|
 |
| VIDEO
GAME REVIEWS |
|
Run Like Hell
Reviewed By LessonNo5
How many celebrity voices can you fit into a video game?
A lot apparently. Run Like Hell features the talents
of Lance Henriksen (Bishop from Aliens), Kate Mulgrew
(Capt. Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager), Clancy Brown
(Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob and Capt. Hadley from The Shawshank
Redemption), Brad Dourif (Best known as the voice of
Chucky from Child's Play), Thomas F. Wilson (Biff
from Back to the Future), Pamela Segall (Bobby Hill
from King of the Hill), and Michael Ironside (Richter
from Total Recall)
A quick look at the list of celebrity voices gives you some
kind of an idea what you're doing most of the game. Leaning
closer to the TV, turning the volume up and screaming, "Where
do I know that voice from!?" There are a lot of seasoned
voice actors that I couldn't even mention up there. There
are also quite a few really awesome songs on the soundtrack
from Breaking Benjamin. But what's great about this
game is that the money they spent hiring fantastic voice
actors seems to have actually been spread out over the entire
project, making one extremely well rounded and fun game.
It's your classic horror in space scenario. Nick Connor
leaves the Forseti space station with a partner on a deep
space mining mission, and when he comes back he finds out
the alien goo hit the fan in his absence. Oh, and of course
no one can hear you scream. The game pretty much hits the
ground running, with a big chase type sequence almost right
away. As soon as you take a step in the Forseti station,
you're being hunted and you and the remaining survivors
have to do everything you can to make it through.
I liked this game a great deal. There were a few problems with things like movement, but you have those with any game in third person perspective. The game atmosphere does a pretty good job of making a high-tech space station seem just as dangerous as a haunted mansion or castle. In fact, the station actually seems like another character in the game as it twists and bends while it slowly get taken over more and more by an alien parasite.
Early on in the game you receive a standard rifle, which is really your main weapon in the game since it has unlimited ammunition. But don't worry, there are plenty of other choices that will put very large holes in very creepy creatures. You can upgrade your weapons with the use of mod chips, which will increase the amount of damage or rate of fire. The creatures I mentioned above are plentiful. You encounter Scouts, which are basically insect-like things. Cutters are your standard man-sized, shredding type of aliens. Of course there's the invincible Brute, which is part of the game's puzzles rather than an actual enemy, since you don't even obtain a weapon that can damage them until near the end. There's one thing you should know though; the aliens actually use whatever they can harvest from the space station. Including human bodies. For example, with the scouts I mentioned above, they'll sometimes release an egg sack containing four to six human heads with six legs attached to the neck that crawl after you.
As I said above, the game atmosphere is great. There is one major problem with the game however. Interplay had the makings of a great horror game on this one, but they dropped the ball. Everything sets you up for terror, but they didn't use the plentiful resources they had, and the game gets pretty dull towards the end. Everything is fantastic: the voice acting, the graphics, the sound, the combat system, and the puzzles. It's all top-notch. But they introduce everything right away in the game, and they don't change much. Within the first few minutes you meet your first Brute, you take down a bunch of Cutters, and you solve a few puzzles. The problem is, that's exactly what you're doing the entire game, and it does wear thin after a few hours. It would've been nice to see new monsters start showing up once the aliens had enough genetic material to construct them, or to throw in some different puzzles once in a while.
The puzzles, by the way, are pretty well done. It's your standard search and find type of deal. The ships has blast doors that have shut and in order to open them you need to find a password comprised of symbols (like O, X, X, X, O, O.) There are times when you need to combine items to build yourself an important item to continue, or control a robot to distract a Brute. It's not really bad, but like I said, everything in the game gets old towards the end.
This is a good game to pop in a waste some aliens. It's got a great classic horror type of storyline with some undeniably wicked monsters. The areas are nice and unique, with beautifully rendered backgrounds. So despite the fact that it doesn't really have that terrifying, "don't play this game in the dark" kind of feel to it, I still recommend it to anyone who is a fan of horror games.
| BEST AND
WORST VOICE ACTING |
| The best is a tough choice, but I think it has to
be Clancy Brown as Dag. The worst is Kate Mulgrew,
hands down. But that's not her fault, she delivers
the lines great. It's more of a problem with hearing
her voice come out of a giant alien doctor. It just
doesn't fit. |
MOST USELESS
EASTER EGG |
| When you enter a certain in-game code, it unlocks
a music video for Break Benjamin's "Plyamorous."
It's a great song and a good video, but this is definitely
one of the most useless codes I've seen for a PS2
release so far. |
PUT YOUR OWN REVIEWS ON THE MESSAGE BOARD!
|
|
Copyright © 2002 - All Things Zombie.com
Best viewed with IE 6 at 1024x768
Trademarks belong to their respective owners.
All Rights Reserved.
|
| RELEASE DATES |
Q1 2005 - PC/XB/PS2
Zombies
TBA - RPG
CHOMP!
|
|
|
