Reviewed: June 15, 2007
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud

Publisher
Activision

Developer
7 Studios

Released: May 15, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1

7
5
7
7
6.5

System Requirements:

You play as Shrek, Puss, Donkey and others in Shrek the Third using a common action fighting scheme to find Arthur and bring him back to Far Far Away to be king instead of Shrek. The PC game follows right along with the movie in a button mashing fest that is not that bad for an action game.

Each character has a strong and normal attack as well as a special attack. Shrek’s special attack is a round house that you can wind up for so you get an even more powerful punch. The characters special attacks usually reflect something from that character in the movie such as Puss’s cuteness look or Sleeping Beauties love spell.

The levels are more of a button mashing as you often find yourself fighting against wave after wave of common fighters with only a few boss battles every several levels. The common fights are pretty easy but can get tedious as well as the general nature of the button mashing attacks. It is far easier to just use one attack to get through the waves of fights instead of trying to sneak in that special attack.

You also get fairy dust during the fights or by destroying objects that are required for your special attacks so you can’t use the special attacks all the time. A little gauge in the corner of your screen fills up when you collect fairy dust and when it’s full you can deliver that special attack on your unsuspecting foes.

There are some areas that you need to do a little trial and error to figure out how to proceed such as attacking a set of witches toward the beginning. You need to find the correct way to attack them as they have force fields up and you need to get through their barriers before being able to knock their blocks off.

This puzzle type of addition adds some polish and gameplay to Shrek the Third so you do have some variety to the game. There are also the nice changes that come with being able to use the variety of characters throughout the game so you don’t get bored fighting as the same one over and over again.

Shrek the Third is definitely an action game with the very common fighting and button mashing but delivers a solid twenty levels with the additional missions as side quests at different parts of the game. The games repetitive nature is broken up in part by the great voice acting and jokes of the characters as well as the general Shrek humor of many of the scenes.

The overall graphics were pretty ordinary for the most part but for a big action title that will gross a lot you would think they could have taken some care in the graphics department. The textures looked pretty good and the effects such as the spells worked pretty well in all the scenes.

The characters animations slowing down only for the character or stuttering looked pretty average for the graphics. One thing that is very noticeable with the animations and some characters is when they are standing still some will bob up and down. It happens with several characters and there is no apparent reason for it other than sloppy animation and a rush to get the game out.

The jokes and humor that have come to typify the movies is also here in the game and adds very much to the humor and charm of the game. There are a few areas of the game that do not use the regular voices of the common actors such as Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers and it is pretty apparent when it happens. Other than this occasional stand in the sound was pretty good in Shrek the Third and a better part of the game.

The side missions are things like having to herd frogs or collecting objects with three to five side missions per level. Other than the obvious humor of frog herding there is not much to the side missions and most are extremely easy.

Most of the value here is the numerous levels of the game if you like these fight type action games but there is not much difference between the levels other than the variety of characters you play as and who you’re fighting.