Video Game Review: Puppeteer

Puppeteer

PlayStation 3

This is a game that I would have probably never even heard of, let alone played, if it was not available for free on the Playstation Network for PS Plus subscribers.

Having never heard of this title, I decided to watch a short preview clip for the game to see if it was worth giving a shot. The clip had barely even begun when I decided that the answer to that question was hell yes. In that ten seconds or so of watching, I saw an old school looking platformer with a hilarious theme and gorgeous, eye popping graphics. Was this going to be the next Little Big Planet?

Firing up this game, initially I thought I was going to be in for a treat. As mentioned, the visuals are fantastic. You wonder if this is a video game or a brand new Saturday morning cartoon. The presentation of Puppeteer is top notch. This game is set up in the style of a magical puppet show taking place in front of a large audience. A narrator talks to the audience, setting up the action and letting you know what is going on. It really is pretty cool at first.

As the narrator does his thing, you start to get pumped up and ready to dive in. The narrator keeps talking. Any minute now, this is going to be awesome. And the narrator keeps talking. All right, let's do this! And on prattles the narrator.

This is something you had better get used to. If you are not at all into the story, which I was not, you are going to find yourself pausing the game and hitting the skip button an awful lot. Now, I am all for story in video games. Skipping over cut scenes and ignoring a game's story line is something I almost never do. I can sit through hours of talking in Metal Gear Solid without blinking an eye. But in a cutesy platformer game about a cartoon puppet, all of the talking and cut scenes start to drag the game down. To say that they are excessive is an understatement. It's not even a good story. It is stupid and too little-kid like for me. Maybe if I was 10 I would have liked it, but not at 32.

Once the game actually does get rolling, you are introduced to some pretty original game play mechanics. Since you are playing as a puppet, you can carry up to three heads around with you. These heads act as your life bar in the game. Get hit, you lose a head, which you can chase down and reattach. Lose all three heads, you die. The different types of heads don't really serve too much of a purpose, other than unlocking the occasional bonus stage. These bonus stages, unless you are a collectionist looking to unlock everything in the game, are completely unnecessary and useless since you have unlimited lives.

The other major game play mechanic is the use of "Calibrus", which is basically a magical pair of scissors. You don't jump on your enemies. You don't punch them, throw them, or smack them around. You cut them. Since this game is set up like a giant puppet show, things in your environment are made of paper and cardboard and are very destructible. Your scissors not only acts as your main weapon, but also a means of transportation as they can be used to propel you along as you cut various items in the background.

Through out the game, you encounter bombs, a magical chain, and other items that you can use to defeat your enemies, but for the most part you use Calibrus.

Each level, referred to in-game as a curtain, is extremely well designed and harbors many secrets. While each stage does take you on a relatively linear path, there are many things to check out and explore. Nothing is extremely crucial to helping you along your way in the game, but it is impressive that each stage has been jam packed with so much content. Don't expect to just breeze through a level, you will want to check out everything each stage has in store for you. The levels in this game are surprisingly long, and a nice change of pace from your typical side scrolling platform game.

Puppeteer offers a few variances in the typical gameplay. There are some racing levels and quick time events. Nothing too major, but a little variety is nice. To me, things that shines the most about this game are the boss battles. Each boss battle is a major event in and of its own right.

Most boss battles are epic in scale. The bosses take up the entire screen, and require a unique creative strategy to defeat. Multiple strategies, even, as each bosses changes and modifies his attacks as the fight goes on. These fights feel like major, intense grudge matches as the crowd cheers you on. Often they end with a quick time even that lets you put the finishing touches on your foe. When you are done with these fights, you feel a perverse sense of satisfaction that you took out something so much bigger than yourself.

The game has seven acts, each act with three curtains. Twenty one levels may not seem like much, but when the levels are this long and detailed, coupled with the hours and hours of cut scenes, this game feels much longer than it really is.

Great concept, beautiful graphics, cleverly designed stages and boss battles. There is a lot that this game has going for it. That being said, it is time to focus on the negative.

I have already mentioned the cut scenes. After beating the game, I still could not even tell you what the story was about, as I started skipping through the scenes before I was even into act 2. The story just did not interest me and was starting to cut into my enjoyment of the game. A platformer should not be more watching than playing. It might work for a game like Metal Gear Solid, but not here.

And although this game is very creative, as I mentioned, there is just a certain something that is lacking here. I can not quite put my finger on it, but I can try. The whole concept of the game, with the puppet show and the use of Calibrus, feels too gimmicky. Think Super Mario Sunshine with the water pack. It is still a decent game, but you have to think it could have been so much better if it didn't go out of its way to try to be unique. Unique is fine. Gimmicky is not.

I could only tolerate this game in small playing sessions, as there was always some other game out there that I would rather be playing than this one. Not to say it is a bad game. It's not. It just lacks that killer instinct, that hook that pulls you in and makes you want to keep playing and playing. Perhaps it is the gimmicky gameplay. Perhaps it is too little kid like for me. Perhaps it was because I wanted a decent story line and instead got a bunch of rambling nonsense.

Like I said, it is hard to put my finger on. I can appreciate that this is well made game. You can really tell that a lot of time and effort was put into this. Gorgeous graphics, presentation, and level design. But crappy story and gimmicky gameplay.

The closer I got to the end of the game, the more I started to like it. Perhaps it was because I knew the game was coming to an end and I wouldn't have to play it anymore. Maybe it was because the game really is fun and I didn't start to appreciate it until it was almost over. I tend to think it was a combination of the two.

If you are under the age of 15, and you like this genre of game, you will probably love Puppeteer. I, however, was spoiled by great platformers in my youth like Super Mario 3 and Castlevania. I can appreciate what this game is trying to do, but it doesn't come close to greatness for me. It can be fun, but not great.

Maybe if I hadn't been spoiled by other similar games that are better than this, and maybe if I was into the story I would have liked Puppeteer a lot more. I do think this is a game that a lot of people will enjoy. But for me, it just kind of sits in the middle somewhere. One play through was good enough for me. I will probably never pick it up again. But for free, I can't complain too much.

Overall: 

C