Supreme League of Patriots

 PC
Metascore
56

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 8
  3. Negative: 2 out of 8
  1. CD-Action
    Mar 17, 2015
    30
    Wants to mock gaming clichés and point out popcultural absurdities, but it’s a pathetic attempt that insults player’s intelligence. [03/2014, p.62]
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  2. GamesBeat
    Jan 30, 2015
    30
    Painfully slow to play, out of tune and obnoxious when it came to handling Kyle’s character(s), and grating to listen to when people weren’t talking, it took what could have been a delightful story and stretched it on a rack, set it on fire, and forced me to randomly talk with four people before grabbing the bucket of water I could clearly see on the counter to try to help put it out.

User Reviews

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User Score
4.6

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 11 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 11
  3. Negative: 4 out of 11
  1. AUTOMATON
    Feb 17, 2015
    6
    Phoenix Online Studios' latest game, entitled Supreme League of Patriots, is a superhero parody in which players control "The Purple Patriot"Phoenix Online Studios' latest game, entitled Supreme League of Patriots, is a superhero parody in which players control "The Purple Patriot" and his alter ego, Kyle - an oafish lout who works as a janitor. He has a crush on a sexy female cop and thinks the only way to get her attention is by becoming a superhero on a reality TV show. Thanks to a bonk on the head, Kyle not only thinks he's a superhero but also gains a set of patriotic super powers, and a Superhuman Love of FREEDOM.

    The puzzles embody the spirit of classic adventure games from the old LucasArts/Sierra period. For some, this means a return to the glory days of challenging mysteries and zany characters. For others, it's a return to a nightmarish world of cruel puzzles that don't make a bit of sense until AFTER they've been solved.

    When Kyle encounters a puzzle, the solution usually involves a complex chain of events where the first step has no rational connection to the desired outcome. Often they involve picking up an random item in a far location, then carrying it around until Kyle finds a use for it. There are also many sequences where the player will have the right object in the right place, but can't use it until Kyle has spoken to a particular character.

    There are several red herrings where there is an obvious solution to Kyle's problem, but the designers force the player to jump through a bunch of hoops before letting them do the obvious thing. One sequence requires him to change into his civilian clothes, so naturally, the player might try to use Kyle's closet. Alas, Kyle has to run all over town trying several wacky schemes before he can return home and use the very closet that players probably tried at the start of the quest.

    The designers are aware of the absurdities of all this, and they included a self-aware character named Mel who hangs around with Kyle and makes fun of gaming cliches. Mel always has a witty observation, but his jokes don't alleviate the frustration of running in circles, clicking on every object and character in an endless series of non sequiturs.

    Fortunately, Mel also doubles as a help system: The dimwitted/brain-damaged Kyle can always seek out Mel's advice on what he should be doing, and how to do it. It's a clever take on a hint system that doesn't feel quite so much like cheating.

    The puzzles and level design are still brutal, even with Mel's assistance. That could be forgiven if the humor was more effective, but the gags tend to be juvenile, dated references to reality TV and celebrity culture. Some are so dated that one wonders how long the project has been in development (since “hanging chads” were topical, presumably).

    Sometimes the dialog is punctuated with eye-rolling bits of irreverent, politically-incorrect humor. Observations along the lines of "ladies sometimes have artificial bosoms". Or "fellows who engage in homosexuality might dress flamboyantly". Mel expresses disapproval of the more offensive comments, but that doesn't make it any more entertaining to see the same gay stereotype show up in every episode, or hearing endless jokes about transexuals and hermaphrodites.

    The designers even go so far as to poke fun at other games, including Mass Effect 3 (again with the outdated cultural references). A particularly damning moment is when they call Duke Nukem “juvenile” and “misogynistic”. This happens in between the fart jokes and breast implant innuendo.

    The story is about a Captain America sort of hero, but the game itself is rather a bit British. Most of the dialog is spoken by Mel, who is from England and has a thick accent, but even the American characters have some distinctly British phrasing. Not to mention the superfluous "U"s that pop up in words like “favour”. A little mistake on the part of the script's "editours".

    On occasion, Supreme League of Patriots does find a good joke. Kyle's superhero alter ego, The Purple Patriot, is a combination of Stephen Colbert and The Tick. He has a well-intended childlike idiocy that results in a few laugh-out-loud moments, and Mel also gets in a few dry quips―between the references to Amanda Bynes' driving record.

    Despite its premise, Supreme League of Patriots doesn't have many insights into the superhero genre. It is divided into three episodes, but The Purple Patriot doesn't really fight crime until the final episode. For the first third of the game, the focus is on spoofing reality TV, then the second episode mostly follows him as he deals with bureaucracy in obtaining his Superhero License. Even when the superheroics start in the third episode, there is a lot of time spent running around on mundane errands.

    SLoP will frustrate all but the most die-hard adventure game fans. The humor isn't consistent enough to mitigate the annoying puzzle design, and the story is too farcical to emotionally engage the player. For the hardcore adventure gamer, it's on PC/iOS/Linux now. (Reviewed by: Charles Battersby, AUTOMATON Writer)    … Full Review »
  2. Skulb
    Mar 5, 2015
    5
    I can only add to AUTOMATON`s well written review that SLoP is just not funny. Personally I could survive a few frustrating and illogicalI can only add to AUTOMATON`s well written review that SLoP is just not funny. Personally I could survive a few frustrating and illogical puzzles if it was. I got through both Discworld games without walkthroughs back in the 90s so I know a thing or two about the subject. But SLoP just bored me stiff right from the start.
    That it occasionally is politically incorrect would just be a good thing to my mind. In fact, the more people it made fun of, offended and annoyed the happier I`d be. If it was funny. But it`s crude, bland and annoying instead. Occasionally it rises to being embarrassing, like a bad Benny Hill sketch or a laugh track after an unfunny line on Roseanne. You understand that it`s supposed to be funny, but it`s not. Mostly though SLoP just stays in a sort of obnoxious wisecrack mode where nothing is either funny or interesting. And a point and click game just really needs to be either funny or interesting. And SLoP just isn`t. Which is frankly quite amazing considering the premise of the game and the relatively high production values. There is just no excuse for this game not to be funny.
    As it is I`d rather recommend people get the Discworld games on GoG than get SLoP, even if they`ve played them before. All the old LucasArts games are also vastly superior, even twenty years later. Zack McCracken is still better and it got released on the C64 back in the 1980s. This is obviously not a compliment to SLoP at all.

    We all have a friend who just isn`t funny but can`t seem to stop trying to be. Well, SLoP was written by exactly such an embarrassingly unfunny friend. Fortunately not my embarrassingly unfunny friend or I would have had to say something...    … Full Review »
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