Disaster: Day of Crisis is a Wii title developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. From the outset, this game defines itself as a “mature” title with it’s M OFLC classification, and (over)-use of the word “shit” early on and throughout the game. It’s almost as if the word shit is this game’s way of telling you that Nintendo does not equal “kiddie”.
Disaster: Day of Crisis is a 3rd person action adventure game with strong rail-shooter elements as well a some driving sections. You play the role of Raymond Bryce, a former marine who used to work as a Rescue Team member, saving people from the grasps of natural disaster. His partner Steve is killed in service during a rescue from the slopes of actively erupting volcano, and Raymond lives with the guilt of not being able to save his partner during their mission. Ray carries this guilt with him in his new job at Crisis Management, and this delays him from carrying out his partner’s dying wishes – to give Steve’s lucky charm compass to his little sister Lisa.
On one fated day, Ray is called in by the FBI to tell him that Lisa has been captured by a former special forces unit that call themselves SURGE. Ray turns vigilante as he seeks to rescue Lisa, but soon learns that SURGE are a force to be reckoned with. Having captured a respected seismologist, SURGE set off a series of “natural” disasters that serve as a decoy to allow them to capture nukes. As Ray quips in the game: “This is going to be one HELL of a day”.
The game is broken up into over 20 stages, and features some well rendered cut-scenes to set up and continue the game’s plot. Between cut-scenes, you will play a 3rd person adventure inter-spliced with rail-shooter sections. There are reasonable frequent checkpoints and game allows you to quit at any checkpoint and resume within a stage. Some sections also involve driving (controlled in the usual sideways Wii-mote fashion).
The rail-shooting elements are reasonably fun, although they won’t be too much of challenge for the veterans. Even on the hard difficulty, gun fights are a simple matter of waiting for the right moment to emerge from cover and then pop the target. The C-button allows you to zoom (“concentrate”) and inflict double damage with your weapon, but in a risk-reward fashion you also lose twice as much life when hit. Between stages you can use earned experience points at the shooting gallery, and performing well there allows weapon upgrades in the main game.
When playing in the 3rd person adventure sections, Ray “leaves no man behind” and has a sixth sense allowing him to locate citizens in need of rescue. Saving citizens generally requires a motion-controlling mini-game to be completed, and Ray will perform virtual CPR, wrap virtual bandages, and lift heavy debris that is pinning down people, among other rescue tasks. Driving sections of the game are for the main part boring and unchallenging, and serve more to allow dialogue and voiced thoughts to advance the storyline more than anything.
The game may have been considered innovative had it been released closer to the Wii launch, but after 2 years it loses a bit of that charm. Most of what is in the game has been seen before, so no bonus points for novelty.
The unfortunate thing about this game is the plot, and given that this is essentially an interactive disaster movie, the plot is vital to the game’s success or otherwise. While disaster movies are not traditionally noted for their strong plots, this plot comes straight from the cutting room floor. The voice acting is average at best, but I can’t blame the actors for this when parts of the script seem like they came out of a primary school creative writing class.
In one cut-scene, the US President’s advisors report one piece of bad news after another as they discuss the situation. Losing his temper, the President thumps his fist on his oak desk and yells “Somebody do something!!”. And later, when the President is told that a rescue team is about to be deployed somewhere, he says “tell them to rescue as many people as possible!”. Truly B-class, if that.
As stated above, this game tries to set itself out as a “mature” title, but you won’t find much blood and certainly no dismemberment as you take headshots at the enemy. Ray is a “tough guy” who looks a little like Wolverine from X-men, and there is overuse of the one particular cuss word to remind you that this is an “adult” title, but it just all seems pretty out of place and “try hard”.
It’s hard to look past the terrible story and even worse script, but if you can do this then you are left with a game that is fun at times despite the frustrations. It offer 8-12 hours of gameplay in the story mode. There are Xbox 360 style “achievements” that are scattered through the game, and the shooting gallery is good for killing some time, but even then there is little replay value.
Look to rent this title or find it cheap. It may have warranted a full price purchase had it released last year, but this Christmas the competition for your money is intense. Resist the urge.
Good Points:
Fun rail-shooter, and some of the rescue mini-games are interesting.
Bad Points:
The plot is nearly a disaster in itself, and leads to a pretty flat experience throughout the game.
ButtonMasher verdict:
Interesting as a rental but certainly not worth the full price with the level of enjoyment it is likely to bring.
Tags: Games
Uhm, the story HAS to be B-movie style. At least that is what I expected from Disaster – and it delivered. Those cheesy text lines just belong there. And the voice acting is not THAT bad. Graphics are far from being top notch but that does not ruin the experience at all. The music on the other hand is like a dramatic score taken from a typical blockbuster and that matches perfectly.
I’d give something between 75 and 80 b/c all in all the game is fun. You did not mention the driving games which are really special. And after beating the whole game you can try another mode where you have to search signs spread across all levels.
Hi schmix, I personally didn’t find the driving that appealing. It was actually mentioned in the review, and I quote: “Driving sections of the game are for the main part boring and unchallenging, and serve more to allow dialogue and voiced thoughts to advance the storyline more than anything”. I still stand by those comments as only 1 driving stage actually isn’t boring. But of course this is just all how I felt about it.
And I disagree that a bad storyline is essential to this game.