Constantine

"Electricity is like faith, you cannot see it, but you knows when hit you."

Constantine The Game is another "Game Based in a Movie", most of this games are really bad, only used to make more money from the original idea of the movie, so, why bother with them? Because some games have, somehow, some fun features, and Constantine is one of them.

The movie is based in a comic called Hellblazer and I loved the movie (I don't like Keanu acting so much, but, well....), I love gothic things and a movie with Angels and Demons really attract me, so, I see the game in a store here in my town, and I take a long breath and thought: "Another game based in a Movie, oh boy! but well, the movie are good, lets see the game" I have bought it and now I can say, Constantine The Game is not like a SUPER Movie Based Game like Goldeneye but is really fun and well made.

Story [8]]:

You are John Constantine, an Occultist, a Magician, a Supernatural Detective and a Demon Hunter, well, see, you are the guy! And you fight against Lucifer, the Fallen Angel and his minions from hell. John in the childhood could see Demons and Angels, and his parents, guessing that he is crazy, treated him like a total mad boy(Sanatoriums, electric discharges, and other things), and well, John tried a suicide, and have died for 2 minutes, but 2 minutes in the Hell is like a eternity, and he learn everything about his power and the truth about the universe, but in the Bible, Suicides only have a place to go, directly too the hell, to suffer the eternal torture. After that, John is trying to buy his place in the heaven before the lung cancer that he got for being a smoker puts an end on his life, punishing everyone or everything that breaks the balance between the Good and the Evil, well, the story in the beginning is like the movie.

But it ends here; the story of the game is not the same of the movie. Yes, the game have the same characters, sometimes the same places, but the story go too another path, a better path I most say, because the movie have a lack of action scenes and don't go so deep in the Constantine World.

John Constantine is so far the funniest and charismatic character of the game, his “punch lines” can really take a good laughs from you if you have a good irony sense, because he is very ironic.
That is a part of the game that attracted me, the protagonist's charisma.

You have the power to walk through the astral plans, Earth and Hell, in the earth you will usually face Half-Breaded Demons and creatures that can possess humans, but compared to the second astral plan, the Hell, the things are very calm here in your little plan. The Hell is really, well, Hellish, usually full of demons, and dammed souls that will suffer for all eternally. The Hell is a deformed version of the Earth, like Silent Hill Shadow Dimension and the world of the spirits of Soul Reaver.

Talking about hell, here comes the hell part about the plot. The story of the game is a generic one, don't have so many plot twists that the movie don't have, if you don't have saw the Movie, you will certainty find the story interesting, but if you have already saw the movie, nothing that happens in the Constantine The Game will surprise you.

Sounds [9]:

The Music is really great, especially the ones that play in the levels that involves the Hell, it is a mix of Opera, Gothic Metal and Techno, giving that resonant immersion that the game needs. In certain places, you hardly heard any music until the enemies appears, maybe to leave suspense in the air.

The voices is like the ones of the movie, so, if you liked the actors, you will like the voices too, The sound effects is clear, and the screams of the people in the Hell really chill your spine, but I don't like the sounds that the demons do, I don't know why, but seem that they did them using sounds ripped-of from the first Jurassic Park.

And the sounds of some weapons are not very good too, like the Crucifier, and the Screech Beetle.

Graphics [7]:

Well, this part is not a good part of the game, the CGs movies is far from realistic, the characters move like robots in the FMV's, the running animation of John is weird, but not everything is bad, in the Hell levels, the wind blows strong, and you can see the jacket and the hair of John following the wind, that is pretty cool.

The Hell levels have some granulation, in the Earth levels sometimes is so dark that is very hard to see the path or the demons, but John can use the “True Sight” spell to see in the dark, to see hidden items or to see the true face of the Half-Breeds, but this spell is very annoying because put you in the first person and “invert” the colors, giving you some headache.

The best graphical part of the game is the effects of the spells, like Storm Crow and Hunger, the lightning effects of the Storm Crow are great, and the game put you in a slow-motion and this improves the effect. The Exorcism spell is cool and has a good effect too, giving a close in the possessed person, showing the demon leaving her through a light bolt.

