Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time Game Review – Less Crash, more whimper
Crash 4 is here! And it’s not all that overwhelming, you could never play this game and not once feel like you’re missing out on anything. Even if you’re a long time fan.
Plot
The plot is very basic. Dr. Neo Cortex opens up a wormhole that can warp to different places and timelines. He obviously sees an opportunity to use this for evil, Crash, Coco and company have to stop him by collecting quantum masks so that he cannot enslave the multiverse.
Gameplay
This is finally where I can say alot of good things about Crash 4. The gameplay is like the N.Sane Trilogy gameplay with added extras. The are things you can interact with by spinning on them and pretty much all of Crash’s basic abilities are there to use. The only time new abilities show themselves is when you use the limited time masks in various levels (to slow time down for example.) This makes the game alot more exiting from the get go. There’s enough there that Crash veterans will enjoy not having to slog though a million levels to unlock stuff but not so much that it becomes too easy. Trust me, this game is not easy.
Overall review
I like this game but I don’t love it. The changes are fun for a while but they do get a tad gimmick-y sometimes. It’s clear the devs have tried to avoid that by making it that you only use the power up masks in certain parts of the level but it doesn’t quite work. Level after level of the same or similar thing makes it that much more jarring as I continued to play around trying to give the game some more variety.
That’s where it’s deceptive as all hell. The game seems like it’s incredibly varied with multiple characters and multiple game modes. In reality it’s alot of the same stuff just being shifted around, eventually you notice it and can’t get away from it. Crash 4 doesn’t feel as varied as any of the original games and I think that says alot.
It’s not that the game is bad per se, it’s that it’s not necessarily good. Everything about it is very safe and it leaves the entire experience feeling underwhelming.
