Although it is being developed and published by Sega, there is no Sonic to be seen, sadly, which I suppose is forgivable as they trying to achieve the ‘spectacle of human athleticism’. Emphasis on the word ‘trying’.
London 2012: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games in all its glory isn’t terrible. It didn't have me attempting to hang myself as did both the Beijing and Vancouver games. In fact, I’m remorseful to admit, but I had a pleasant amount of fun with this game, single player and multiplayer. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t bouncing of my walls with excitement at being able to play as fictional athletes, but I did find myself enjoying it.
I'm not sure whether to class London 2012 as a video game, or as a mini-game collection, because let’s be honest, that’s all it is. However, it’s not a bad thing. There are over 30 events and they’re not all horrendous, but undoubtedly do get samey rather quickly. The running events have you tapping the ‘action’ button in a rhythm to keep your performance bar in the green. Yes, it may be a change from the conventional tap as fast as you can, but once you've done one running event, you’ve done them all. It’s the same for the swimming events, and parts of the field events. After you've done one event, you have basically done every other event in the game. Wrong! It just keeps getting better. You can’t make an Olympic game without the addition of quick time events, and Sega hasn’t disappointed. Nearly all the other events, with the exception of the shooting and archery events, are quick timed or a mix of button mashing, with a dash of timing mixed in.
The shooting events bring life into the game and as you would expect control just like any other first person or third person shooter out there. There is nothing particularly special about them, but there is a sense of satisfaction when you hit that centre spot.
Bad things aside, Sega has gone to town on the presentation of the game. It looks spectacular. Not necessarily graphic wise, but the menus and overall look of the game is brilliant. They seem to have spent a lot of time perfecting the commentary, and it works. It almost fills the gaps the game is missing, but it concerns me, how the commentary is so good, but the gameplay is so mediocre.
In my opinion, the highlight of the game is the multiplayer. Not so much online, but split-screen. It’s always 10x more fun when you can smash your friends’ time, and rub it in their face. You just don’t get the same reactions from the computer.
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