A modest slice of humble gaming pie (eaten in 3rd person of course)
Razes hell is reminiscent of one of those movie tie/cash-in’s that rushes out a mediocre game, before the blood thirsty reviewers can get to it, to coincide with the launch of some film or exploits of two American blonde haired twins who I can’t name for legal reasons but are too thin for their own good and think they look so cool but they soo don’t. Sorry I got sidetracked…
Anyway, if Razes Hell is that gaming monstrosity on the bottom of the bargain bin lodged under Mary Kate and Ashley’s horse riding challenge (oops), then why has it slipped under the gaming radar into the bleak obscurity of Gamestation’s backroom? Why isn’t it out getting publicity it doesn’t deserve? Razes Hell wasn’t released to coincide with the launch of a major brand that will spin all it’s money for it, and it’s certainly not to save me the trouble of writing about it’s many shortcomings (because here I am), so why am I here asking myself (and you if your reading, which you so blatantly are) what the point of this game is? How could the developers expect to actually make money from a game that has spent few months in development, had no advertising and no coverage up until now? Well listen closely as I may answer your question or go off on a tangent, because tangents are cool. One time I went off on this remarkably colossal tangent…
In direct contrast to everything I’ve just said, Razes Hell isn’t the kind of game you hate. It’s more a modest slice of humble gaming protocol. Majesco Games isn’t a heartless ‘EA’ corporation. It’s just the creator of those ‘filler’ videogames that make you think ‘where the hell did this come from?’
So having given you two sides of my opinion to form the basis of yours, (soon I shall have an army of like minded gaming critics! Ahem) the story is as follows. You are the anti hero Raze (you see what they did there with the title?) who’s homeland is getting harvested by the immensely cute Kewletts. They are slowly eradicating and exterminating his race to help their colonization efforts, but they didn’t count on you, the player, picking up that greasy Xbox controller and letting rip with Razes extraordinarily cliché abilities! Like the back of the box says, you can snipe, melee, gun and even roll (!) your way through an army of the little blighters.
There’s nothing we haven’t seen before on offer here, which leads me to again question the point in this ‘gaming 101’ lesson of how to make an utterly forgettable title, but it’s the charming sense of personality from you enemies that’s really the defining feature on offer here. Being a sort of un-dead alien type guy you don’t have that many ‘Duke Nukem’ esq killer one-liners, but the begs for mercy and curses laid upon your very soul by the Kewletts are both well executed and knee slappingly comical. Think Grunts from Halo mixed with pillows and combined with legs and arms. One rather humorous quip came after I was standing over the bloody mess of a Kewlett. (It may be cute but it was trying to kill me). Just as I was about to deliver the final blow to its fluffy face, it retorted ‘my adorable ghost will haunt youuuu’.
There are two ways of eradicating the squashy faced goons. Either use one of you four types of ammo from your gun, such as a generic machine gun or rocket launcher (which indecently isn’t called a rocket launcher in this game in an attempt to be unique), or whip out your ruddy great sword and hack them to death. Health pick ups come in the form of the Kewletts guts. Oh yes, this game isn’t for the younger gamers out there.
I wouldn’t normally do this for other games, as the back of the box would tell you all you need to know, but as you know absolutely nothing about Razes Hell (and the back of the box is as misleading as a Jordan autobiography) , I’m going to have to tell you even where the camera is situated behind the character. The camera is your typical 3rd person camera angle. Think sonic adventures, but the arthritis-ridden camera man has been drinking whilst standing naked in the snow. You get the picture…
Adorable as these Kewletts are, they don’t mask a lacklustre gaming experience. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a botched title. There are no noticeable glitches and the frame rate only dips at the most hectic times. The graphics are sharp (if a little PS2-ish) and the control system does it’s job well, even if it’s job doesn’t entail of very much, but you just get the feeling Majesco Games didn’t aim high enough with this one.
The graphics are sharp (if a little PS2-ish) and the control system does its job well, even if its job doesn’t entail of very much, but the truly great games are ones that innovate. Why make ANOTHER 3rd person shooter? Well Majesco? It’s not to make money because you would have actually advertised this game. It’s not to please those under privileged youths as they don’t deserve anything. It’s not to achieve gaming nirvana as, well, gaming nirvana this isn’t. So why? Maybe they will give the answer to my utterly cynical questions when Razes Hell 2 comes out…
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