The vivid pastel colours and pleasing cartoon visuals of Fat Princess are misleading. Behind that seemingly simple exterior of comedy Elf violence hides a much deeper complexity.
But while this is one of the cleverer, full-fat games available on PSN, its complexity is also one of its downfalls. There's a lot to take in and so much to do on the battlefield that it's not easy knowing what everyone's up to and how best to set about your own duties.
The main mode is an online 32-player team game called Rescue the Princess. Both teams try to rescue their princess from the opponent's castle, hauling her back to their own base where she must stay for 30 seconds for that team to win the round. Simple, right? Nope.
There are five player classes, changeable at any time by picking up the corresponding hat. The mage shoots fire or ice spells, the priest can heal team mates, the ranger fires arrows, the warrior is a close-range sword fighter and, most crucially, the worker collects resources (and can use his axe for weak attacks).
Workers head out to chop down trees for wood or hack at rocks for metal. The resulting goods can be used at either the base or any number of outposts that can be captured during battle.
With these resources, workers can build ramps, ladders or catapults that aid your insurgence or make escape during a rescue attempt easier. They can also upgrade player classes. Warriors get bigger swords, workers get bombs, rangers get guns and so on.
Fat Princess
Gameplay footage
2:01Going on a killing spree
Fat Princess
Gameplay footage
2:01Going on a killing spree
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While all this is going on you also have to grab pieces of cake and feed the enemy princess imprisoned in your castle. She gets fatter, making her harder to carry home. Oh, and you also need to make sure that you capture some outposts too. Pretty intense stuff for something that looks so colouful and pleasing to the eyeballs.
It can feel like you and 31 other players have been dumped into one of eight symmetrical maps, directionless. What do you do first?
There's also a Snatch 'n Grab mode, which is the same as above except you grab the enemy's princess from her throne and get her back to your base to score a point.
A straight-up team deathmatch mode gives each team a pool of lives to share - although there's little depth or real skill to the actual fighting in Fat Princess so that's a bit pointless. It'll never take over from a good old fashioned FPS version of deathmatch.
And Invasion is a Battlefield-style outpost capture game where you have to control specific territories.
You can play all these modes offline with bots if you wish, but we don't know why you'd want to - even if Sony's servers are as laggy as they've been all weekend (Titan is working on a fix though).
A single-player Legend of the Fat Princess mode weaves a simplistic fairytale into otherwise standard battles that aren't really significant to the story itself. You probably won't want to bother with it.
All of this stuff is inherently brilliant - a game with such depth and variety has the potential to be great fun. And with the over-the-top cartoon violence it offers no end of laughs.
Fat Princess
Gameplay footage
1:59How not to attempt a rescue
Fat Princess
Gameplay footage
1:59How not to attempt a rescue
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The problem is perhaps more the fault of the hardware than the game - such complexity requires solid team communication to actually work. PS3's lack of a bundled headset (like with Xbox 360) means barely anyone talks to each other. A lot of gamers just haven't made that separate purchase or realised that mobile phone headsets work too.
Ultimately this means playing Fat Princess becomes more like a random riot with surprise wins. Half the time you don't even know your team's going in for the kill until you hear the announcer say "You have the princess." Then it's a scramble to get in there and help out.
Don't get us wrong - the system in place for the main Rescue the Princess mode is fun. But when no one can hear each other, there's no sense of team effort or working together to achieve the common goal.
We want to like Fat Princess more than we actually do. It has the make-up of a brilliant online team game. But the lack of overall communication really does have an affect on how the game plays. If you're in a position where you have 30 mates all online with headsets, you'll love it. But we're not.
Looks like fun, but I haven't the time to get into this one.
I still think you have been unfair on the game itself, when really it is the fault of the users who do not have headsets - and the fact that headsets don't get bundled with the PS3.
I wouldn't like to be a developer having to read that review, to be honest.
Looks like a really Fun Game! Im still suprised that the PS3 doesnt come with a headset as standard, with online and MP becoming so important in todays Games, it just seems like a no brainer to include one.
The Game does look like a blast though, will try it out on a friends PS3 this weekend.
The review makes it sound like good fun (as do the videos I've seen) so I was thinking of picking it up. But of course I have no headset either, so I'm as guilty of non-communication as anyone else. That said, KZ2 seems to have a lot of people with them.
But I bet the reason no headset is bundled is down to the manufacturing costs of the console itself. Any way to save a couple of bucks would be done, and the headset removal is one. Maybe they'll start doing it now.
People need to be more like me though. I push my luck when making big purchases. I got a free second controller and traded out one of the bundled games with my PS3 for something cheaper that I actually wanted. I bet I could've got a headset too.
It is a fun game but the connection issues need fixed and people need to communicate more. It should improve over time as people get used to it, and find the push to talk button - R2
I've never really had a problem with people communicating on this. Connecting into a game can be frustrating and the game is so different to most of the other games out there it takes a few plays to get into it and find out what you're all suppose to be doing. Once it all clicks it's bloody brilliant fun.
I don't normally criticise reviews, but that was more than a little daft. You're reviewing the game, not the circumstances under which you played it.
If you had been playing with friends who had headsets (as myself and many others will), what then? You would have reviewed it differently?
Completely bizzare article.
You're spot on mate.
What if everyone had had a headset but the reviewers headset wasn't working? would he have given it a bad score cos his headset was broke? Bizarre criticism.
I have never seen a game marked down before because not enough people have headsets.
I've never played it so I can't disagree with him, but to mark a game down because there weren't enough people with headsets when he was playing is not a criticism of the game, its a criticism of the players and the console.
I think it's a perfectly reasonable criticism. If they haven't included a command system in a game which requires a lot of teamplay then it should get some marks knocked off.
idiotic criticisms.like giving street fighter a lower score cos you don't have an arcade stick.
Exactly my thoughts. Like marking down Gran Turismo because Sony didn't issue steering wheels.
Ha. It's not the same at all. The point is that when you are playing a game online in silence, you may as well be playing against bots. It's pointless.
Downsides are the racist American teens - but block them out and games are massively enhanced and make them worth playing.
The two examples you two have given are your own choice - if you want to use a certain control system then buy it, however, if you want to have a fully communicating online game, you can't buy everyone on your team a headset to ensure they play can you?
The headset issue is something that you have no control over, the steering wheel/arcade stick issue is completely your choice.
Ha. It's not the same at all. The point is that when you are playing a game online in silence, you may as well be playing against bots. It's pointless.
Downsides are the racist American teens - but block them out and games are massively enhanced and make them worth playing.
The two examples you two have given are your own choice - if you want to use a certain control system then buy it, however, if you want to have a fully communicating online game, you can't buy everyone on your team a headset to ensure they play can you?
The headset issue is something that you have no control over, the steering wheel/arcade stick issue is completely your choice.
Get it?
I take it you haven't played the game? If you had you would know there's quite a lot of people on it with headsets. Does that mean the score should be changed? There's a few other issues with the game that I'd rate as more critical than the headset issue. Sadly this review skirts them all.
use of a headset is my choice as well.plus um how are you supposed to bundle a headset with a downloadable game? marks down for lag/poor graphics/choppy framerate totally understandable.marks down for not having a headset? ridiculous completely foolish.
Much hyped and long awaited PS3 title in average game shocker... Sarcasm off!
360 fanboy comment on PS3 related thread shocker!
When they eventually release a game that makes me use my PS3 again I'll possibly start looking at it in a different light... till then the big, slow, lumbering carcass that is the PS3 is fair game.
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