This game is one such title that needed much reflection before writing an impressions article. I’ve had this game since October 21st, about a week before the general public got their hands on it. It had been recalled due to an infamous track featuring lyrics from the Quran. So, while I had my hands on this game there was no online. I actually got to sit down and play the main story, and focus on the standalone product this game is. I get to focus on the community product later on.
First, the standalone game is fairly simple. It’s basically just a platforming game with a shallow story that isn’t too terribly enticing at all. One of the gameplay’s redeeming value is that it can be very interactive. There are things to grab, jetpacks, puzzles to solve, danger, and a motivation to keep playing. So I suppose the lack of a decent story is made up by challenging levels.
The game has a lot of concepts. One of the major ones in the standalone game is collecting things. In each level, there are countless of different items to gather for your inventory. Whether it be stickers, gear, costumes, or even vehicles. It can be a chore to go back and play through each level to collect all the items, and some require you to have two players. Some of the later levels may even require four players. This is generally a non-issue, assuming you have internet for online co-op.
Once you’re done with the Story mode, you’re ready for almost anything. The real depth of this game lies within its custom levels. After collecting countless items in story mode, you’ll have all sorts of creations to give your custom levels depth and character. Creating a custom level can be daunting at first, but the tutorials easily help you find all of which you were looking for. (And in a nice manner to boot, with Stephen Fry doing the narration)
While I say that the real depth of this game is with its custom levels, and I seem to praise it; this is also its biggest flaw at this moment. Many of the levels are designed purely to get the user “trophies”. The most common instance is what I’d like to call the “recreated levels”. In the sense that the creator basically took some preexisting idea, and turns it into a level. While some of these levels are very nostalgic, fun to play, and impressive recreations: Please do something new once in a while! It was amusing at first, but now it’s just tiring.
I feel the same thing about the music levels. Most of these levels involve you dragging something across a linear path to recreate a popular video game song, or popular other song. There are quite a few levels with interesting music, but this doesn’t really feel like its using the level creator to its full potential.
These are some issues with the game, but they don’t really detract from the overall experience. I don’t really feel like it has grown out of control yet. There are still plenty of creative levels out there, and plenty of things that impress me. Don’t get me wrong, I like the music and ‘recreated levels’, but when is it too much? That’s not really something I can hold against the game. Can’t really hold it against the community, either. The game is only a few weeks old. It’s situations like these is what took me so long to put out an article on LittleBigPlanet. The game is always changing, and the perspective from which I see it changes as well.
At its core, LittleBigPlanet is a very solid product. No, it’s not a gift from the Gods to quench the fanboy’s thirst. The game has its fair share of issues. I’m willing to overlook most of them because I’m so damn addicted to the game, but I guess that’s just personal bias! The regular game offline is little. What you do afterwards is another matter entirely. It’s always changing and getting bigger.
I’ve made some levels, too. If you’d like to play them my psn ID is tearsofash. My better levels are: Land of the Blind, and dada. Search for them, and I’m sure you’ll find them. Land of the Blind is my experiment with a platforming level in which you have to rely more on sound and less on sight. The level “dada” is sort of an homage to the dada movement in the early 1900s. It’s one of those weird anti-art “levels”.
