Ben 10: Power Trip

Ben 10: Power Trip A promising open-world adventure on paper, yet tinged with regret.
The game offers a fresh experience within the franchise: an open world to freely explore, unprecedented freedom of movement compared to previous Ben 10 titles, and generous content providing many hours of gameplay thanks to its variety of activities. For fans nostalgic for the original series, it’s a genuine breath of fresh air, featuring simple yet effective gameplay mechanics.
However, beneath this likable ambition lie numerous technical and production flaws that significantly detract from the overall experience.
Bugs and inconsistencies that break immersion.
Right from the early side or optional missions, players encounter strange—sometimes comical—animations (depending on your perspective). NPCs might suddenly collapse to the ground just as they’re about to give you a quest, only to stand back up moments later as if nothing happened. Additionally, many side quests lack voice acting entirely, creating the impression of half-finished content.
Even iconic characters like Kevin Levin are poorly utilized: though present in the game, he plays no meaningful role beyond being a mere background character—an unfortunate missed opportunity to enrich the universe and deepen interactions.
Graphical shortcomings and a lifeless world
Visually, certain areas suffer from missing textures, nonexistent collision detection, or stiff, expressionless facial animations—particularly noticeable with Gwen and Grandpa Max. Despite its size, the world feels strangely empty: there’s no road traffic and very few pedestrians, leaving the environment devoid of life.
Recurring, frustrating bugs
The game is also plagued by a persistent bug: after accepting a quest from an NPC, if you speak to that character again—or if Gwen calls you just before you talk to the NPC to start the quest—the screen almost invariably turns black indefinitely. At this point, there’s no way to resume gameplay; you must force-quit the application and restart entirely, resulting in unnecessary wasted time and frustration.
Poorly designed quests and sloppy translation.
Some missions, such as chasing down a truck, lack fluidity. Yet the most problematic issue may be the French translation, which occasionally features absurd inconsistencies. Take, for example, the "Golden Monkeys" quest, which requires collecting ten statuettes. Once all ten are gathered, the quest log instructs you to speak to “Vince Venture,” yet the actual NPC in the village is still named “Jorge Perez.” This translation error cost me over half an hour searching for a character who didn’t exist under that name in the game.
Developers, if you’re going to localize your game, please do it thoroughly or don’t bother at all.
An almost unobtainable trophy
While hunting for trophies, I discovered one that’s nearly impossible to earn: the “Super Ben” trophy, which requires saving 15 civilians. This perfectly illustrates poor design choices. These rescue events don’t trigger reliably—you might need to spend 15 to 30 minutes repeatedly traveling back and forth between locations with no guarantee the event will actually occur. For a game clearly aimed at younger audiences, this is especially frustrating; children simply don’t have the patience for such trials. And even adults will quickly run out of patience. I understand the desire to add challenge, but this crosses into absurdity.
Missing options and a limited interface
The game also sorely lacks difficulty settings: from the outset, main missions are far too easy, offering no real challenge. Why not include multiple difficulty levels?
The mini-map, though present, is underutilized. Why not allow players to place custom markers or display distance and direction toward their chosen objective? These are basic features expected in any decent open-world game.
Conclusion: A likable but unfinished experience
Despite all these flaws, *Ben 10: Power Trip* remains an endearing game—especially for fans of the original series. Its open-world ambition and generous content deserve some leniency.
Yet it’s hard not to feel this title needed a longer development cycle or post-launch patches to address its many issues. With a bit more polish, it could have been a truly great game.
As it stands, it’s an imperfect experience best suited for dedicated fans or players looking to try a modest open-world title and willing to overlook its numerous shortcomings.