Previous titles such as Sydney 2000 and International Track and Field featured less events and lacked variation. Sony have learnt from the previous mistakes of these titles and made sure that Athens 2004 isn’t just a graphical update to these older titles. Sony have made full use of the Olympic license with more than 25 events being playable in Athens 2004. 800 characters from over 64 countries feature and some of the world’s top athletes have been motion captured to add more realism to the Olympic title than ever before.
Athens 2004 features official 3D event arenas approved by the IOC, including the Olympic stadium, Olympic aquatic centre and the Olympic Indoor Hall. There are four arcade and eight competition game modes ranging from practice to the official decathlon and heptathlon combined events. A challenge mode is included, as is a competition mode. For quick fun, gamers are able to practice events with unlimited attempts at each event. Athens 2004 is fully compatible with the dance mat, enabling gamers to run faster, swim stronger and jump higher. For those of you taking advantage of the multiplayer capabilities in Athens 2004, multi-tap support is included.
As mentioned earlier, there are over 25 events included in Athens 2004 there is a huge amount of variety which means repetition is only sometimes an issue. This also means that perfecting an event can be hard as each event doesn’t come up too often.
The twenty five events included in Athens 2004 are:
- 100m track
- 200m track
- 400m track
- 800m track
- 1500m track
- Hurdles
- Long Jump
- High Jump
- Triple Jump
- Pole Vault
- Javelin Throw
- Discus Throw
- Shot Put
- 100m freestyle
- 100m backstroke
- 100m breaststroke
- 100m butterfly
- Skeet
- Archery
- Weightlifting
- Equestrian
- Floor Gymnastics Exercises (men and women)
- Rings, (men and women)
As expected, there are plenty of options in Athens 2004 to give gamers their Olympic fix. All twenty five events can be done at once in a marathon competition which ranks players according to their skill, or players can take part in one event and hone their abilities. Athens 2004 keeps track of all player records which pushes the gamer to keep improving their times; especially in multiplayer. A good addition would have been the ability to upload these times to the internet to compete around the world, but unfortunately this is missing.
Multiplayer is the real strength of the title. There is no career mode or in-depth single player mode which is a sore emission, but the inclusion of multitap support is a great addition. There is a huge variety of options for multiplayer, with single events or all twenty five events able to be played in one sitting. Players will also be competing with their friends to beat their best times.
Most of the controlling is done with the L1, O and X buttons. The track races are mostly button-mashing events, as are the swimming events. These events are surprisingly difficult and require ridiculously fast button pressing. Athens 2004 also tests your reflexes, with the archery and skeet events both testing your reaction speed and accuracy with a controller. We are thankful that all the events are not just based on pressing the X and O buttons. This means the entire twenty five events don’t feel too familiar as they basically all have different ways to play. There is a drawback to this, as having to learn a new method of controlling every time can become irritating. A lot of the time though, high scores are based on luck. Some events (such as floor gymnastics) require the dance mat for optimum results. A controller can be used but is nowhere near as effective as a dance mat. To be able to perfect all twenty five events a dance mat is essential.
The graphics in Athens 2004 are extremely varied., The track events look just as poor as the screenshots (located in the media panel) indicate, but some events, such as the swimming and equestrian events look highly detailed. The stadiums are rendered well and look extremely realistic. The crowd is 2D but look detailed. The game does sometimes feature some slow down which is disappointing as Athens 2004 doesn’t look to be pushing the Playstation 2’s graphical power.
The sound is extremely formulaic in Athens 2004. The music for the menus is extremely well done and helps to set the atmosphere of the game. It makes Athens 2004 feel like a blockbuster event. The rest of the sound is as good as can be expected for an Olympic title. Commentary is extremely responsive and accurate but becomes repetitive after a few outings, with the same comments continuously being expressed.
Athens 2004 has turned out to be a completely different game than we had expected, in both good ways and bad ways. A lengthy career mode would have been a great idea to keep the single player pleased. We were surprised at the variety in the events, certain events are strictly button-mashing events, but others have other expectations.
Whether or not this is a good title doesn’t really matter, as it is the only Olympic title which will be released that follows the Athens 2004 Olympics. At times the player models look sub-par, the best aspect of the game is the multiplayer option. This game is worth a rent during the Olympics if you cannot get enough of the Olympic fever, but an essential purchase if you like your multiplayer fun. Athens receives the Bronze medal, good, but could have been better. Unfortunately, we have to wait another four years to see if Sony learn from their mistakes.
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