ic-games Review - Conker: Live and Reloaded - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

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Conker: Live and Reloaded

Information
Reviewer: James Collins
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Reviewed: Xbox
Genre: Platform
UK Release: 24th Jun 2005
Article Date: 19th Jun 2005
Difficulty: Medium
Retail Price: £39.99
Price Comparison:
0

Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 93%

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Pros

Wonderful Graphics

Great Voice Acting

Stella Gameplay

Now Live! Enabled

Adds up to a great mature 'interactive cartoon'

Cons

Kids will (obviously) miss out

Occasionally frustrating

Confusing Multiplayer

Screenshots

4 of 24

Conker, the foul mouthed Squirrel caused quite a stir when he was unleashed on the N64. Arguably the fans favourite platformer, Conker single handily brought new life into the tired genre with his context sensitive gameplay and laugh a minute storyline. Now with Rare alongside Microsoft Games Studios Conker is now Live and reloaded and guaranteed to go down a storm all over again.

The main story is of course almost directly taken from the original 'Bad Fur Day' storyline from the N64 version with up to date graphics, digital sound and a few annoyances ironed out or altogether abandoned. For example you no longer have to unlock the safe in the catfish level (one of the more frustrating moments in the original N64 game). You also have a few in game laughs added, but apart from that everything that made the game great is in the Xbox version. Including 'that' storyline.

We really couldn’t have written a plot more stupid than the one devised by Rare, but still we couldn’t resist staying with Conker until he had completed his final task. If you can get your head around the plot you’ll find something to love in this game, and hell, even probably if you can’t. Conker: Live and reloaded actually starts with our hero walking home after a heavy night on the town and pretty much spirals out of control from there. You’ll find Conker bouncing on the breasts of Sunflower babes to rolling around a giant ball of poo (all in the name of gameplay of course). There is a side story as well, at the same time Conker is navigating his drunken self home, the Animal King has a broken table which has a missing leg. Naturally whenever he puts his milk on the table the whole thing collapses. There is a solution though; Conker is exactly the same shape as the missing table leg. So not only must you get home as soon as possible, you have the added pressure of trying to avoid ending up as that missing table leg.

Rare have also done a fantastic job of keeping any obtrusive camera angles to a minimum. As you would expect, Conker is controlled via the left analogue stick with the right analogue stick controlling the camera. The automatic strife works particularly well here and a quick nudge left and right will normally set you up for an attack, the strafe only kicks in when you have the weapon selected so unobtrusive control is always available. The underwater sections can often lead to a feeling of being disoriented and the camera has the occasional habit of snapping back to centre but these little problems rarely plague an otherwise excellent system.

Simply put, the graphics are outstanding, and as good as it gets on the Xbox. Rare have truly outdone themselves this time. Throughout the game, things play so smoothly and look so impressive you’ll swear you were watching a high budget CGI film. No matter what the location, fields, houses or quite literally a swamp of poo, things always look fabulous. The same is true of the excellent cut scenes, that although can be skipped, you’d rarely want to. That’s because Conker: Live and reloaded is at times hilarious, and at worse just plain funny. It might be true that the best jokes are played during these cutscenes, but when you take into consideration that these cut scenes use the game engine you start to understand exactly how polished Conker: Live and Reloaded is.

Audiophiles are also in for a treat, especially with the voice acting which never fails to impress. The soundtrack perfectly fits the nature of the game with ‘Looney Tunes’ style themes playing throughout key stages. There’s even a nod towards Disney when a certain end of level boss bursts into song and proudly proclaims himself to be the ‘Poo King’. Daft yes, but you’ll have to be pretty straight laced not to raise a smirk.

Now of course would be the best time to explain exactly how a platform game was awarded a PEGI 16+ warning, and as you have probably worked out already, Conker: Live and Reloaded is a very naughty game. Game developers know one thing, and that’s the higher your rating system the higher the likelihood your game will sell. Whiptail Interactive knew this with the dire “Postal” series, and of course, Rare know this as well. The difference here is that Conker: Live and Reloaded would still be an excellent game without it and at times it’s a shame that younger children will have to wait before they get their hands on this one. Most of the obscenities are censored but the suggestive nature and in-game gags are levelled at the mature audience. Basically, if you love "South Park" mixed with a healthy dose of Monty Python you'll love Conker: Live and Reloaded.

