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Splatterhouse
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Graphics & Sound:
There are times when the Mature rating seems overdone, but Splatterhouse isn't one of those times. This game is as bloody as anything we've ever seen, and that's not limited to videogame content, either. Blood drops appear to hit the screen of your television, breaking the fourth wall rather nicely as we've seen in games with water or mud splashes. Realizing that this is blood and gore flying around tends to quicken your pulse. The fighting sequences are visceral enough, but there are at least two additional pieces that help Splatterhouse make an impact. One is the library of finishing moves you can perform on enemies after beating them to within an inch of their undead lives. The last inch can be closed with a blow, or you can tap a button to break away from the action and totally dismember your enemy. As in something like Mortal Kombat, it's up to you to pull off the move, but unlike that classic Fighter, the moves are simpler to perform. The visual payoff is here, but the sound design is a mixed bag. We loved loved loved the use of music in the game, and the accompanying battle sounds are also excellent. More than a dozen songs make up the soundtrack, including artists like Max Cavalera, (formerly of Sepultura), Mastodon, and others from respected labels like Earache Record. What misfires in Splatterhouse is the dialogue. Perhaps camp was the goal, and we get the whole "bad B-Movie" association in this genre, but the actual programming of the dialogue creates terrible repetition that tends to blow the good vibes you're feeling mid-action. In an early boss battle, if we heard "Get off 'yer ass" one more time, we were totally prepared to throw a controller. Repetition at times like this, or every time you grab a weapon off the floor (which is often), isn't necessary. It seemed forced, as if the producers wanted to max out the number of obscenities thrown at the player, to justify the "M" rating.
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Gameplay:
Fans of the bygone days of arcade gaming should know the Splatterhouse name. It was a three-game series running from the late '80s to early '90s, bridging arcade and home gaming consoles. One of the best features of this version of Splatterhouse is that it actually contains all three games, letting newcomers experience the series' precedents. It's easy to see the influence these early versions had on the 2010 update, including some side-scrolling levels. Switching from 3D to 2D is a bit jarring, and players may wonder why this device is used in a "modern" game, but fans will immediately appreciate the homage. What's also intact is the storyline, where we find our hero (or anti-hero, really) Rick fighting yet again to save his beloved Jennifer. Think of Splatterhouse as a twisted take on that Jim Carrey movie The Mask, where Carrey dons a mask that makes him all-powerful and takes on the bad guys. In Splatterhouse, the mask gives power but asks for sacrifice in the form of pain and blood. The new aspects of this remake that fans will find interesting are mostly borrowed from God of War, which has been a reliable source of inspiration for most 3D action games in recent history. On a certain level, there's nothing wrong with this approach, but we would have preferred something like Shadow Complex or Alien Breed, that kept Splatterhouse closer to its roots. Brawling through Hades is what Splatterhouse seems to do best, combined with some extremely light puzzle elements that revolve around collecting blood to open doors or proceed through the level. It's never boring, but it's rarely surprising. Game producers need to partner with people like Clive Barker or Guillermo del Toro to bring some new ideas into the space. Beating up wave after wave of bloody meat is starting to feel a bit predictable.
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Difficulty:
Splatterhouse goes beyond the Story Mode to offer Survival Arenas, where you can test your mettle against a true onslaught of bad guys. The in-game difficulty can be dialed up as well, plus there's one additional level you can unlock, called "Brutal." Button-mashing with serve you incredibly well throughout the game, with the exception of the finishing moves. These give you a second or two to match the motions shown on the screen. If you get the move wrong, you'll be kicked rudely back into the battle, often losing ground against any surrounding enemies or even the one you were attempting to finish off. Get the move right and you're rewarded by a bloody cut-scene, and these honestly never get old. The moves aren't random, so you start to learn which buttons to press as you see Rick getting into position, or depending on which enemy type you're battling. The boss sequences are straight out of a game like God of War, so you'll need to wear down the enemy before launching a sequence of timed button-presses. All of us either love or hate this mechanic by now, since we've seen it in various franchises like the recent Castlevania game and even Tomb Raider. The other challenges in Splatterhouse are solving simple puzzles, which sometimes founder because of awkward controls, and collecting hidden items. If collecting items sounds boring, note that the items are pieces of sexy pictures showing Rick's girlfriend Jennifer. Full frontal nudity, anyone? Breaking crates has never been this rewarding...
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Game Mechanics:
The weakest aspect of Splatterhouse is in the controls. Trying to imitate God of War is about more than timed attacks and button-press sequences. What Splatterhouse misses out on is the smooth and responsive controls that we all expect in a fighting game. Enemies feel overpowered and quicker than Rick in most cases, leaving you to grind away from a distance rather than engage mobs and risk getting sent back to the last checkpoint. Rick can use a healing move that almost always saves you from death, but this begins to feel like a cheat. Rather than include drops for health or a workaround move that renews your health, why not just balance out enemy attacks and improve the controls? You do learn new moves along the way and find weapons to use, including dropped limbs! Seeing Rick pick up his own arm to use as a weapon is pretty priceless, we have to admit. The payoff from a control standpoint just always seems elusive. It's 80% there, but the remainder makes for some frustrating moments. This is especially true in boss battles, where you will find it nearly impossible to evade some moves. If the intention was to make Rick feel lumbering and slow, mission accomplished. We found the other control elements worked fine, including the finishing move sequences. If the fighting controls had been more finely tuned, our estimation of Splatterhouse would have gone up a notch.
Despite some frustrations, Splatterhouse is great fan-service and carries on the legacy of the game nicely. It's a bloody, escapist romp that draws on every teen-slasher stereotype, but in a good way. Compared to what we see happening in more "serious" M-Rated games like Alan Wake, Splatterhouse is unabashedly sophomoric. It plays heavily on the gross-out, the silly, and the sexy elements of carnage-as-entertainment, which might lead the way to more games based on franchises like Evil Dead and other Bruce Campbell fare. For now at least, teenagers (or the teenager in all of us) will have something to ogle. |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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