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Raze's
Hell
Score: 8.1 / 10
It’s always nice to see developers taking
risks and trying completely new things not seen in previous games. This
is where Majesco’s new title, Razes Hell stand out. Not only is Raze's
Hell (RH) one of the most bizarre games you’ll play, but it’s one of the
better games to release during this spring.
RH is certainly inspired by the most unusual of things. While it may not
be noticeable right off the start, RH is actually inspired by current US
foreign policy. The game tells a story of a civilization of cute care
bare like creatures called the Kewletts whose main objective is to rid
the world of ugliness. The Kewletts leadership sells there plan as being
one that brings freedom and joy to ugly
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or rebel to be politically correct, whose
main purpose is to prevent the Kewletts from achieving there goal.
RH is a third person shooter, filled with large number of fire fights.
While the story is rather innovative and strange, the gameplay isn’t
anything new. That’s not to say RH is a bad game, it’s actually one of
the more surprising games to release as of late. Like a lot of shooter
games, you’ll blast your way from level to level killing scores of
Kewletts. The game features enough ways to kill enemies, but for a game
that seems innocent at first, RH is extremely graphic and violent. Aside
from the shooting elements, there is also hand to hand combat. You can
rip the enemies to shreds and watch there corpse blow into pieces.
RH handles ammo pick ups and health packs differently from a lot of
other games. Ammo is not found in packs; instead it’s accessed from
destroying different plants in the environment. Health is gained from
dismembering enemies bodies and inhaling (yes, inhaling) the enemies
remains. So in a way you’re encouraged to slaughter your enemies to gain
health.
RH is an extremely challenging game, even on the easier levels of
difficulty. Some of the weapons feel extremely weak and sometimes
enemies require ridiculous amounts of bullets to die. The enemies are
also fairly relentless, attacking you in groups, so reacting quickly and
efficiently is extremely important.
Fortunately your character is able to do just more than just shoot and
melee attack. One of the more effective, but health reducing moves is
the ability for you character to curl up into a ball and roll around the
environments. Curling up into a ball is really effective for killing
groups of enemies, but makes you a somewhat easy target to hit.
RH also comes with full Xbox Live and offline multiplayer modes. Both
you and a friend can play cooperatively offline through the game’s story
mode. The coop is quite enjoyable and eases up the difficulty a bit.
There are a number of mini-games, most of which must be unlocked. The
mini-games are decent, but nothing great. RH also supports online play,
with your standard vanilla game modes like Deathmatch and Capture the
Flag. The online modes are fairly good for a budget title, but don’t
expect it to take your attention away from Halo 2.
Visually RH doesn’t standout in any particular way. The game suffers
from a number of frame rate issues, caused by the chaotic on-screen
action. The in-game environments are varied enough, but some of the
detail is lacking. On a positive note, the characters themselves look
well detailed.
The voice acting is solid and comical. If you’re eavesdropping on
enemies you can overhear there conversations. You’ll sometimes here the
Kewletts question there leadership and whether they are in the right
war.
RH is one of the more interesting and fresh games to come out this year.
It’s certainly worth your attention since it’s so unique and different
from a lot of other games currently out. While RH isn’t near perfect,
it’s more than what you would expect from a budget title. If you’re open
minded and looking for a really challenging and bizarre game, then give
RH a try.
- Siddharth Masand
(July 8, 2005)
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