infinitely.
These slow animations oftentimes get in the way of the player actually doing anything, due to the fact that, if the enemy is prone to backing off, they would have backed off, or, if they’re prone to fighting in close range, they would have hit the player a few times. It feels as if it isn’t thought out, at all.
Then, still concerning the combat, there’s another issue, but that affects bosses. Sometimes, they take damage, while in a certain state, other times they don’t take damage while in that same state. On top of that, even if the player gets hit by an attack that isn’t a sweep or a punch, one that would, reasonably, be unable to knock them back a few meters, they still get thrown through the entirety of the arena, and, God forbid there’s no bottomless pits or water on the edge of said arena, because that means getting hit will kill the player.
But that’s not all there is to the game, is there? It isn’t JUST combat, right? Well, that’s not entirely wrong… Even though there’s around 75% combat and then 25% something else. There’s a lot of lackluster platforming, half of which leads to secrets that I really did not want to find, because it was just the Voice Actors getting video recorded while doing their Voice Acting, or scenes from the actual show.
The platforming, well… It’s lackluster, as mentioned. Nothing extremely intriguing, nothing really interesting, and it’s just very wonky, due to the fact that the camera is set, but the player can rotate their character at a 360 degree angle, so, in the situation when something needs to be launched (such as a projectile), things might get unnecessarily complex. OH, also, the platforms are not aligned on a single straight line, the player needs to change direction to get to them, but, as mentioned, with a locked camera that isn’t top-down, that becomes a MASSIVE issue. One good thing about the platforming is that when the player jumps, there’s a circular blot of darkness (also known as a shadow) right underneath them, signaling where they will land. It really almost fixed the platforming, but even that isn’t enough.
Then there’s the puzzles… Which aren’t actually puzzles. They’re so bad I can’t even remember any of them, I just know there’s no means for the player to fail, because the player can only interact with the thing that is the correct choice. It’s… Not good.
Now, even though I said all those things, and this game might appear to be a horribly unplayable pile of shit, it’s not the case. These combos I mentioned are, actually, really interesting, and the fact that there is such a big number of options - with there being a multitude of playable characters, one of whom has an ungodly number of forms, there’s incredible variety. Not only that, but each character, or form, has its own way of fighting, a unique sprinkle to them. One of them uses fire, another uses Ice, a third can snare enemies in place, fourth is incredibly mobile and quick, with some neat AoEs, and the list goes on.
The combat itself may be bad, but the options the player has, when it comes to approaching it, are really plentiful and that’s where much of the interesting factor for the game comes about. Though I need to point out the ‘immaculate’ level design, which goes something along the lines of:
- Walk from the left to the right. Objective is to get from point A (the initial point at which the player Spawns) to point B (the end of the level).
- There might be some platforming.
- There will be at least 10 encounters with enemies, each occurring 10 or so steps after the previous has ended.
- Fight enemies.
- Fight more enemies, it’s fun.
- Did I mention that there are enemies to fight?
Not only that, but there is an ungodly amount of invisible walls. A short little railing that anyone, IN REAL LIFE, could jump over, stops a literal flying alien from bounding over it. No options to take shortcuts, because the player NEEDS to see the background. It’s… It’s not good.
It’s not good, but it’s not bad. It’s mediocre, with some glimmers of greatness. Playing through it at anything but Easy makes it become an infuriating chore, playing through it on Easy makes it an annoyance. 1/3
Presentation
Now, here’s this game’s strength. The presentation. It looks absolutely insane for a game from 2008. The models are quite crisp, the effects are nice, and I’ve seen games made in 2015, and LATER, which look worse… And they aren’t even on PSP. This game really rocks the boat with its visuals, and that’s a great thing.
The levels themselves, albeit badly designed, all look pretty nice. They’re not anything incredible, but the quality of the models, textures and even lighting make them more than passable. This game also utilizes cinematics a lot, and they look really, really good. I’m honestly impressed by the visual quality of this game.
Now, when it comes to the sound, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. There’s the voice acting, which goes way harder than it should have - an example would be that each of Ben’s alien forms changes his voice, and is done by a different actor, I think. Instead of just recording a single line for Ben in his human form, they went and recorded a line for EACH of his forms, because the point at which he says it is one at which he could be in ANY of his forms. The delivery is different, the voice is different, and it’s always really, really good.
That’s the strange thing about this game - it looks ungodly nice, it’s got voice acting that’s too good to be true, and even the music, which is incredibly lackluster in quantity - there’s like 2 tracks that loop - sounds nice. The SFX are also really nothing to scoff at. I literally can’t say anything bad about this game’s presentation– Oh wait I can.
Gwen looks fucking horrid. Like, what the FUCK? The model is not badly done, but her face - oh lord, it looks like she’s been stung by 100 bees, and her eyes are so tiny, her lips so, so much bigger than they are on, say, the box-art. It’s beyond ridiculous, I tell you! She looks so bad, and she even sounds as if her nose is stuffy half the time. Why did this happen? I don’t know, but, thankfully, I don’t have to look at her ugly face most of the time.
Other than that mistake, everything’s… Surprisingly good. 3/3
Story
The story is surprisingly weak. Sure, it could be said that this was made for kids, but the box says 12+. I don’t know about you, my dear readers, but I think teenagers tend to believe themselves very capable of understanding complex narratives. This here is anything BUT a complex narrative.
Right from the get-go, when one of the ‘twist’ villains is encountered, touting to be an ally, he is obviously bullshitting his way through. He keeps making excuses, and the trio, Ben, Gwen and Kevin, only catches onto it when it’s already almost too late. The story goes on in that fashion, and it’s frankly quite lackluster.
A load of creatures, aliens, factions and other such things appear and are mentioned, but there is no explanation, no elaboration given. One of the strengths of Ben 10 was that it presented an interesting set of Aliens with their own stories that could be explored and discovered, and the Show, at least the original series, somewhat did delve into that, and it was great. This game, however, really does not try to do that.
Instead it just flails about and tries to be entertaining for kids, when, naturally, even kids will find themselves lacking in interest. Why? Well, because the characters act like… I don’t know, idiots? Sure, they are 15 and 16 years old, but they’ve had extraordinary circumstances surrounding a third of their lives. They ought to have matured at a faster rate, or, at least, they could have been a bit wiser than their age suggests.
Alas, they just act like any old teenager, getting pissy, spitting out shitty one liners and drowning out everything with bad jokes, or, even worse, puns.
The story isn’t good... And it ends on a cliff hanger. 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? No, it doesn’t. It wasn’t at all an impressive experience, even though, visually, it was quite good. I’m not pleased with it, and, as a result of that, it is left without the coveted point. 0/1
Conclusion
5/10. This game is like Crisis, but on PSP, and bad. It’s got THE GRAPHICS, but it doesn’t also have the gameplay. If you’re a fan of Ben 10, and happen to have a PSP, give it a go, though you might end up disappointed, as was I from anything that came after Alien Force stopped airing. Those other things… They’re not real, right?
I look at it pensively and put it in the sack of dusty mediocre games. Yikes.