By Shane Willoughby at thegamingliberty.com
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. For the last six months, publishers 505 Games have had the web buzzing about their over-the-top Naughty Bear. Every month a new trailer for the game hit the web, each one a bizarre, twisted and ingeniously funny showcase for just how naughty this bear was going to be.
He was supposed to be as psycho as Jack Nicholson in The Shining. He was supposed to create a sense of paranoia and ifear tantamount to the Blair Witch Project. He was supposed to bust out of other bear’s chest in an ode to Alien’s iconic chest-busting scene. I could go on, but I won’t. Put frankly, this game was supposed to be great but sadly, it hasn’t turned out that way. Naughty Bear, much like his name suggests, is no good.
The premise is simple. You’re a bear and you’re naughty, got it? You weren’t invited to another bear’s birthday party on the beautiful Paradise Island and instead of getting over yourself, you decide to enact bloody revenge against each and every other bear you encounter from there on in. These bears don’t like you and you don’t like them. The only difference is, you’re adept at using knives, swords, melee weapons, and setting up death traps.
Now although such this gameplay and storyline may sound extremely simplistic, if executed correctly, each would have everyone raving about 505’s effort. However, the entire experience is crippled by just how poor, frustrating and broken every aspect of the game has turned out. Any goodness that exists within Naughty Bear is quickly sucked out of the game by how lazy and tame the eventual product became.
You start each and every Naughty Bear level with a short briefing, essentially instructing you to basically kill everyone. It’s repetitive and there is no variation as you progress. Each and every time you start a new level you have to do your killings, get kill points and unlock bridges that gain access to the next area or zone of the chosen level. The more points you earn and bridges you open, the more levels and challenges you can unlock.
There are also seven different gameplay modes for each mission; for example, ‘Insanity’ asks you to drive all the bears insane, without actually killing them, whilst ‘Invisible’ asks you go about your deeds in a stealthy manner, without actually being spotted by any of the bears. There’s a bit of variety here but we’re still looking at exactly the same experience, only regurgitated with a slightly different slant.
Killing with your bear hands
Combat at first appears enjoyable but gets old fast. For example, it can be frustrating when you can’t actually lock on to the other bears that you are trying to kill. You quickly find yourself stabbing and slashing at fresh air as you chase after bears to secure your kill. In true Hollywood fashion though, when your prey starts to run, they become the architects of their own downfall, tripping over or losing pace through tiredness, two features that make your target easier to pounce upon. Some of the killing animations are actually quite funny, but I wouldn’t say there are more than a dozen, so get ready to see the same animations over and over again. The much-vaunted ‘Ultra Kills’ are ultra boring.
Graphically, the game just about holds it together, but even so, just doesn’t carry any weight. Everything looks sharp but bland. There’s little or no detail in any designs and the graphics devolve into a hazy mess of greens, browns, blues and pinks. Menu’s are actually quite slick and accessible and the in game HUD and radar work pretty well. That aside, frame rate issues abound and the camera is for the most part, a nightmare. The controls don’t make anything easy on you either.
Online is an extension of the tame single player campaign. It comes with four different modes to try. ‘Assault’ is basically team deathmatch, ‘Golden Oozy’ involves one bear with an Uzi Vs everyone else in a survival mode, ‘Cake Walk’ gets you to hang onto a golden cupcake for as long as you can and ‘Jelly Wars’ is basically the ever-present capture the flag mode, only with jelly. They all sound fun and initially can be, but after a few games you’ll have seen everything multiplayer has to offer.
Naughty Bear should have been so much more. The concept is fantastic. A pissed off teddy bear killing other bears – who wouldn’t want to play that? However, as promising as the premise is, the game itself is just one big flaw. Naughty Bear may give you a couple of hour’s fun, if you’re lucky, but soon after the experience becomes unbearable. Yep, I said it.
Format: Playstation 3, Xbox 360; Developer: 505 Games
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