Conker: Live & Reloaded

"In a word...disappointing"

I hadn't really played Bad Fur Day when it released as not only was I too young but from what I saw I didnt have interest in it at the time. I didn't like Conker as a character. After I finally got a shot at it at a friend's house I was surprised at just how good the game was. It has more than enough entertainment to keep you playing til the very end. Not only was the game challenging, but it was funny in a very mature way. It was interesting to see how Rare was taking a new approach to the game. It was extremely solid...graphics were really good for the N64 days and the controls weren't bad. Camera sucked but how many games didn't have a bad camera? The multiplayer was one of my favorite aspects (and this is where some of my complaints come in later on). So, as you can imagine, I was pretty excited to hear that they were remaking it. Since I played the old Conker in the current gen of systems I couldnt get into it as much because of the graphics. I was used to Xbox, Gamecube, and PS2 graphics. When I finally picked the game up I was surprised to see that it wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was gonna be. Here's a breakdown:

Story: 9/10

While the story makes almost no sense whatsoever nothing has changed since Bad Fur Day. This is because all Live and Reloaded is is just a port of the old game I guess you could say. They just improved the graphics. You are a squirrel who wanders off drunk one day and your girl gets kidnapped and bascially you set out to find her. That's it. Along the way you meet up with very strange characters and a fair amount of movie parodies. That basically sums up the story and since I liked the story so much back then and its no different now, I can't give it a bad score just cause its the same old game.

Graphics: 10/10

This is by far one of the best looking games not only on the Xbox, but on all systems this gen. I would have to say one of the only games that compares would have to be RE4. The cartoony look still remains but that's what Rare is known for and I love their style that they throw into games. Their games have always looked good even since the days of Donkey Kong Country. Perfect score here I found nothing wrong in this department.

Sound: 9/10

The sound is the same and since it was and still is so amazing, I am keeping the score high...but wait, if there's nothing wrong why am I not giving it a perfect score? Well the only thing that bugged me here in my opinion is enough to drop the score a whole point. The entire Great Mighty Poo song is completely messed up. It wouldn't be a problem that they threw an echo into his voice, but they made him echo so much that you almost cannot understand what he is singing anymore. This makes the song no longer funny as the only way you really know what he's saying without listening really hard is to read the words. I thought this was an extremely stupid addition and I was disappointed by it.

Controls: 7/10

The controls aren't bad but they aren't exactly good. Aiming is somewhat difficult and the camera gets out of whack sometimes. I find that sometimes I miss jumps due to Conker often not responding to a button press. This can get frustrating but it doesn't happen too often.

Gameplay: 5/10

I was really disappointed with how this game plays out. But from what I can tell my review is going to be opposite of most others. Most people disliked Story Mode and liked Xbox Live Multiplayer. My complaints are exact opposite. Conker's Bad Fur Day was an amazing single player and multiplayer game I thought. The fact that Single Player is no different this time around does not bother me at all. I welcome the ability to play it again with updated graphics. They should have at least kept the original multiplayer modes in as they were fun to play. Xbox Live play could have been a separate thing. I think that Xbox Live is terribly unbalanced and just the online gameplay in general is terrible. Lag isn't that bad at all which is always a big concern when playing online. But the gameplay sucks. I don't like at all that you can snipe somebody in the head and miss. Yes, collision and hit detection is terrible. I can snipe someone at point blank sometimes and completely miss even though I see the bullet pass through their head. Same from far away. And since I am zoomed in with a sniper rifle it is blatantly obvious that I should have killed whoever I shot. Most of the hit detection problems I noticed is with the rifle. Automatic weapons shoot so fast its hard to tell if u actually ever miss when you are on target. And the bazookas have splash so again you can't tell there. Speaking of bazookas lets talk about how unbalanced online play is. If you have a few people on bazookas that can actually aim...you pretty much win. Every time. Especially on levels like the beach. If you are smart and can aim the beach people will never reach the first wall to break through. Just get a few snipers and bazookas and assuming the bullets dont pass through anyone its all over. The sneeker is overpowered only to a point because you actually have to get to the person which can be tough. For the most part though if you miss a shot or two even with an automatic weapon and a sneeker gets by you will absolutely die without a doubt because they can one hit kill. If there was downloadable content this stuff may not have been a huge problem because they could fix stuff and you could download patches. This was the biggest disappointment of the game and I pretty much stopped playing because multiplayer sucks. And since you can't just play the crazy pick up weapons and go nuts multiplayer from the old days with your friends, after I beat single player there was nothing left for me to do.

Replay: 5/10

After the great story mode you will find that you will be bored after you try some multiplayer. There's nothing left to do after single player and it will probably end up shelved at some point. I would recommend maybe buying it now because it went down in price. At the original $50 if I had known what I do now about it, I would not have bought it. The story mode is completely worth it though.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/06