Once the cinematic cutscene is done the player travels to the first area which resembles alot the scenery of the first movie. Each area is seperated in 4 different stages itself. Its not a full on open
world as each transition is seperated with a fade to black screen, however it's part of a level is an enormous sandbox. The game relies on easter eggs and guest appearance of heroes from the franchise to
boost its likeness. Most of these guests are smaller character who played a small or even a bigger role in their original movies. Some of them are just sitting in the background , and some of them obtain
boss level status such as the monsters of the second film. The second map is basicaly the infamous melting of the ice age. The third area is referencing the third movie with all the dinasaurs, and the last
area is an original created land that resembles the best part of each. It takes the wildness of the jungle, fuses it with the slides of the second, combines it with the dinasaurs of the third and
traveling areas with temples as something more original.
As mentioned the overall maps seperate themselves in 4 playable areas, each of them having their own set of fours while there's a fifth area known as the main hub world, aka the location of the cave.
Every map has plenty of small gems that act as the games currency. However the game has nothing to purchase so they re mainly used to fill in a bar that will expand Scrats health. The enemy variaty is not huge,
but being a licensed indie game has a few. However most of them are just a reskin over an existing enemy. To elaborate the crabs encountered on the ice picks are the same enemies with the insects encountered
in the jungle. The wolves in the ice caves are the same as the sleeping dinosaur where Scats has to stealthy avoid them and there ar eplenty of other examples. Once a player experience the game, they re most likely
to identify which enemies copy which. The maps have some puzzles that require the player to solve them in order to proceed with the story or to collect certain collectables. The puzzles are nothing too hard and
come in 2 forms. The first type, requires the player to approach a lock door and see the combination on top of it, the player will then have to venture around and hit the controllers with the symbols in the same order
as the ones in the gate. The second one, requires Scrat to collect crystal nut gems that act as keys and place them in the correct hole.Some may request the players to open a diffeerent smaller gate before going for
the final one in order to get a second key or a collectable. These Nut keys are different to the ones that act as currency as their seed resembles a drill.
The game is a 3D platformer with a few puzlles and a few enemies. Scrat as playable characater has a very small roster of techniques he can use. He can jump by pressing X, Attack by pressing square, Dive with R1
sneak around with L1 and Aim with L2 in order to shoot with R2. Triangle is used for interaction with the environment and O to cancel. The attack button also works in combination with X, If the players are moving
and pressing square mid way, Scrat is doing a rotation hit, however if the players are standing still, jump and square will cause Scrat stomp the ground. Typical abilities for a 3D platformer.
After succesfully returning from each area with a crystalised nut, Visiting the cave and placing it to its pillar, Scrats unlock new abilities. These abilities are double jump, interaction with the rings and telekinisis.
Double jump works by simply repressinng X whilst on air. Ring interaction works by simply looking at the floating rings and presssing the interaction button. Last but not least Telekinisis works by simply heading to a rock that
has a glass nut shape. The player has to approach it, press triangle and move it around. Keep in mind, Scrat always have to be standing in the side that he wish to pull the item. So if he wants to go up and right , he ll have to interact
twice , once from the front and once from the right. Aiming is realy easy as the game autolocks when aiming over a box or an enemy. What is worth commenting on is that depending on the area, Scrat will have a rock similar to
it. E.g if the area has dirt he ll pick rocks, in snowy areas he gets snowballs and so on.
Being a 3D platformer means the player dies by three ways. Dropping of the map into a non playable area, being hit by an enemies. Some enemies reqire to hit the player 3 to 4 times while some others can one shot Scrat such as
the wolves and baby dinosaurs. The same amount of hit marks applies for falling into water or lava. As mentioned earlier there are a few Boss fights> more specifically 3. The first boss battle is with a rhyno from the first
movie and the fight is all about about dodging the attacks and forcing the enemy to headbutt the wall. The second battle is again the 2 monsters who were swimming in the water when the ice was melting . One of them is basically
quick time event, and the second one begins attacking until he gets tired which allows the hero to attack him. The third one is a random dinosaur, closely resembeling the one the heroes were riding in the film and his mechanicks
are very similar to the second.
The games graphics do not look good and they re nothing really special. Sometimes it looks clean but sometimes the frames just drop. The game was built in Unity engine and not in unreal which is the most common engine. Scrats karate animation looks really bad, and it doesnt look smooth at all, feels like some frames were skipped. The soundtracks used in the maps and their areas are really nice and chill however, the sound effects destroy it. The effects used when there are enemy wasps is really iritating as they re far more loud than anything else. There have been cases were Wasps could be heard even before the encounter. The enemy hit boxes for the normal enemies are really bad and barely tell when the player hits them or not. Most of the time Scrat moves towards them in order to hope that he can actually hit them. Theres plenty of glitches and buggy areas and it will occur often to see Scrat falling of the map. Chances are when jumping on a rock or a crystal Scrat will most likely drop of the map. It occurs often and in completely random areas. Last but certainly not least is Scrats yellling. Scrat was given 4 voice lines that he screams over and over and over. Every time the players clicks R1 which is the rolling ,they ll have to endure hearing Scrat yelling and yelling.
Overall Ice Age is not a bad game but it also not a must play. If someone enjoys innocent 3D platformers then this is a nice game and it deserves to be playedy. It is decent for an indie licensed game and someone can easily find it when there is an online sale or even in a store. The game is approximately 3 to 4 hours long and 6 if the players want to get the platinum trophy, given they re ysung a a guide to know where some puzzle pieces are as the developers put more effort into hidding them than fixing some issues of the game.
This is a video showcasing and reviewing the Game