Game Over Online ~ Conker: Live & Reloaded

GameOver Game Reviews - Conker: Live & Reloaded (c) Microsoft Game Studios, Reviewed by - David Brothers

Game & Publisher Conker: Live & Reloaded (c) Microsoft Game Studios
System Requirements Xbox
Overall Rating 83%
Date Published Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 at 04:49 PM


Divider Left By: David Brothers Divider Right

This game will offend you. I'm a pretty open person and I found a good bit of this game hard to stomach. The humor is distinctly potty in nature, almost to the point of overkill. However, there's more to this game than scatological jokes. Conker: Live & Reloaded has two distinct portions. Conker's Bad Fur Day is a fully remastered remake of the Nintendo 64 game of the same name. The other portion is an all-new, objective-based multiplayer game.

The single-player is fairly straightforward. You play the role of Conker the Squirrel, drunkard-about-town. He's a foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, sneaky little squirrel. Your actions as Conker, at least up until a certain point in the game, have little to do with the plot of the game. Essentially, as you complete the different objectives, the plot will move itself forward. Either that's the case or there's some connection between a heavily-accented scientist and a giant monster made of poo that I'm missing here.

Conker's Bad Fur Day is a platformer in the truest sense. Be ready to jump, run, and jump some more. There are a good number of tricky jumps, so be ready to go through a bit of frustration, as well. The game is pretty good about auto-saving near the beginning of the tricky sections, but that doesn't make getting two-thirds of the way through a room, only to fall and die, any less irritating.

The only real conflict you come into during the game (barring a couple of the later stages) are a series of inventive boss fights. They usually involve pushing a button of some sort, or using the context-sensitive B button to activate a trap, or, as in one memorable case, throw toilet paper at a giant, singing monster made of crap. Most of the enemies are fairly pedestrian. They're simple to take out, but fighting more than one requires a bit of wariness. It's all too easy to get trapped and hit off a cliff (made of poo) for example.

The controls swing the odds heavily in your favor, though. The camera offers a full 360 degrees of rotation, which definitely helps when you need to scope out the area. The analog sticks are nicely calibrated. It takes a little getting used to, but a deft touch is necessary. Conker has a neat floating move that's helpful, as well. The camera sometimes refuses to orient the way it needs to when you're jumping, so get used to making blind landings. It's no big deal, at least until you lose a life.

If the single-player has any crippling flaw, it would be its sense of humor. Calling Conker's humor "lowbrow" would actually be aiming a bit too high. A large portion of the game has you either wading through poop, rolling around a poop ball, collecting poop, or fighting a monster made out of poop. All the scatological jokes get a little worrying after the first full hour of them, and downright wearying after the third. However, Conker knows its audience and knows it well. It delivers crude jokes on a nearly constant basis, though calling Conker's jokes "crude" is like saying the ocean is "a little wet." If you've got a low tolerance for juvenile toilet humor, Conker's single-player will stop you cold. I'm no prude, but playing sometimes felt like a chore.

I'll be perfectly honest, here. The multiplayer is by far the superior half of the game. The six character classes are nicely varied and the maps are exceedingly well-done. It has full bot support for all the maps, to boot. All the action is hectic. This is a game that's focused on delivering fun to the players more so than being realistic. One on one encounters tend to be fast-paced and pulse-quickening. If you want fun, Conker will deliver it in spades.

The maps are overt or subtle (or perhaps just overt...) homages to other video games and movies. This isn't a bad thing, however, as a few of these stages are better than the games that they were taken from.

The various classes are really a master stroke. These aren't the usual "generic grunt plus specialized weapon" units that you'd see in some games. Each class has distinct strengths and weaknesses. Sneekers are excellent for flag capturing, but a bit poor at base defense. The Demolisher is just the opposite. He's mostly good for running interference while another class captures the flag. Playing a class in Conker involves playing the role that that class would play in a real conflict. The sniping class, known as Long Rangers, tend to get slaughtered up close, so you'll want to have back and snipe, just as a sniper should.

Each class has certain other bonuses, as well. Some can bring vehicles, turrets, or even teleporters into the game to even the odds. Upgrade spheres deliver an additional bonus to a player, such as a new weapon or skill. Offline, system link, and Xbox Live support guarantees plenty of fast-paced action, to boot.

Your enjoyment of Conker: Live & Reloaded is directly related to how mature your sense of humor is. If you snicker when someone says "Uranus," find Carrot Top absolutely hilarious, or perhaps still carry around a whoopee cushion, Conker: Live & Reloaded will be right up your alley. If you're a little more Bill Cosby than Richard Pryor, you'll have problems. If you ignore the humor, you have a decent single-player platformer and a rocking third-person multiplayer game. Pick your poison.

 

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Rating
83%
 

 

 
 

 

 

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