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By Rob (2nd Jul 2008)

“Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure” for the Playstation 2 is a joint collaboration between National Geographic and DSI Games, the product of a marketing blitz surrounding the “hype” of their eponymous new IMAX movie. (In case you still haven’t gotten your fill of Sea Monsters after watching the movie and playing the game, officially licensed T-shirts, books, puzzles, and an “action figure playset” are available as well. ) According to the movie’s trailer, Sea Monsters is “an epic adventure 82 million years in the making”. If this is the case, why does it seem as though the developers spent about 15 minutes working on this game?

The game allows you to control a total of 6 different prehistoric monsters. Each monster has a unique skill that can be utilized on your quest to escape (Thalassomedon can stealthily sneak up on prey, Henodus can dig, Temnodontosaurus can dive to extreme depths, Tylosaurus can smash rocks, Dolichorhynchops can jump out of water, and Nothosaurus can walk on dry land as well as dig at greater depths than Henodus can reach). You start off with just Thalassomedon and must collect various fossils to gain access to the other 5 monsters. There are also many fossils to be found that are not from any one of the 6 playable monsters; these fossils allow you to do nothing more than read facts about the respective creatures. (It’s National Geographic; what did you expect, fun?) And, although you are a SEA monster, your ultimate goal is to “find a way to truly escape these waters”.

The game begins with pop up hints to set you on the path to success in achieving that goal. But these hints are terrible, and do nothing but make the game even more laughable. So as not to overly block the screen with text, hints come out in parts. But, the splitting of sentences is what really makes for a suspenseful read. I was thoroughly entertained by “hints” such as “Only by collecting new fossils can you access new, challenging areas…That are currently beyond your reach”, “Unlocking new monsters will allow you to swim…To the deepest parts of the sea”, and “In the oceans of Earth thousands of years ago…Danger was never far away” (Gee thanks guys, but was that last one even a hint?)

Collecting fossils is the only real goal of the game, and they may be obtained in one of two ways: Either by finding them in the Open Sea, or by beating a challenge in a Portal. In the Open Sea, fossils may be floating, buried, behind walls, or even inside other monsters which must be fought and defeated for their treasure. In Portal challenges, different unlocked characters must be used to accomplish different tasks, such as winning a fight between a bunch of Xiphactinus fish, or racing another monster to the finish line. Some challenges are remarkably easy; I beat some of the challenges in less than 10 seconds. Other ones are extremely difficult, such as trying to coax Dolichorhynchops to jump through hoops (Don’t you just love the irony?) above the water’s surface. But, here’s where things start getting bad. Only certain goals in each Portal can be accomplished until more monsters have been unlocked. And with only a poor in-game radar and no map, finding just how to get to some of the portals is extremely frustrating. Add to that a depth perception of about 15 feet, and frustration starts to mount. I literally searched for almost an hour and could not find my way to one of the portals before I finally enlisted the help of a friend. To add insult to injury is the map provided by the manual, which is the absolute biggest piece of trash they could have possibly provided.

Besides the game being just plain boring, there are lots of technical problems too. If you choose to manually save the game while in the Open Sea, all music and sound effects disappear until the next time a portal is entered. The controls are very loose with some characters. Often times, your monster will get stuck on invisible walls. As I mentioned before, the radar is terrible. It greatly skews the location of items based upon your location in the sea. When that radar is all you have to rely on for navigation, it gets quite irritating. Last, and most perplexing/infuriating to me, was when the game completely froze and I was forced to reboot.

Quite frankly, this game is bad. It is boring. It lacks innovation. It has technical problems. Those problems cause the game to be very difficult, which makes me wonder if it can possibly be enjoyed by anyone in the young age group at which it is targeted. Maybe the movie and Action Figure Playset are interesting and fun, but this game certainly isn’t. The game play is tedious, and the graphics are lacklustre. Do yourself a favour and just forget about Sea Monsters.