What makes absolutely no sense is that there are loading screens
everywhere. Each small area is self-contained and you can’t walk 15 seconds without hitting another loading screen. With near-PS2 level graphics, this is unforgivably poor use of current generation capabilities. It also kills the pacing of the game because the constant breaks in the action. Here’s a perfect example: Perseus lands the killing blow in a boss battle. The animation sequence shows him drive it to the ground and go limp. However, the game pauses and loads a “final thrashing” video before it explodes into dust. Like a bad actor that won’t just die, this last hurrah after they’re already dead is unnecessary.
Believe it or not, that’s not the worst part of a boss battle. Game Republic wanted epic, cinematic battles with major entities like Medusa. To ensure this happened, it’s a requirement to engage in a quick-time event (QTE) to finish off a boss. No matter how much you whittle down their health with other attacks, it will reach a point that you’re forced into a QTE. However, if you screw up the QTE over and over, the boss is going to keep opening up the door to restart the sequence. Why allow me to take away 95% of his health with my normal and special attacks only to force me into a set way to kill it?
If you’re still with me, it’s clear that Clash of the Titans love it some QTEs. As a result, I imagine if an NPC tells you to go fishing then you would expect it to have a mini-game or QTE for such a request. Wrong! Fishing is an excuse used by nearly every game on the market for a mini-game, but not here. Killing all of the enemies in the area magically catches a fish. It’s such an obvious oversight that, coupled with boring missions, made me chuckle.
Speaking of missions, let’s take a moment to talk about the quest system. Quest should be put in quotation marks because it’s always the same routine: go here, kill this. Rinse and repeat as often as possible in a 10-12 hour time-frame. I get it, this is an action game; it’s not supposed to involve deep thought. If that‘s the case, though, why put in the façade of choice in the first place? There might only be one quest available but you still have the “option” to not accept it. Such an “option” seems pointless because the story won‘t move forward. None of the story quests are optional and none can be completed concurrently.
Challenge Quests are slightly different and can be completed without progressing the main story, but with the already repetitive combat, I didn’t even want to spend time with that mode. All of the quests will grade you on the time taken to complete it as well as the damage dealt and taken. Do a wonderful job and you’ll receive an “S” rating (like grade school). It might encourage playing through the game multiple times, but I don’t see getting a perfect score as worth it.
Playing the game once will still give you déjà vu since you’ll see the same areas repeatedly. Some locations will be visited four or five times. I would fight through some enemies, approach an intersection, and head down one of the paths. After running for five seconds, I am told (not shown!) that I can’t proceed. So, I turn around and try another path only to have the same thing happen again. Clash of the Titans occasionally is just a running game with very familiar scenery and no indication of the direction to take. Yes, it’s as tedious in-game as it sounds.
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