You are Raymond Bryce, former US Marine, now in the International Rescue Team. One day, a rescue mission on erupting Mount Agulius goes horribly wrong when your best friend, Steve Hewitt, gets killed in a tragic accident. His last wish is for you to take care of his sister, and give her his lucky compass. Sound like the plot of a cheesy action movie? Well, that’s because it’s meant to. So pay attention, you might just learn something.
One year after that tragic day, you are called in by FBI agent Olson. He tells you that Lisa, Steve’s sister, has been kidnapped by former marine squad turned terrorists, SURGE. You then travel with a group of SRT soldiers to SURGE’s hideout and once there, you are thrust instantly into action. In the middle of the gunfight, a vicious earthquake shakes the city and causes a whole list of other natural disasters, like a tsunami, a volcanic eruption, flash flooding and a hurricane. That’s the basic storyline, a cheesy thrill ride with plot twists and fun at every turn. And you’d better be used to hearing the word ‘shit’ because it’s used so much that you might never want to say it again.
The gameplay of Disaster is split up into three main sections: Exploring, Shooting and Driving, and altogether the 23 stages will take around 12 hours to complete. The Exploring section is the main section, in which you go around looking for survivors, finding items and completing objectives. It’s a good way to present the game, and works as good in practice as it does on paper. When you find a survivor, the game goes into a mini-game of sorts where you have to do something to help that person, whether it be cleaning mud of the person’s body to find a wound and bandaging it up, giving them CPR, lifting a heavy object off them or simply giving them a healing item. The mini-games are fun and a good way to present helping people.
At times during the Exploring section you will find members of SURGE, and this will trigger a Shooting section, very reminiscent of Time Crisis and House of the Dead. This is the most polished section, and also the best to play, which of course uses the Wiimote’s IR pointer. There’s also a whole RPG light gun customisation mechanic that is really easy to use and helps a lot in combat. Location damage also works like a charm. For instance, shooting an enemy in the head will kill him instantly and you will get headshot points. Shoot an explosive barrel near the enemies, they’ll die, and you’ll get clever shot points. It’s a top polished feature that adds to the game’s appeal.
Olympic tryouts are a lot tougher than they used to be.
The Driving sections, however, are missing a lot of that polish but are still fun nonetheless. They are mostly presented in a first-person perspective and require you to chase after a target, reach a destination or just get out of the way of one of the many natural disasters. The tilt-based motion controls are a bit off, and the environments are a bit buggy. In saying this, it’s still a good section of the game and doesn’t take much away from the entire experience.
In between stages you can fine tune your guns using BP you get from gunfights, upgrade Ray’s (main protagonist) stats with SP you get from saving people, and there’s even a shooting range where you can up your skills while getting BP and unlocking weapons. You can even go back and replay levels, and you get a new collection quest for each level, upping the replay value of the game. Once you finish the game once, you can also change costume to the secret ones you’ve found during levels.
Forget the guy firing the gun, shoot the doctor instead! Whoops, wrong game...
The visuals are also very polished, almost at an Xbox 360 standard, and the cut scenes look great, so much so that you’ll probably enjoy them as much as the gameplay. The realistic style works for the game, instead of against it, and the effects of the natural disasters are wonderful – the waves look like waves, the water looks like water and the lava looks like lava – it’s all so polished. In saying that, there are a few bad textures here and there, and some jaggies occasionally, but they don’t detract from the great visual standard.
The sound is also good, the BGM does its job and the sound effects are realistic, but the cheesy voice acting is just the icing on the cheesecake. Characters sound how you’d expect them to, radio broadcasts are played through the Wiimote speaker, and since the quality of the speaker isn’t too high, it actually sounds like a radio. Weapon noises, like gunshots and reloading, come through the speaker too and really add to player immersion. Of course, you can change it so the sounds come out of the TV instead, but there’s really no need to.
Now... what do I do before 'roll'?
Overall, the gameplay, visuals… everything! …make Disaster: DoC a worthy next-gen package, and the fun and cheesy storyline will keep you guessing until the climactic end. You will want to replay it, it’s an absolute blast that no Wii owner should miss.
By Ben Hauser
Graphics: A
A few bad textures and jaggies, but otherwise looks amazing.
Sound: A-
BGM suits the game, effects are good and voice acting is at its cheesy best.
Gameplay: A
The glitchy driving sections aren’t enough to make this game any less of a blast to play.
Overall: A
One hell of a great day!
