Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters – review

Love him, hate him; you either are a fan of the Green Lantern or you’re not. Either way, how does the XBox 360 game stack up against the movie? Is it fun to play, despite its being an obvious attempt to latch on to the hoped-for popularity of the movie? Or, does it fall into the category of games released in conjunction with super hero movies which are lame, and whose sole purpose is to try to sucker comic book fans and gamers out of their (or their parents’) hard-earned money? Peruse my review to learn more, and then leave your own opinions in the Comments section below!

In the game for the XBox 360, you play as the original Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, and you and the other Green Lanterns fight off an army of Manhunters and destroy them before they can destroy you. Manhunters are androids who eventually harness the yellow fear energy, which is not at all a good thing. They were the original protectors of the universe, but they’ve been replaced by the Green Lantern Corps, so now they’re out for revenge, and they’ve become murderous automatons. As with the movie, actor Ryan Reynolds does the voice of the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, Hal Jordan, and lends his general body shape for the Green Lantern’s animated appearance. You start off the game with the ring, so the part in the movie about the Green Lantern’s origins is not a part of the game.

You start off with a light attack (blades) and heavy attack (big green fists). As you earn experience from killing enemies and level up, you can unlock and purchase more powers. You upgrade your light attacks for bigger, more painful looking swords and the fists upgrade into more powerful types of hammers. You can also use a baseball bat, minigun, double mace, saw blades, floating mines, mech suit, pistons, and a jet. There are 10 chapters, most which are the normal, linear, hack-and-slash types with a few puzzles (if you could really call them puzzles). Three of the levels are flying ones that take you on a path and you fly around the screen shooting at things with your Ring Blaster.

The first boss is a very large mech Manhunter who, later in the game, becomes more of a miniboss. There’s 3-4 very large bosses, but explaining them would be spoilers so I won’t. One planetin the game is the one where the Green Lanterns are headquartered, the Zamaron planet (they seem to be able to harness violet light, as far as I could tell).

There are green and blue meteorites to collect, some hidden in plain sight, some behind a secret wall. The blue ones increase your health, while your ring power (what you need to use your more complicated ring powers, basically the same function as magic in most games) increases with every three green ones you collect.

You can play at three difficulty levels. The only difference seems to be the amount of damage enemies do to you and you do to them. Probably the funnest way to play it is with a friend who gets to play as Sinestro in a drop in/drop out co-op mode.

My favorite thing was probably the variety of attacks you eventually get. At first, with only the main two attacks, it gets a little dull, but as you get the variety it gets more entertaining. Least favorite would probably be that it’s too linear and gets extremely repetitive.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters is a fun game to play, and one you can have a good time playing with your friends. But because of its repetitiveness, and the fact that it can be beaten after just a few hours, probably the highest grade I’d give it would be a C (and that might be generous, as some reviews rate it around 6-7 on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest rating). I would suggest that if you are thinking about playing it, it would be a good idea to rent it first, and then decide for yourself if you think it’s worth buying. If you beat it too soon, and don’t think that the good aspects of the game like the fun you can have playing it with a friend is worth the price, then you’re probably better off saving your money for a different game.