Army Men: Sarge's Heroes Review

Cool Concept
Authentic Weapons
Detailed Environments
Kids Love Multi-Player

Spastic Camera
Poor Aiming Control
Dumb Enemy AI

I love the idea behind these games. The whole notion of playing as plastic men against other plastic men in an oversized world is brilliant. I don't know whether 3DO came up with that idea before or after Toy Story but who cares? It's still a cool idea and perfect for the video game world. Unfortunately both 3D action games based on the Army Men franchise have been lacking in execution. This sequel to Army Men 3D (on PSX) has a lot more to it in terms of gameplay depth, weapons and environments, but features a gameplay camera that suffers from severe attention deficit disorder. This adversely effects gameplay so much that even the simplest tasks like running over to a weapon in a room becomes an exercise in frustration. Imagine trying to shoot an enemy in close quarters when the camera won't even allow you to focus on him.

As Sarge, you'll have to rescue your rag-tag team of fighting men (and women, well, woman) as you come across them during missions and take out the evil tan army and their sadistic head honcho, General Plastro. The game view is from behind and over the shoulder, although certain weapons will allow you to shoot in 1st person mode. Sarge has a fair number of moves at his disposal. He can run, crouch, crawl, jump, strafe, climb and even stop, drop and roll if a flame-thrower nails him. There are 16 different missions in all with their own objectives (find the spy, locate the exit, rescue a teammate, secure the couch...). If you fail to meet any of the objectives, your mission is over, much like Mission: Impossible, making this game extremely frustrating at times. The missions themselves take place in two different "realities": the army men's world as well as our own "over-sized" world. The over-sized world missions take place in normal everyday surroundings such as bathrooms, kitchens, sandboxes and living rooms, making the game reminiscent of when I used to play with the little green men around the house until my wife ordered a psychiatric evaluation.

Graphically the game looks decent enough, although a little fuzzy around the edges. Sarge's Heroes utilizes the expansion pak for those fortunate enough to have one. All of the men have that trademark plastic sheen to them. The environments steal the show with their level of detail. You'll definitely want to make it to the next level, just to see where it's going to take place. The animation is a little stunted and plastic if you will, but perhaps that's the point.

Kids no doubt will love the amount of vicious weapons available; 11 in total. As you'd expect, all the implements of war are here: M-16s, shotguns, machine guns, grenades, grenade launchers, flame-throwers, TNT, mortar, mines, sniper rifles and bazookas. Once you find a weapon it is added to your collection which can be accessed with the B button. Keep your eyes peeled for ammo, because even though each weapon comes stocked, it isn't infinite. All of the weapons work much like you'd expect; the sniper rifle lets you zoom in on the enemy with the a quick tap of the R button (like GoldenEye) and take 'em out from a distance, while the mortar shells and grenades use a cursor that allows for pinpoint destruction. Unfortunately, as good as the weapons are, they are only as good as your aim. You'll be facing an enemy, pointing your gun right at him and miss, thanks to an aiming feature, which tends to take a few shots to kick in. Expect to die frequently throughout this game because of it. Thankfully you can continue indefinitely and save your progress along the way.

Complaint Dept. As previously mentioned the camera is a bigger threat than the tan army in this game. It will frequently put you in jeopardy while you try desperately to locate the enemies that are firing at you. Even trying to line up jumps can be frustrating, because the camera will swing around wildly making precision movement almost impossible. While the weapons are truly excellent, the sniper mode suffers from very slow movement which often times makes you a sitting duck for other snipers. Use only when very far away from the enemy.

Now, you've heard what I have to say about this game. But what about the intended target audience? As I am in a position to have many children try these games out (I'm a private music teacher in my other life, who lets the kids play the games while waiting for their lessons) I am able to get instant feedback. Out of the 12 people who played this game (3 girls, 8 boys and one adult) only two said anything at all about the camera problems. The rest absolutely loved it. Even the two boys who mentioned the camera said that they would buy this game because it "...was so cool and really fun." The boys enjoyed the multiplayer mode, saying that it was cool, but not as cool as GoldenEye. The girls thought playing as Vicki (a girl soldier) was cool and all agreed that it was a cool concept. I told them they all used the word "cool" way too much, which they thought was not cool at all. The adult liked the fact that they were fighting against plastic toys and not really killing "people". He also enjoyed the humor in the game; "I love the smell of burnt plastic in the morning (a parody of "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from the classic war movie, Apocalypse Now). Ultimately, I have to say that for as many inherent problems as this game has, I did enjoy it. When the game camera is working, and you've got some kicking weapons, I defy anyone to say they aren't having fun. This is one of those games that even though there are problems, I'll live with them because the overall idea is a blast. I dare say that if the camera and aiming had more tweak time, this game would be one of the year's best. As it is, it's a fun if not frustrating romp that could have been a lot better. Maybe next time...

Screen Shot 1
Screen Shot 2
Screen Shot 3
Screen Shot 4
Screen Shot 5