MadWorld

"Disappointed, but full of simple, brutal fun"

For the art style, the system, the gruesome violence, and the talent behind it, MadWorld has achieved a considerable amount of internets hype. How did it stand up? Well, like most things, the hype created an image that was impossible for MadWorld to reach, but it still provides a decent ride.

To sum MadWorld up, it is a brawler which offers very little actual brawling. Instead, it focuses on one specific aspect of old-school brawlers: Namely, the throwing of helpless mooks off ledges or into envrionmental hazards. This theme is explored violently across roughly 14 levels, between minigames and scenery changes, the amount of different ways you may turn a thug into bloody chunks is almost amusing. Unfortunately, with lackluster combat mechanics and canned death animations that tend to get old by the thirteenth guy you've chucked into the turbine, thresher, fan blades, what have you, it fails to satisfy in the long run.

Graphics: 7/10. Makes better use of the style than you'd expect, but the style is still an eyesore.
MadWorld's palette comes in three colors: Black, white, and blood red. This creates a sort of pulp comic book style that the game designers use to create a wide variety of character designs and brutal dismemberments. It gets the job done, but the style works against the game in the environments. The designers tried to create artistic variety as best they could, but the levels themselves manage to be completely uninteresting due to the unchanging palette. It keeps you focused on the action, but given how well the game uses the Z-Axis, it leaves one feeling robbed of visuals. The animations for the mooks are well done though, and their gruesome demises are comically over the top, spraying fountains of blood everywhere.

Sound: 8/10 Hilarious commentary will quickly drive you to turn all other sounds down.
For all its brutality, MadWorld delivers appropriate thuds, cracks, crunches, and blood spatter sounds. A hip hop/rap soundtrack plays over the affairs, but if hip hop isn't your thing, you'll quickly reach for the volume settings in the options. What really makes the game shine is the phenomenal voice acting. Every character puts in a spectacular job, but Greg Proops and John Dimaggio deserve awards. They play the commentators for your rampages and they have a blast. I used to think Ratchet:Deadlocked was the high water mark for in-game commentary, but Proops and Dimaggio blow the work there out of the water. They are fast-paced, frenetic, and laugh-out-loud hilarious. Their irreverent and curse-word-laden commentary becomes a much better reward for your brutality than the blood sprays from your dismembered foes. You will quickly turn all the other game sounds down just to hear them.

Story: 7/10 Gets the job done.
MadWorld tells the story of a gruesome TV show wherein contestants are tasked with killing their foes in gruesome ways. The show appears to have taken over an American city for its violent display, much to the dismay of the outside world. Against this backdrop, you play Jack, a bit of an enigma, who seems to be climbing the ranks of the show with his own agenda. Is he one of the US Marines sent in to end the crisis? Is he an agent of the powers that run the show? Is he a wildcard, playing every side against the middle? You'll find out as the game progresses. The plot ends up switching between oddball ultraviolence and pulp conspiracy-styled fairly effectively, and while the end is fairly predictable, it is still an expertly told story.

Gameplay: 6/10 A one trick pony
Unfortunately, it is in the actual game that MadWorld falls flat. As I said above, the actual combat is unsatisfying and shallow. Your punches lack heft and power. Every conflict you face is best handled with your chainsaw swipe instant-kill or a grab of an enemy mook to throw into an environmental hazard. Tires and barrels may incapacitate thugs, sign posts can be lodged through their heads, staggering them, allowing you to then throw them into an environmental hazard. That's pretty much what you'll be doing all game. Chainsaw swiping to insta-kill your foes, throwing them into environmental hazards, and looking for barrels or signposts to score a better combo with for more points. Hard difficulty makes this lack of depth evident as the uselessness of attempting to brawl in this brawler becomes painfully evident.

Each level is an open-ended romp through a small area tasking you with achieving enough points to unlock the boss challenge. Minigames, generally about throwing mooks at targets for an even more gruesome demise, arise every so often, the game ensures plenty of point targets unlock more level features and weaponry, so it never feels like a grind to the high-score mark. Boss battles offer a decent variety, everything from a chinese fan-wielding kung fu chick to a giant frankensteinian monster. Most of them fight the same way, you run around their attacks, shake the nunchuck for your invincible dodge move for anything you can't avoid, and try to find weak spots in the pattern for you to punish with some chainsaw beatdown. Unfortunately, both bosses and midbosses rely far too much on God of War style QTEs. They trigger on specific attacks, you have to NOT be attacking to make the trigger (A huge annoyance), and what follows is tedious waggling in lieu of standard button mashing. Unfortunately, these are the primary ways to take down the boss's health. These QTEs are just as irritating now as they were years ago back when you had to mash buttons to do them.

Overall: 6/10
MadWorld is a rental, at best. Clocking in at only about 6 hours in length (My in-game time had me beating the game at three hours, which I figure discounted cutscenes.) and not offering enough gameplay variety or replay value to be worth the price of the package. It is stylish, brutal, and oftentimes hilarious. For the first half of the game, you'll be having a blast, but eventually, the experience will wear thin just as the game begins to wrap things up. Proops and DiMaggio's commentary unfortunately is the high point of the game, which speaks to the tremendous talent of those voice actors, and the tremendous effort one has to put in to make a game about inflicting unreasonable brutality on helpless mooks uninteresting.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/09

Game Release: MadWorld (US, 03/10/09)