I picked up the PlayStation 3 version of Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters for twenty dollars at Toys R Us a little while ago, and now that I’ve finished the game, it’s high time that I review it. Better late than never!
Release Date: June 7, 2011 • Developer: Double Helix Games
If you’ve played any of the God of War games, then you’ve played Rise of the Manhunters. It’s a complete and utter ripoff of Sony’s revered gory action series, but the game makes no bones about that fact. In many respects, it’s an homage more than anything else! I’m going to be making a lot of God of War comparisons in this review, but given how incredibly similar Rise of the Manhunters is, there’s really no escaping it.
The plot is simple: the Manhunters have attacked Oa, and using yellow fear energy, they plan to bring down the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps. It’s up to Hal Jordan (and Sinestro in cooperative mode) to deal with the threat, and as you run around different environments, you smash into your foes with light and strong attacks that can be chained into combos.
Your basic attacks are simple constructs like swords and hammers, and you can use them endlessly without worry. Other constructs are automatically gained at specific points in the story (like the baseball bat and hover mines), or you can collect orbs in order to level up and purchase new ones. These special constructs, such as a rocket punch or jet fighter, require extra willpower to use; so, of course, you’ve got a finite meter for that. Beating down enemies will refill it, and there’s random containers that also contain green energy. After getting in enough fights, you can activate Ring Surge, which grants you infinite willpower for a short time as well as higher resistance to damage.
Ultimately, Rise of the Manhunters boils down to a lot of button mashing. Some strategy is needed when fighting bosses, but otherwise, attack-attack-attack is the way to go. There’s some simple puzzles to solve, quick time events to defeat larger enemies, and a few flight missions as well. The latter is just flying and shooting everything in sight; while it’s nice to break up the ground-based action, the flight missions are the same flying shooters you’ve played a thousand times before. Even God of War had more variance than this.
Let’s talk about some Green Lantern-specific aspects of the game. In terms of continuity, Rise of the Manhunters takes place in the film universe…but seemingly ignores that the film happened. It almost works as a sequel, but only if the Green Lanterns had never heard of yellow fear energy before. (And if Sinestro had never grabbed the yellow ring during the credits.)
Other than the Manhunters, the Zamarons show up, and their use of love’s violet light is explicitly stated. (Though strangely enough, they use staves like the Indigo Tribe. Weird.) No other Corps appear in the game, but the blue light of hope represents your life energy.
Rise of the Manhunters‘ graphics are nothing terrible, but could use a little more variety. Hal traverses a lot of rocky environments and machine interiors, and that’s about it. The character models are pretty good, though, and Hal really does look Ryan Reynolds. Just don’t except the visual fidelity to be as good as top-tier titles; it looks more like early PS3 and Xbox 360 games than anything recent. (Sorry about the lack of screenshots; please check out the June 16, 2011 batch on Gamespot for in-game images.)
The audio is what you’d expect: plenty of laser blasts, smashes, and explosions, with a soundtrack that’s completely forgettable. The voice work fares a bit better; Double Helix was able to hire Ryan Reynolds to reprise his role as Hal, and to his credit, he does an admirable job. The script isn’t so hot, but it doesn’t feel like Reynolds was phoning it in. Veteran voicce actor Kevin Michael Richardson does a great job as Kilowog, but the rest of the cast’s performances were nothing special. Marton Csokas tried his best as Sinestro, but his delivery can’t hold a candle to that of Mark Strong’s live-action portrayal.
Overall, Rise of the Manhunters doesn’t quite live up to the God of War games it’s so desperately trying to emulate. The gameplay and visuals are extremely repetitive, the story is quite generic, and even the “twist” is blindingly obvious from the very beginning (especially if you’re a longtime Green Lantern comics reader). Rise of the Manhunters is of fairly standard action game length — five to ten hours — but there’s also no replay value unless you want collect all of the achievements or trophies.
If you’re a God of War fan and a Green Lantern diehard, then you’ll likely enjoy this game, especially at the sweet spot of twenty dollars or less. Double Helix made a far better game compared to most other licensed garbage, but it’s certainly not worth full price. If the adventures of Kratos or other beat-’em-ups aren’t your thing, or if you demand a lot of replay value from your games, then pass on Rise of the Manhunters.
