It has been over a year since PlayStation 3 owners first set eyes on Fat Princess. The quirky mix of cartoon graphics and gore had most PlayStation owners rubbing there hand with excitement but has Titan Studios delivered an epic multiplayer experience? read on and we will find out.
Lets begin with the games class system. In total there are five classes to choose from with each offering a uniqe skill. Each class can be upgraded to a more powerful version by collection wood and metal, yes i know its resource management but take it from me, its not that bad. Once you have upgraded a class you will unlock a new weapon, these range from bombs to more powerful magic spells. The classes on offer all seem pretty well balanced, sure there are a few spamable classes like the magician with the Ice spell and the upgraded worker’s bombs but apart from that its a very well balanced game.
Another thing i would like to mention is the way you select a class, the boring old class selection windows are replaced with a hat based system. All that is required to change class is a quick change of hats. Hats can be found either at your own palace or from the dead corpses scattered around the battlefield. This system really works well, it makes the game feel a lot quicker since you dont have to select stuff from a menu.
The Legend Of The Fat Princess is Fat Princess’s single player campaign mode. In TLOTFP mode you have to make your way through seven chapters of a book about The Legend Of The Fat Princess. The story is as you can probably already know is not the main focus of the game. I would class TLOTFP mode as more of a series of training missions. Each chapter introduces you to either a new gameplay mode or a new map. Its ideal if you just bought the game and have no idea how things work.
The other single player modes on offer are “Mess About” and “Gladiate”. Mess About is just like a skirmish mode where you choose the map, game mode, number of players and difficulty. Gladiate is as you can probably guess a Gladiator mode where you choose a class and try to survive as long as you can in the arena. After each round the opponents grow in numbers and difficulty. It can become rather challenging in the later rounds with masses of enemies all ganging up on you at one time. My tip would be to stick and move. that way you can focus your attacks on a single enemy which makes the chances of you getting overcome alot smaller.
That’s really all the single player modes have to offer. I wrapped up TLOTFP in around 4-5 hours on the default difficulty which is rather short but as i said before this is not the games main game mode.
Multiplayer is where the action starts. The setup is similar to the single player, where the main objective of the game is to rescue the Princess. The added competition from the other human players takes the challenge of rescuing the Princess to a whole new level. Tactics also have a much higher meaning in multiplayer. If your the type of player who attempts to play with no game plan you will spend ages trying to gain entry to the enemy castle, but if your the type of player who likes to get your tactics just right, you will be running back to your castle with the princess in no time. So if you want to be successful in multiplayer working as part of a team becomes a must and I’m sorry to say that sometimes that can be difficult due to the lack of players with mics. Titan Studios have tried to get round the problem by mapping some simple commands to the Dual Shock’s D-pad but as you can probably guess most of the other players just ignore them.
The “Save The Princess” game mode does offers endless fun but like all multiplayer games you will eventually grow tired of it and begin to look for alternative game modes to play. Titan Studio’s must have also thought that would happen and included a few alternative game modes, these include the standard team deathmatch game mode, Snatch and Grab and Invasion. Snatch and Grab is a twist on the standard “Save The Princess” game mode where the first team to snatch the other teams princess three times wins the game. Invasion is a bit more strategic, the main objective of this game mode is to control the game map by capturing outposts scattered around the map. Those of you out there who have a preference for more strategic games should find this game mode the most enjoyable out of the bunch.
The extra game modes do offer a welcome break from the “Save The Princess” game mode but if you want to have some real fun with your friends i suggest you head into the find a game section and choose the soccer map, this is by far my favourite game mode. 32 players on a medium sized soccer field with the sole aim of scoring a goal, sounds simple doesn’t it? take it from me it not. The game gets so frantic at some times its nearly impossible to tell who is on your team and who is not, there’s blood, magic spells, bombs and special moves going off everywhere, its crazy. Its easily the most action packed game mode in the entire game and i hope Titan Studio’s have more of these special mini games in mind for future DLC.
Overall Fat Princess is a great game, The cute and cuddly graphics hide a massive multiplayer gorefest any hardcore gamer would be proud to play. If you don’t have Fat Princess yet i highly suggest you go download it. You wont be disappointed.
PS. Take a look at the “Who is your Daddy option in the “Bragging Rights” menu for a nice little Easter egg.
