• Publisher: EA Games
  • Release Date: Nov 20, 2006
  • Also On: DS
Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 48 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 42 Ratings

  • Summary: True to the fiction in every respect, this is the game based on the Superman universe that fans have been anticipating for decades. From excited citizens to the traffic on the streets, every detail of this vibrant city has a mind of its own. These 80 square miles are brought to life for the first time in a videogame. Go anywhere and do anything in Metropolis as Superman. Non-linear gameplay allows you to explore and play the game exactly how you want to at your own pace. Where and how you fly – to the top of skyscrapers, dodging elevated trains – is completely up to you, since gameplay is designed as a true open world experience. With notorious villains like Metallo and colossal challenges only Superman can overcome, you must navigate the Man of Steel to monitor and protect Metropolis from destruction. Three distinct types of gameplay — Flying, Rescue, and Combat — will keep the action constant and the challenges relentless. Play both film-inspired missions as well as original content created exclusively for the videogame. Graphics, sound, and gameplay have been taken to the next level to create a Metropolis like you've never seen it, with three dimensional sound, a complete orchestra soundtrack, and Oscar-wining sound designer. [Electronic Arts] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 48
  2. Negative: 20 out of 48
  1. Gaming doesn’t get much better than breaking the sound barrier through Metropolis’ skies.
  2. The city of metropolis and the world environment looks amazing and will never let you down. The buildings and islands look great from above and the sun flare effects are a treat as well.
  3. Superman Returns isn't a bad game, but at six hours gameplay it's far too short, as well as far too buggy and repetitive to enjoy to its fullest.
  4. Note to self: When a good Superman game finally comes out, see if the Captain can do that “around the world to go back in time” thing from Superman II so he can bring me a copy NOW!

See all 48 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 18
  2. Negative: 5 out of 18
  1. This game has brilliant exploration. It is an absolute joy to just fly around and explore. The powers are fun to use and although it has flaws, the game is great. Expand
  2. KMarx
    8
    It is crazy fun to fly so fast around in such a huge city. The game is really short but it is different for everyone that plays it. The story sucks and the voice acting is comical but the game play has really grown on me. The physics are unbelievable and are the real reason to check Superman out. Expand
  3. LarryH.
    7
    The best Superman game ever, just not enough to do. And the citizen A.I. can be silly. Sometimes they run right towards the battle to get away. But the game is good for Superman fans like myself who are still waiting for an awsome S game. Expand
  4. RobB.
    1
    The pros: Superman's powers are accurately displayed - finally! The flying is undoubtedly the highlight of the game, and there's plenty of enjoyment to be found in just cruising around the Metropolis city limits (when you can). The heat vision and freezing breath are great as well - the super breath is cool too. Strength and endurance are completely unlimited - however, the endurance of Metropolis isn't, and that's your concern. Cool touch, I thought. Very cool that they got the cast of the movie to lend their voices as well. Pros? That's about it. The cons: Saving Metropolis from losing health. At times, the game can be VERY difficult and frustrating. Metropolis loses health over EVERYTHING you and your enemies do...a citizen accidentally gets punched and Metropolis loses health. Not realistic. Saving citizens restores health to Metropolis, but the ambulances are often times extremely hard to find, and you won't be able to rescue all of the injured people before another combat sequence begins. Very frustrating. The super powers are almost useless in actual gameplay. Flying is, of course, very cool - however, most of the aliens/robots/dragons you fight throughout the game seem to be immune to heat vision or freezing breath (or both). The super breath power is completely useless as an offensive weapon as well. Your strength is great, but the impact counter is very poor and it's frustrating at times even trying to land a punch. The combat is EXTREMELY repetative and boring. Even after beating the game at 100% completion, random monsters still generate for no discernable purpose - not cool when you're looking for a break in the action and just want to enjoy the game for a while. Very little variety - either you're facing off against robots, aliens, or dragon-things. Over and over again. That's it. For a break in the routine, you occasionally get to put out fires using your freezing breath. Either that or you can spend 20 minutes looking around the city for a fire truck to take over to it - but of course, it's not even remotely worth the time nor the effort to do so. Side missions? Virtually non-existant. You can recover 100 lost kittens that are scattered around Metropolis. Whoopie. The camera and lock-on is horrific. The camera is among the most annoying and dysfunctional I've ever seen in any video game, and the lock on features often times fix on an enemy on the ground - who you can't target again until he gets up - or some other feature (car, etc), which renders combat even more difficult during a first play. Often times you'll find yourself simply button mashing in frustration. The game follows the events of the movie only peripherally - anything that actually occurs in the movie only occurs in the game during cut scenes (which, of course, the player has no interaction with). At no point in the game do you have any interaction with Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, or Perry White, nor do you get any time in as Clark Kent (other than in a brief cut scene in which you have no control over). Very, very lame. Apparently, night never falls on the city of Metropolis, either; upon reaching 100% completion, the day just keeps on going indefinitely, and this doesn't add anything to credibility for the game. You'll never get a chance to explore anything of Metropolis, other than flying around the city. Buildings cannot be destroyed apparently, nor can you fly through anything. The city IS massive, but there's very little to do with it. Unfortunately, Metropolis doesn't appear very accurate either - the city seems to be surrounded by either endless miles of water or endless miles of sand, and you can't really explore any of those areas. Additionally, there are several industrial zoned islands - but apparently no roads or bridges leading to them, leading you to wonder if all of Metropolis' citizens can fly... Flying up takes you high, but you'll never actually progress beyond a certain point - being able to leave the city limits for a spell and/or being able to fly into space would have made this game SO much more enjoyable. One of the biggest selling points the game offers is it's free roaming. True enough - however, once you reach 100% completion, the monsters keep on generating at random, meaning you'll never really get any opportunity to simply relax and enjoy flying around for the sheer sake of doing so. This is very disappointing, considering the flying is really the best aspect the game has to offer. It seems as if the developers of the game focused solely on representing Superman's powers well and basically sluffed off on the rest of the game. Even once you've beaten the game and have acclimated yourself to the poor combat layout, once you know the enemies particular weaknesses, the game is a VERY easy play and you'll beat it inside of 4-6 hours, tops. If you can stand replaying it that long, and I know I certainly couldn't. The flying and super powers are fabulous, though, and for that it gets 1 point - without those elements, I would have scored this a zero, because it wouldn't have deserved any better. The game is worth $7.95 in a cut out bin and will no doubt soon be there. When it is, I'll pick it up strictly to enjoy the flying and that'll be it. Hopefully a sequel game will be given to different developers or the reviews that are all saying the same negative things about the game will be adhered to and a REALLY GOOD Superman game will come next. Hope springs eternal... Expand

See all 18 User Reviews