X
CNET logo Why You Can Trust CNET

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement

Combat of Giants: Mutant Insects review: Combat of Giants: Mutant Insects

Ubisoft's Combat of Giants series, unsurprisingly, pits the player in ferocious battles with giant monsters. First there was Dinosaurs, followed by Dragons. This third installation features Giant Insects, which may not be as cool as dinosaurs or dragons, but still nevertheless have pretty decent giant monster cred.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr
3 min read

Ubisoft's Combat of Giants series, unsurprisingly, pits the player in ferocious battles with giant monsters. First there was Dinosaurs, followed by Dragons. This third installation features Giant Insects, which may not be as cool as dinosaurs or dragons, but still nevertheless have pretty decent giant monster cred.

6.0

Combat of Giants: Mutant Insects

The Good

Giant insects are cool. Combat is fun. It looks and sounds good.

The Bad

Controls are a little cumbersome. Gameplay gets repetitive.

The Bottom Line

Not a bad little action game for people who like crushing abandoned houses with giant insect feet, but Combat of Giants: Mutant Insects is pretty much in line with the standard of the rest of the franchise: good fun, but not great.

You don't really need a lot of back story here. The setting is Earth, which 300 years ago was destroyed by a rain of giant alien insects that crash landed and started fighting each other. Now the planet is a barren wasteland, and the player is a giant insect roaming in search of — what? It doesn't matter. All you have to do is find your way around maze-like environments and battle any other giant insects that stand in your way.

There are four different "insects" to choose from; initially, a spider, scorpion and mantis are available, with a hybrid ant/fly unlockable later on. A flying ant doesn't really sound like it could do much against a spider, a scorpion or a mantis, so maybe it's one of those meat ants that can kill cane toads or something. Although two of those "insects" are technically arachnids, so maybe we shouldn't think too hard about it.

As you explore the environments, you will find destructible objects that replenish your health bar and relinquish gems, which you can use to upgrade your bug with colour changes, super powers such as burst of electricity and upgrades to the insect's body to increase defensive and attacking power. You'll also find help buttons that offer tips and how-tos for exploring.

Movement is somewhat clunky, meaning sometimes you can get a bit stuck on the edges of the environments, and plodding around exploring the map can get a bit cumbersome and dull. However, if you want to unlock the secret bosses — which can take some pretty odd forms, such as a giant bus or a fly-swatter — you will probably need to unlock as much of the map as you can.

The combat itself starts out fairly basic, with a tutorial that shows you how to target a part of your insect and swipe the stylus towards your foe. Once you have landed three consecutive hits, you can use a combo move by playing a timed connect-the-dots sort of mini-game. It doesn't sound complex, but as the combat is real time, it can become quite tricky juggling and attacking while dodging and blocking, making sure you land your three hits before you get hit yourself.

The main problem with the combat was that sometimes a tap on the screen doesn't select the insect's body part, so while you scramble to get the game to acknowledge you, you're losing precious milliseconds; if you can fire off your attacks in quick succession, the likelihood of your opponent attacking is lower. The longer you fumble with the stylus, the greater your chance of losing your three-hit combo bonus attack.

That's "Adventure" mode. The multiplayer modes are a little more challenging, since you won't be going up against dim AI. There are two multiplayer modes: duel, which is a one-on-one battle with a mate, and tournament, which puts four players in a ring, each having to fight all the others in one-on-one combat until a winner is declared. Ubisoft has also tried to spice things up with a trading card game, but whether or not that takes off will depend on the game's popularity. There's not much point getting into a card game if you're the only kid in school who has it.

All in all, Combat of Giants: Mutant Insects is pretty fun; it has some cool-looking insects, a nice little multiplayer mode and a combat system that seems to work. If anything — and it's a shame to say this of a game that features giant alien insects invading and destroying the earth — it stands in the biggest danger of becoming repetitive and dull.