The Movies

Peter Molyneux, the very same gaming God that brought us Populous, Powermonger, Theme Park & Hospital. Just a shame his more recent games have been poor - average at best. Since starting his own game company (Lionhead), he had released nothing but tat. Just look at games like Fable and Black & White for proof.

Now don't get me wrong, The Movies is FAR from a terrible game...it just that is's FAR too simplistic. Often I feel like I'm playing a game designed for 10 year olds.

The basic plot is that you have to run a film studio starting from 1920 right up to 2000. You start off making VERY low budget films using the technology that was around in 1920...which was not much. But as you play, you get to research all sorts of new technology from colour films to CGI and everything in between.

The game is really 2 games in 1. You get a basic management style game, not too dissimilar from past Pete game like Theme Park. In which you get to place various buildings and hire various staff. The main problem with this part of the game is that it's too much like Theme Park and has a very similar style and set up too...Theme Park was great in 1994, The Movies was released in 2005, and nothing much has changed. So you are really just playing an 11 year old game with new graphics. The 2nd part of the game is the most fun (which is not saying that much). You get to actually "write" film scripts. You do so by first selecting your film genre from 5 types (including Sci-Fi, Horror and Action). But where as this is the best part of the game, it's also the most flawed. again, it's just TOO simplistic. All you do is select certain scenes, then select which "actors" play which parts...and that's about it. It hardly stretches the old grey matter. There are too few scenes to choose from and not much difference between film genres other then different scenery. So you end up making films with the same old scenes over and over and over. As you research new tech, you films do get better and eventually you can even edit them yourself. You can even add your own soundtracks and dialogue too, then upload them to the official The Movies site for all to see and comment on...but as I said before, there are too few scenes to choose from so you do end up with a LOT of repetition, no matter who made the film. There is now a Stunts & Effects add on around...it does not add anything really worth shouting about, and why were stunts and effects not in the game in the first place...other than to try and ween a bit more cash from the paying public?

The Movies is a average game that has been made FAR to simplistic just to cater for a wider and more casual audience.

The Movies is a game with great ideas...just not implemented well. Instead of working on poor "add-ons" for the game, get working on an all new The Movies sequel, and this time add some decent gameplay and cater for more than 10 year olds with the intellect of a gnat.

Maybe one day Mr.Molyneux will once again become the gaming God he once was. Just that NOTHING released by Lionhead recently has even come close to the game he once used to produce.