There has been a barrage of unfounded claims by sensationalist newspapers and errant politicians who typecast games as violent and bloodthirsty. Many leading psychologists brandish gaming as a valuable resource which develops the brain’s analytical abilities. The Scribblenauts series epitomizes how games can be educational and allows one’s creativity to flourish. In Scribblenauts, your vocabulary is harnessed to solve puzzles by any means you see fit. You have the freedom to create oddball characters and generally poke fun in a sandbox environment. 5th Cell’s latest venture, Scribblenauts Unmasked, is an amalgamation of Scribblenauts Unlimited within the DC comic world. This latest iteration is a gigantic piece of fan service, but sadly falls short in its gameplay.
The plot in Scribblenauts Unmasked revolves around Maxwell, an inquisitive boy who is aided by his sister, Lily. Maxwell finds himself stranded in the tumultuous DC Universe with villainy around each corner. In the previous game, Maxwell relied on his sister’s transportation globe to access distant locales. Your only means of escape is now in tatters, as Lily’s teleportation globe has quickly been rendered inoperable. To remedy this, you must collect Starites which are spanned across a number of infamous locations including Arkham Asylum and The Fortress of Solitude. Unluckily for Maxwell, his evil clone, Doppelganger, is in cahoots with your adversaries and intent on extrapolating their powers. These Starites in the wrong hands could have unthinkable ramifications.
There are in total 12 story missions which typically last between 3-5 minutes. As you would expect, every mission feels unbelievably bare and creates the aura that you are rushing through them. The presentation is fantastic with comic book style introductions and wacky interactions between characters. Dialogue such as, “Hey Maxell! Don’t be so shellfish.” had me in stitches. Finding the solution to a particular problem usually involves trial and error as certain imaginative approaches appear unsupported. For instance, when attempting to lure Metallo off a building away from two helpless kidnappees, I spawned a flying moose which quickly died during combat. I could only solve this riddle with a magnet or rope which are both fairly obvious responses.
Each story mission begins with an unskippable cutscene which quickly becomes infuriating when you die during the final hurdle. You cannot access the later quests until you have accumulated enough reputation points to unlock new locations. Every time you enter a specific area, random quests will spawn that offer enough points for you to proceed. To the developer’s credit, I didn’t encounter any repetition of tasks for around 12 hours. Some objectives though are fairly laborious and take no advantage of your word skills or superhero powers. For example, you will be instructed to throw a baseball or basketball. Events like these seem frivolous in the context of Maxwell’s story.
There are times when puzzles solve themselves due to bugs. Two opportunistic Leprechauns stole an extravagant pot of gold from a vulnerable victim. Your objective was to retrieve his money by scaling a building’s lower level which looked inaccessible. To do this, I added “flying” and began descending the complex. Weirdly enough, when I got halfway down, the terror-stricken man followed me and completed this quest without my help. Another example of glitches include a quest where you chase the nimble Bolt and attempt to steal his lucrative folder. Instead of running away from me, he became stuck against a concrete wall and made the mugging exceptionally easy.
During these random encounters, there are far too many fetch quests. You are required to collect stolen jewelry, find lost animals or return items like a volleyball. All you have to do is travel towards an area within a small map and bring them back. As a result, these are mundane and often completed without any thought from the player. These quests fail to utilize your imagination which makes collecting reputation points a grind. The number of random events is staggering but their quality is sorely lacking.
When you tackle minor puzzles, the ramifications of completing them can negatively impact your ability to finish more objectives. During an excavation mission, a hostile being emerged who demanded retribution for being released. This character will follow you around the scenery and inhibit your progress during non-combat sidequests. These minions can cause an instant fail by attacking those you are sworn to protect. It becomes fairly difficult to solve predicaments from a unique viewpoint when your focus is being distracted by other beings.
The AI reaction to your wordplay is often quite amusing when it doesn’t affect your progress. During one occasion, three stargazers yearned to gaze upon a vivid and illuminating constellation. I was more than happy to oblige and created Orion’s Belt. To my amazement an unsightly alien emerged shouting “Take me to your leader!” and began hounding the scientists. Other humorous references include “100010001002”. As someone with a basic understanding of binary code, I particularly enjoyed this obscure joke.
The combat system in Scribblenauts has always been extremely rudimentary and clunky. It is perplexing why the game has suddenly shifted its focus to fighting, considering this is Scribblenaut’s weakest attribute. A large proportion of missions are based on attacking DC characters and spamming the right mouse button. Doing this is neither fun or in tune with the Scribblenauts series. Often fighting a large quantity of enemies with AI partners will result in mutiny. For example, I was pummeling 3 spooky ghosts with Batman who suddenly walked into the line of fire and punched me. It only took one accidental strike for this to occur.
To heighten the game’s difficulty, certain restrictions can be imposed which narrows your lexical options. Mr Mxyzptlk will set challenges that range from only using the letter D to DC specific adjectives. This is a welcome addition which encourages you to tackle brainteasers in an obscure and non-uniform manner. Successfully completing these will double the reputation points you would usually receive. Once you have amassed enough points, it is possible to unlock Origin missions. Here you will learn about the background of a DC character and how they evolved. Ideally, this mode needed to be packed full of esoteric detail and last far beyond the meagre 2 minutes of gameplay per character. I would have preferred to see in glorious detail the trials and tribulations of Batman spanned across multiple settings and time frames. Perhaps this is something that can be built upon in the future.
The DC comics encyclopaedic knowledge littered throughout Scribblenauts Unmasked is mind blowing. Each character is lovingly recreated and fits beautifully with the existing art style. There is a fully comprehensive set of DC heroes, villians, vehicles and weapons. Whether you’re an ardent fan of DC comics or a complete newcomer, the game has you covered. The BatComputer gives a synopsis of every character and outlines other entries associated with them. This is particularly handy during missions where characters require a sparring partner they are familiar with. There is an inconceivable amount of obscure sidekicks and variations on beloved superheroes, To illustrate this, you can play as The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. Non-DC content has already been made via Steam Workshop support to spice up the action. You can even download Pikachu or Link and plant them into Gotham City.
Conclusion – Is It Worth Your Money?
Scribblenauts Unmasked is a game which combines two individually magical elements but fails to coalesce together. The story is astonishingly brief and can be completed within 5 hours. Given the price point of $39.99, a $10 increase on Unlimited, it is hard to justify this extra cost. 5th Cell have gone all out in creating a wonderful and vast catalogue of DC characters, but it feels like this came at the expense of mission originality and length. I would recommend purchasing Scribblenauts Unlimited before acquiring this latest game in a 50-75% off sale. Scribblenauts Unmasked is available from Steam for $39.99, with a 25% discount if you own the previous game.
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