I grappled a bit with posting my thoughts here or in the "what are you currently playing" thread, but I ultimately chose this thread to go more in depth. I posted a much
shorter summary there.
WARNING: Wall of text ahead.
I played for a bit (maybe 2 hours?) last night after spending a fair bit of time trying to get our router and PS4 to talk to each other again, as a transformer blew early yesterday and we were without power for much of the morning. Neither the PS4 nor our router took that well. It took a lot longer to download an update file than it should've, as well as get all the free DLC currently available. But once that was done, I could play it.
Basically, it is exactly as I expected - as a Godzilla fan, I find plenty to enjoy about it. It's a far cry from being a great game, it's certainly not something I'd encourage most gamers to play, but if you're a Godzilla fan, it's worth at least a look. It definitely has the approach of a fighting game, with a few different modes and a pretty threadbare campaign mode, at least as far as story goes. Granted, I didn't go in expecting a deep story, and I think that if anyone did expect that, there's something wrong with the player, not the game. It does feel like a story that could've been lifted straight out of a Godzilla movie, so well done there.
I would like to point on that on the back of the box, it says "Movie-like action and gameplay." They definitely deserve credit for that, because it's actually pretty spot-on and quite honest. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to the player. Basically, a fast-paced action game this is not. It is very slow-paced, but if you've seen a Godzilla movie, particularly the original, or any of the movies in the 80s or 90s, you know that. Godzilla moves slowly and ponderously, as he does in those movies (and the default Godzilla model is his 90s/Heisei design). But what I like is that feels like you're actually...you know...a giant monster with weight and impact with every step. Controls are a bit weird at first...you actually have to use R1 and L1 to turn Godzilla instead of the left stick, which moves him forward and back, and strafes, so think tank controls. The right stick controls camera, and what this does is allow some pretty fine camera manipulation without camera angle changing the direction Godzilla is moving in. It takes getting used to, but once you do, it works just fine, and allows great screenshots.
The core gameplay...well, think a Godzilla movie. Enter city, wreck the place and the miltary fighting against you, beat another monster. Wash, rinse, repeat. There are other modes where you're set against different monsters, and online versus, but it's mostly that. Granted, the campaign does allow you to be a monster defending humans, or a monster besides Godzilla. The roster of playable critters is pretty good, going from the number of lines of "????????" I see in each mode when I select a character. The more you destroy the stronger Godzilla gets.
The face buttons all do different attacks, which are the same whether you're beating up a building or a monster, and again, they work alright for either. It's not deep (and it's Godzilla...shouldn't be), but it works. The omission of an actual block has been contentious, but you do have a brief invincibility move and honestly, I can't remember ever seeing the monsters block in the movies. This isn't Street Fighter and its not trying to be. And it feels like guys in rubber suits, but also has the weight, impact and slow speed I was hoping for. It seems that after you fight a monster for the first time, you unlock them for play in all the game's modes, and each monster does indeed have its own skill tree. The monster models themselves, going from what I've seen so far, have been very faithfully recreated with very detailed models, fantastic animations and sound pulled right from their respective film(s). Overall, the game does truly capture a Godzilla movie. It looks and feels the part in my opinion, and for that, I applaud the developers.
Besides that, the game also has a goofy, but fun, diorama mode. As you play, you can unlock different figures (there are also figures that are free DLC) that you can use in different base dioramas to create basically any scenario you want. Or recreate scenes from the movies. It was kind of cool to be able to create the scene in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah where the latter is dragging the former around by his neck with his pincer tail in diorama mode. It doesn't have too much point, but it is fun to mess with, and again, has appeal to fans. The only other mode is basically an entire Godzilla encyclopedia about each monsters, just in case there are things you didn't know about how they created each monster.
There are some things that I think could be better that you can't totally justify by saying "Godzilla movie turned into a game." The biggest one is arena size. They're too small. Now, I understand you couldn't do whole entire cities and idealism had to meet practicality halfway, but I still think they could be bigger. Also, the cities are a touch lifeless - while I do now think that they were trying to go for a more "hey look, actual miniature set" over a real city, I think the textures could be better and environments more lively. If you're striving for 100% destruction, it can be annoying to only be left with your objective and have 99%, and have to find that one thing you missed. Godzilla moving slow in itself is fine, in fact, I rather like it, but that doesn't change the fact that finding that one thing to trample is a tad annoying. That said, I level a similar criticism at the Spyro games, in having to run back and forth through a level to find that one gem I missed.
So after all that...I think this game is alright, but then, admittedly, I'm most definitely the target audience. But as a member of that target audience, there's plenty here for me. The game is fully aware of what it is and is trying to be, and owns it. It's not for everyone, but then not everything has to be. Sure it seems it'll get repetitive, but at some point, all games get repetitive. I will admit I'm not sure the $60 launch price is totally worth it right now, but everyone has a different definition of value. Online multiplayers like Evolve and Titanfall lauched at full price, and Call of Duty games, which has a short campaign but usually centers around online, do as well. Can you not justifiably criticize them as repetitive too?
To be honest, I've played a ton of giant monster games...the Rampage games, King of the Monsters, War of the Monsters and many of the previous Godzilla video games. While most of them were good and fun, what I felt each of them lacked was actually feeling like a giant monster with weight and impact. In all those games you can move pretty quick and for the fighters, they were set up with more traditional fighter control and style. The Rampage games centered around really basic controls and a lot of slapstick comedy. But none of those games quite captured the best of the Godzilla movies. This one does. I can't say this is better than any of those or vice versa, it's just going for a different approach. For me, it works well enough and it's fun. For many others, not so much. I think the whole idea of a giant monster destroying a city seems like it should translate well to a game on paper, but through the years it seems that in practice the idea is just so simplistic you can't make everyone happy.
This game does have four aspects what I've found most other giant monster games to be lacking...slow, ponderous, weight and impact. I like that. I really do. In a game, it works right me as a Godzilla fan. In many ways it is the giant monster game I've been wanting for a long time. In other ways, it definitely falls short as a great game. But I enjoyed it so far, and will continue to do so.
TL, DR: Are you a Godzilla fan? Consider trying this game. If you're not, it's probably not for you, but maybe worth trying once it gets cheap or as a rental.