In the weapons category, I found the effect of the fire from the Dragon Breath interesting, but after already see several fire effects in several games, it doesn't surprise me. The weapon that possesses the best effect certainty is the Holy Shotgun, that fires bullets in the form of a cross, if you shoot in the wall, you can see with clarity the cross that was formed. The other weapons have nothing new to show and that is very bad.

The Demons have a very cool design, especially some bosses like the magnificent Kan-Gore, Lucifer's Pet Dragon that was made of a thousand of human's souls. In Constantine, the demons are made from the souls of the people, if the demon is larger, the number of souls used to make him is large too, because of that you can see human heads being part in gigantic demons like the Behemoth, and that deformity of them turns them more frightening.

But, sadly, you don't will find anything new in the graphics department in Constantine The Game.

Gameplay[9]:

For me, one of the best parts of the game.

John have a big number of weapons and spells that aid him in the fight against the devil son, like weapons with different effects, holy water, screaming beetles (!?), pieces of Moses' clothes that when burned its transforms in a holy bomb, defense spells and attack spells.

John have a notebook too, where he writes about the demons, spells, weapons, items and important facts for the plot of the game, him also glue illustrations beside the information, making seems really a detective book. I found that a very entertaining feature and its really deepens you better in the universe of the game.

You control John in a third person perspective; John can jump holes and fences automatically if you ran against it. He can attack shooting or giving physical blows with his weapon. In the support weapon section, you will find the holy water and the other support weapons, and he can also use spells.

John will find several flasks of water through the stage, which he can recover HP. He have a canteen that can be felled in faucets, drinking from the canteen John can also recover his HP, saving you from many troubles.

To launch a spell, you need to do the right sequence of buttons, but don't worry, the sequence appears on the screen, but you don't have so much time to do the sequence. To memorize the simple spells doesn't take a long time, but to memorize spells like Demon Leech can give you some work. Spells consumes the magic bar, which becomes full with the time or with you killing demons.

Well, the game has some extras, like the cards, that you can find in the stages and unlock some nice pictures, Hellblazer comics, and FMV scenes in the extra section. The Voodoo Dolls that increase the magic recovery when John kills some demon, and others power-ups that increase the life bar and magic bar permanently, well, a good reason for you to go seeking them, but the cards are very small and they are easy to lost if you don't have a good eye, but, fortunately, you can go back to already completed stages and seek for those items in case if you lost then.

The Demons can pop-up anywhere and everywhere, some demons have the abilities to walk on the ceiling, and others have the ability to dodged your shots, they are very annoying ones, some can only be damaged in their weak points. The game have some weapons that work better in certain types of demons, as for instance, the Purger works better against air demons , the Holy Shotgun works better against Half-breeds, and so on. They attack in groups and they possess a great AI, they can follow you from the end of the stage to the beginning if they are capable. They also make certain supernatural things happen to frighten you, like turn off the lights of a room, turn on the alarms of cars, make objects float, break lamps, or any thing that you have already seen in a poltergeist movie.

If you are seeking for a scary gameplay faraway from the gaming mainstream media, Constantine The Game is for you.


Replay[7]:

That varies to person for person, if you like to try the game in other difficulty or wants to open all the extras, you will certainty return to play again, now, if you are just a Casual Gamer, you certainly will arrive in the end of the game and don't will play him anymore, because the others difficulties don't change in anything the path of the game, just make the demons more resistant and strong and make the ammo more rare to find.


Final Recommendation:

Constantine The Game is one of those games that you don't put faith until you play, since games based in movies have a terrible reputation, but give a chance for him, and enter in a world where your faiths and teachings will be totally questioned.

With a great soundtrack, reasonable graphics, entertaining gameplay and a reasonable story, Constantine The Game can surprise in a very good way, just go to the hell(literally) and you will see :).

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/08/09

Game Release: Constantine (US, 02/14/05)