Deadly Creatures, Wii - Review

Deadly Creatures, Wii - £22.91 delivered

Review by The Rev Owen



Deadly Creatures, a third person action game in which you take control of a tarantula and a scorpion in the American desert, has been a difficult game to play through for review. Not because it's particularly hard. Not because it's a terrible game I couldn't face playing. No, it was hard to play because it completely terrified my wife, so I couldn't play it while she was awake. She's fine with zombies, monsters and aliens trying to eat my face off while she sits beside me knitting and tweeting, but put me in control of a tarantula and she can't even look at the screen.

You could make a strong case, then, for Deadly Creatures being the scariest game of all time, given that there are more people around terrified of spiders than there are terrified of zombies. Which doesn't seem right to me, but there you go. I'm not a huge fan of spiders, but I'm not especially scared of them, so I was able to play through the game without any trouble on that front.

So, if you're an arachnophobe, you should steer clear of this game. If you're not? Should you pick up this game? Well, the answer to that is slightly complicated, but the short version is "no". It's not that Deadly Creatures is an especially bad game. It's a pretty average game, really, enlivened somewhat by the unusual setting and the presence of Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper, who pop up now and again during the game as a pair of treasure hunters and who are by far the best thing about the game.

For the most of the time I spent with the game, I was thinking of giving it a very cautious recommendation as a rental. There aren't really any problems with the game, for the most part, apart from the camera, which is usually fine, but prone to the odd spasm in tight areas. The motion controls work and, with the exception of the scorpion's grass-slashing strike, aren't overused or annoying. The game just works and, if it doesn't set its sights too high, at least it doesn't overreach itself.

However... this all changed at the end of the game. The final boss is a terrible piece of work showing off all the problems with the camera and control system. It's glitchy, relies far too much on luck, the boss can hit you multiple times without you being able to recover and at the very end of the fight the instructions lie to you.

If you finally persevere through this to win the fight - and I only did because I thought I should finish the game before reviewing it - the game ends rather abruptly, after only about four and a half hours, shows you some jerky, unskippable credits and then unceremoniously dumps you back to the level select menu.

You can play through the game again, you can view some concept art galleries (which, incidentally, are far nicer and more colourful than the game's actual graphics) and that's your lot. It's definitely not worth buying and is barely worth a rental. An unfortunate disappointment.



Deadly Creatures, Wii - £22.91 delivered