BRAVE VIDEO GAMES

Brave: The Video Game Review

Xbox 360 | PS3

System: PS3, Xbox 360*, PC
Dev: Behaviour Interactive
Pub: Disney
Release: June 19, 2012
Players: 1-2 (Local)
Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p	Fantasy Violence

A Run-Of-The-Mill Adventure
by Adam Dodd

As a critic who's had to endure the painful experience of reviewing the awful games based on the Transformers films as well as a handful of Harry Potter licensed games, I wasn't really looking forward to spending a few hours with Brave: The Video Game. The problem with games like this is the developers are given a very short period of time to churn the game out so they can get the game out at the same time as the film it's cross-promoting. And this means corners are cut, bugs are left unsquashed and features aren't really fully developed. Thankfully, Brave isn't quite as bad as the shlock that tends to get pushed on unsuspecting consumers around this time of year, but it's also not very good. Here's why.

Because the target audience here is younger gamers, and, more specifically, fans of the animated film this game is based off of, the gameplay is pretty straightforward. You control Merida, a young woman with some rather incredible skills in archery, so her main weapon is a bow. Should an enemy get a little too close, you also have a sword to take care of them. The added layer of depth and strategy comes with the different charms that let you bestow your arrows with elemental effects (fire, air, ice, and earth). They will come in handy when you go up against creatures with resistances to certain elements, forcing you to mix up your strategy a bit in order to defeat them.