If it seems like Rare has been working on Conker: Live and Reloaded about as long as Duke Nuken Forever has been in development, you’re not too far off the mark. Live and Reloaded originally seemed to be the game Microsoft would release immediately to showcase its acquisition of the famed UK developer Rare Ltd. Instead, Grabbed by the Ghoulies was Rare’s first Xbox title, which got mixed reviews (read DailyGame’s), and Kameo was delayed until the next Xbox releases. That put the onus on Conker, an N64 convert, to save the day for Rare.
Now, years later, Conker is on the verge of shipping, which begs the question “what has Rare been doing all this time?” Pushing aside rumors of working on Perfect Dark Zero for Xenon, Rare has been putting the finishing touches on Conker: Live and Reloaded. This has meant tweaking the graphics. It’s meant completing the single-player port from the original Conker’s Bad Fur Day. But above all, it’s meant spit-shining what Conker: Live and Reloaded was designed to do: deliver a foul-mouthed, over-the-top, multiplayer extravaganza.
There’s a reason “Live” is the first word in this game’s subtitle: this game is designed to be a multiplayer experience. Yes, the entire Bad Fur Day is included on the disk, completely overhauled with Dolby Digital 5.1 and the best cartoon-inspired graphics to ever appear on Xbox. But having played both aspects of the game, we can now say that it’s clear Bad Fur Day will be little more than a “BFD” in the rearview mirror as gamers cruise down the Xbox Live highway.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day is a 3D platformer through and through. It’s got jumping games, lever pulling, collection quests … everything that N64 gamers will remember from the original. However, it also suffers from what we at DailyGame like to refer to as The Cannonball Effect. Much like classic movies once felt perfect but now seem uninspired, Conker’s Bad Fur Day has lost something in the next-gen translation.
The single-player game isn’t bad, per se, but parts of it that seemed incredible just 10 years ago now feel less revolutionary, less special. Nostalgia buffs will appreciate running through the single-player story one more time, but everyone else will find that the game doesn’t have the same wow factor, leaving them to head straight for the online multiplayer. But hey, that’s where Microsoft and Rare have been focusing their attention, too.
For multiplayer action, Conker: Live and Reloaded features two basic modes, a story/campaign mode and deathmatch mode, both of which are also available as “single-player” games with computer-controlled bots. In the story mode, players make their way through a campaign that spans several eras, from a beach-storming level like Saving Private Ryan to a futuristic battle inspired by films like The Terminator. Each level plays into the story of the next, and after going through as either the Tediz or SHC (Squirrel High Command), each level opens up for play as the opposite team.
These levels all rely on achieving objectives, be it capturing towers to thwart an attack or destroying various areas of a base to stop your ultimate destruction. Unlike the objective-based games in Halo 2, though, where teams operate by leaving a few players behind as guards, Conker: Live and Reloaded incorporates six different classes, each of which has a distinct skill (power, stealth, sniping, all-purpose, pilot and, yes a flamer). As a result, each stage requires that you evaluate the required gameplay strategy and work as a team.
In concept, it’s not unlike MechAssault 2, but in practice, it works much better. Coordination is key in Conker: Live and Reloaded, and teams that don’t work together simply don’t win. Fortunately, if you find that your chosen class isn’t working or your tactics need to change, you can pause the game and choose a different character. The only penalty for this is restarting at the most-recent spawning point. Deathmatch includes the same frenzied pace and focus on character classes, but somehow the lack of objectives actually makes it more fun than the story mode. There’s something to be said for pointless violence, apparently.
Fast-paced is the name of the game with both of these multiplayer modes in Conker, and if you’re not a fan of twitch-based shooters, consider yourself forewarned. The best way to describe Live and Reloaded is “Counter-Strike meets Saturday morning.” Only in this case, the cartoon characters have mouths so foul a sailor would blush, even though the raunchiest words are bleeped out.
Even though the build we played was incomplete, the graphics and audio seem more complete than most games on the market today. If you ever doubted Rare’s graphical prowess, Conker: Live and Reloaded will make you eat your words. From the colors and fur-shading to the environments and draw distance, Conker looks gorgeous. The screens you see here are all in-game and in real-time. We’ll let them speak for themselves. The audio, too, is top-notch, and although the voice acting can seem a bit slow, the use of surround is impeccable.
The only snafu with the graphics is Rare’s move to cram as much as it can on-screen at any one time. Icons appear when each player speaks. Text appears when each player scores a kill or achieves an objective. Targeting reticules appear when a player switches weapons. Mix all these things with the particle effects, weapon effects and massive explosions, and things get far too busy. If you’re hoping to play Conker in split-screen mode, even with just two people, forget about it right now. Conker is gorgeous but far too busy in split-screen, and given the lateness of its production cycle, the jam-packed HUD is here to stay.
Conker: Live and Reloaded is on its way later this spring, and from what we’ve played, it seems ready to ship now. The issues we noticed in the preview build (a merely passable single-player campaign, an insanely busy HUD and a multiplayer pace faster than Richard Simmons on Red Bull) are all bound to ship with the game, meaning Rare has very little to continue polishing. If you’re looking for a single-player savior, Conker is not the way to go. However, if you’re looking for a game designed for 16-player online battles, Conker: Live and Reloaded may very well be just what the mad doctor ordered.
— Jonas Allen
