Something smells and Shrek didn't fart.
The premise for Shrek the Third is simple. The game is a linear beat-up em. The game begins with a basic tutorial, essentially teaching you that all you need to know is that you can punch, block, charge up a punch and when you’ve got enough fairy dust; execute a special move. The moveset is extremely limited and is one of the first things that will grate on your mind. Finishing moves can be executed with Y when you’ve harmed your enemy enough but they’re really just a gimmick tied into an achievement.
The game isn’t helped by the fact that even though there are over fifteen levels they’re all rather limited. The developers have done a good job with level variety but throughout the game there is very little choice. There is only ever one correct way to go and if you deviate from the path you’ll run into an invisible wall. This wouldn’t be so bad if the game allowed you to explore a little bit but even when you can see parts of a level they’re blocked off, which ends up making the levels feel very small. For each level you’ll be given quests which do encourage exploration so expect to be blocked by that invisible force field frequently.
Oh dear...
Disappointingly the camera is problematic at best. The camera has a fixed perspective and just gets in the way. Even though the game is mostly just played by defeating wave after wave of enemies there are occasionally some platforming segments which aren’t helped by the problematic camera. In the few open ended parts of a level you’ll occasionally need to backtrack a little and the fixed perspective of the camera can make it tough to see where you’re going.
Even though you’re able to play as several characters from the Shrek films you will only ever control one character at once. Naturally Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Puss in Boots are all playable and there are a few differences in the characters (Puss in Boots for example can double jump). A multiplayer mode supporting co-op play would have been a fantastic option for the kids so that parents could play with their children, but any kind of decent multiplayer support (a few mini games doesn’t cut it) is missing. Capping off the fact that the game feels unfinished is the AI. Often you can see the AI in the background and rather than getting ready to pounce on Shrek and company they’ll be running into boxes or doing something equally silly. The AI aren’t smart enough to come and attack you either, they’ll often hang back until you’re right near them.
Visually Shrek the Third looks okay but is let down by the small environments. There are sometimes frame rate issues when things get a little more heated which is quite surprising for an Xbox 360 title. There is a large variety of levels in the game and all of them do look pretty decent. The sound-alikes in the game sound very average as well. It's so very obvious from the very beginning that the real actors didn't voice the characters in this game.
Run, for they look the same.
Shrek the Third is likely to appeal to those who want to add a quick 1000 points to their gamerscore. A lot of the achievements require you to play through the game a second time, but considering the game is remarkably short this shouldn’t be too much of a hassle. After you’ve completed the single player game they’re almost no reason to come back to Shrek the Third unless you’re a huge fan of Shrek and simply cannot wait to take control of Puss in Boots again. There are a few mini games and demo for Bee Movie included but there isn’t enough content in the game to even recommend the title as a rental for die hard fans.
Unfortunately and unsurprisingly Shrek the Third isn’t a good game. With so many Shrek titles already out on the market the idea of making the game into a beat ‘em up was surely an attractive concept but with a poor camera and terrible AI Shrek the Third just feels like a game that’s been rushed to tie in with the movie. It’s recommended that even if you’re a huge fan of Shrek games you try out some of the previous titles as Shrek the Third is more of a chore than a fun game.
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