London 2012 – The Official Game of the Olympic Games – Review

This post should go up on the date of the Olympic Opening Ceremony in London, but we can only hope technology actually works while Indition is on holiday.

As London prepares and builds up the hype of the Olympic Games I decided to try out the Official computer game, on the Xbox 360. This game is bad. Very bad. But perhaps that was to be expected from these sporting tie-in games.

I had a go at the single player Olympic mode. It was the most dull and repetitive game I have ever played. You select your team and must compete in a series of different events, however, you must qualify for the event before you have an opportunity to win any medals. And to teach you the controls you are given a very brief tutorial and are thrown into the qualifiers. And you can’t skip boring events either. However, there is also the Event mode. This mode allows you to create playlists of events enabling you to ignore the worst of the games. Perhaps a tiny redemption for the overall failure of this game. There is also the lack of any competition when playing against the computer. Add a friend to the game and you might just get a little bit more fun out of it. Short lived fun however.

There are also several Kinect-compatible mini-games that are not available in the Olympic mode. Some of these work well, such as the track events that require you to make rapid arm movements in order for you to win, or the hurdles where a lot of jumping is required. A lot of physical movement is required, something you would expect of an Olympic sporting game. However, games which should be fast paced, such as beach volleyball and table tennis are slowed down to a point of ridiculousness, requiring no skill whatsoever and being very dull to play.

Just saying the game’s title: London 2012 – The Official Game of the Olympic Games, will probably hold your interests for longer than the actual gameplay does. Don’t waste your money and time with this game. For a real challenge in an Olympic sport: Try QWOP. And where is the British weather!?