When we say Conker: Live and reloaded plays more like an interactive cartoon than a platformer we are not exaggerating. The graphics are in large parts responsible for this, but so is the all important gameplay. Although Conker has only a few weapons at his disposal the context sensitive help (which Rare actually ‘invented’ will probably save the day. Need to pass but you path is blocked by a boulder? Find the context sensitive pad and a light bulb will hover over your head. All you need to do then is hit the ‘B’ button and you’ll pull out a stick of dynamite. Need to get past the dung beetles? The context sensitive gameplay will reward you with a catapult and so on. Most of the main sequences revolve around the use of context sensitive switches and weapons, and in most parts its fun. When playing the single player game it’s easy to see that the game does have an ‘FPS’ feel to it. Strafing is automatic and combat is geared towards the cycle the enemy strategy.

SCREENSHOTS

There is the occasional downer, the occasional moments when you are quite literally stuck and unsure how to progress and it’s a shame that Conker: Live and Reloaded wasn’t as helpful as it could have been. If you skip any cutscenes you’ll be absolutely lost, but even keen observes will probably be looking through the occasional online walkthrough to progress. The camera angles can at times play up as well, but apart from these two small points Conker: Live and Reloaded is still every bit that mandatory purchase we had hoped for, and that’s before we even get onto the Live! portion.

Rare have certainly worked hard on the single player portion but as anyone who has ever played the N64 version can testify, the multiplayer side equally important. The Xbox Live! side does seem limited at first with online games only involving either deathmatches or objective team matches, but once you get used to the team based missions, Conker live and reloaded takes on an entirely different level,. The deathmatch games might be pretty standard stuff but with a room full of opponent’s things soon heat up.

"The Xbox Live side really shines, although at times it does feel overly complicated."

If however you want some of that single player fun online, you should certainly opt for that all important mission play that made the N64 version such a hit. The only problem here is that without practise most will find the objective multiplayer modes overly complicated at first. Thankfully there is the option to practice against some pretty clever bots and it’s certainly recommended to wise up before going online. Yes, Conker: Live and reloaded needs to be ‘mastered’ before you start impressing anyone online. Once you have learned the bewildering controls using the offline bots you’ll be a fool if you never experience the hectic ‘Old War’ and ‘Future War’ mission modes online. Featuring the war between the war hungry ‘Tediz’ and the SQH (Squirrel high command) its here that the Xbox Live side really shines, although at times it does feel overly complicated.

The first thing you will need to fathom out is exactly what character class you are going to be. Aimlessly wandering around any of the mission based games without any real ‘objective’ will get you nowhere online so it’s best to pick a class that will actually be useful to the team. As you would expect your character class determines exactly what weapons and abilities (even vehicles) you’ll be kitted out with. For example the Thermophile can deal out damage with the flamethrower but also doubles up as a medic. The Sneeker can go invisible, hack the enemies defence systems and can even feign death. Since players may jump in and out of online games you can always change character class at any time so if your team ever becomes top heavy with a particular class you can always change to something more useful.

So there you have it, a wonderful (and re-playable) single player adventure with a pretty decent multiplayer side attached. Even gamers without Xbox Live are catered for with the far from ‘dumbots’ featured in Chapter ‘X’. Rare have pulled it off all over again, and anyone who misses out on the bizarre adventures of the red squirrel Conker this time only have themselves to blame.

DETAILED GAME INFORMATION

Version Reviewed: Xbox Retail
Live! Enabled: Yes, multiplayer also available offline
Price: £39.99
Age: 16+ (UK)/M for Mature (USA)

Conker Trailer - AVAILABLE
Conker: Live and Unleashed Screenshots (.zip) - DOWNLOAD
Conker: Live and Unleashed Screenshots (HI-RES)(.zip) - DOWNLOAD

USA Release date - 21st June 2005
UK Release date - 24th June 2005

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