Champions are made. Step aside Hugh Jackman, we are now the creators. YUKE’S Co. took the best part of the Real Steel movie and put it into game form for us to enjoy. Although the game is a reasonable $9.99 on PSN Network or 800 points on XBLA, that might not be the last time you put money into it. If the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Eagles have taught us anything, it’s that it doesn’t matter how much money you put into a team (or robot); if your store-bought team can’t win the game, your money is wasted. The casing seems strong enough for Real Steel, but let’s see if the engine can hold up in a match.
At the start of single player mode, you are greeted by text in a box. This text will act as your guide throughout the game. I found these assorted messages to be less than helpful, as it would give me tips after I had already lost a match or spent all of my money on a part that I didn’t need yet. At times it seemed like you were meant to lose the match, so the tip box could dole out a little humor and get you back on the mechanical horse.
The tip box will show you the store, Assembly Mode, and then leaves you in there to figure it out how you are going to customize your robot. The menus are separated by each body part, right down to splitting up things that are normally paired, like the arms or fists. Having the option to use different arms and fists is nice when you want to create a bot similar to Metro from the movie. Metro is a power robot: large body, slow movement, one arm for lighter attacks and blocking, and one arm thick ended with a hammer to deliver devastating blows. For those that like to keep it symmetrical, the shop does not offer pairing. You must buy each item individually, which adds up pretty quick considering the amount for some of the fists start at 8 grand. And fight money is hard to come by.
(On the right: Metro is starting his signature where he beats the crap out of you with his hammer.)
Now about that fight money. Win or lose, in each fight you are awarded with a payout. In a loss you get 2000 Real Steel dollars which, depending on how bad the loss was, will be spent on repairing your robot. Winnings vary on the level of the robot fought. As the rounds got harder, I saw that this game wasn’t meant for strategy, it was about timing and over-using singular moves to take down the computer. The game controls seemed pretty straight forward, face buttons being right/left light and hard punches, triggers were duck and block and bumpers initiated the special attacks and dodges. However it got tricky, and tiring, when your opponent knocked you down.
When laying on the floor, you must fill a meter and execute button presses before the 10 count is over. Doing this in real life with human hands is the most flabbergasting thing ever. In order to fill you meter, you must spin the left joystick in complete circles, the more circles you make the higher the meter goes, and then press a face button. You must complete this process for four meters, all before the 10 count. The first time I was laid out, it was fine, my meters for each face button weren’t that low and I was ready to fight by the count of six. The second time I was knocked down, my meters were extremely low, and despite my hand feeling like it was going to fall off, I didn’t make it. If you are able to make it up on the second knockdown, you’ll laugh when you see the third time. The game is basically laughing at you because your robot and dreams are dead. That’s when I began to see it: there are faulty parts in this engine.
Due to the high rate of knock-outs in matches, on yours’ and opponents’ behalf, matches don’t tend to last more than two, maybe an extremely short three rounds. I had bought bigger arms and legs and still wasn’t making any progress. Luckily, the message box belatedly came to my rescue to tell me about Battle Rating and how I should be spending my money in the shop. Power levels and weight play a big factor into whether or not your beast of a robot will be any good. Needless to say, I had to restore my robot to stock parts and suddenly I was faster and staying in matches longer because my power levels were staying over 9000.
Slowly, but surely, I was winning and leveling my robot. Your robot has an overall level and skill levels. There are five skills that you will gain experience points for: offense, speed, guard, performance and destruction. If you can knock off another opponents’ arm, you’ll be rewarded with a lot of destruction points. Your robot will be able to achieve points in every skill in any match, but none of them are tied to making any skill moves or abilities better. The only use of skill levels, actually, is that when certain levels are reached, the Assembly Mode will allow you to purchase new items for your robot. Or you could pay real humans dollars to be the best. Enter micro-transactions. The ones that hurt the most: you can buy a fully decked, level 5 robot for 10 bucks; the cost of the game, or $3 just to paint your robot. You can buy everything in the Assembly Shop, but you don’t have to worry about leveling your robot in order to use them, merely because you shelled out cash.
Paying human dollars make seem like the easy method of being the best. But despite having faced players online with shiny human dollar bought robots, my poor low level robot was able to hang in the match. While purchasing wins could become an issue, it’s not the problem I see for this game; it’s the purchasing itself. Each robo-part costs $2, so after a go of Hangman style building you have already spent over $10 and should’ve just bought a maxed robot.
Despite these mechanical flaws, I still had fun with Real Steel. In online multiplayer you must use a handmade robot, for most matches are ranked. Since it’s ranked, you play with the savings from your winnings or losses thus far. Locating matches is simple and you’re paired somewhat within your rank. Voice chat is activated for online, but I only ran into one loudmouth during my bouts. Luckily the awful sound of metal on metal drowned out his supposed trash talking. In offline multiplayer, you get to play as robots from the movie. If you have an arsenal of handmade robots in your garage you may also use those in the offline matches. These are unranked and all you win is bragging rights, which to be honest, is why most fighting games are played, why stop now? Especially if you have dealt a blow that causes limbs to fly off. Remember, the match is over at the last bell, knock out, or when you decapitate an opponent or blow both their arms off. It becomes a world of fun trying to manage to last with only one arm.
I don’t think this is a kid’s game or was ever meant for children. Since Real Steel is a movie tie-in game, the amount of micro-transactions involved should push it from its E 10+ rating to T. The rough mechanics of avoiding defeat. The endless hours of grinding just to buy a leg. The potential amount of money spent buying extra maxed robots would equal the price of a full game, and more likely the collector’s edition of it. It’s a free-to-play game that was released for $10 with the expectation of a player spending more on it. If you don’t mind the grind it will be your very own Rocky Sock ’em Atom Robot and you will have achieved the Hugh Jackman. As for myself, I am stuck as the prepubescent boy from the film still working out the kinks in the ring.
