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Captain America: Super Soldier
During the chaos of World War II, the world’s superpowers were busy building devastating weapons that could cripple nations. With the Nazis researching the uranium bomb and experimenting with human genetics, the Allies were under the gun to come up with their own secret military weapon. The result was Operation Rebirth, a super-soldier program that transformed sickly army reject Steve Rogers into a genetically perfect soldier – the world’s most articulate weapon of mass destruction.
Marvel’s version of World War II is the backdrop for next summer’s Captain America film and the companion video game from Sega. Like the movie, the game will detail Captain America’s tour of duty during the war. However, with the film tackling Cap’s origin, the game is free to fill in some gaps during the hero’s formative war years. Television and comic writer Christos Gage (Avengers: The Initiative, Civil War: House of M, and Avengers Academy) will help with the story, which pits Cap against foes like the scientist Arnim Zola.
Even if you don’t follow the comics, you probably know that Captain America’s signature tool is his shield. Cap can use it to block incoming gunfire, but it’s far more exciting to send those bullets ricocheting back at his foes like a Jedi master or throw the shield into a group of enemies and watch it bounce around like an air hockey disc before returning to his arm. Sega says that the shield comes in handy during some of the game’s Prince of Persia-style platforming sequences, but we haven’t seen this functionality in action yet.
Captain America’s peak physique makes him an imposing opponent in battle. He leaps over enemies to deliver a flurry of kidney-crushing punches from behind, and grabs foes before slamming them to the ground with more force than a WWE superstar. As Cap unleashes his arsenal of strikes, grabs, and counters, he fills up a Crippling Strike meter. Once full, this meter allows him to perform special takedowns complete with sexy slow-motion camera tricks.
Captain America doesn’t have any special eye powers in the comics, but the game’s Tactical Vision mode highlights interactive objects, objectives, and other points of interest within the environment. It sounds a bit like Batman’s detective mode from Arkham Asylum, but hopefully Sega finds a way to incorporate this ability into the fiction in a way that doesn’t come across as hokey.
Sega first announced it had acquired the Captain America license early last year, but this is the first time the company has spoken about the game or its developer, Next Level Games. With any luck, Captain America will turn out more like the developer’s 2009 project Punch-Out!! and less like its last superhero title, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe.
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