Run Like Hell - My Final Impressions/Review

[Despair]

Well, I rented it today, and played for a little, and its not that bad, and in fact I enjoying playing it. Sure, visuals are not groundbreaking, but environments, character and monster models are nicely done. Light and darkness effects are also decent.It controls somewhat well, but could have used some more work. Your character moves fast enough to be able to dodge most of the monster attacks, but the game lacks Jump option, which makes it more simular to RE games, only with faster combat.

You control movement with Left Analog, and Camera with L2 and R2 buttons. R1 is to take out the weapon and lock on the enemy, X is shoot and triagle is to either kick/punch enemy upclose. You can use Right Analog for fast weapon switch.

Combat is ok, and you have to try to shoot monsters from afar, or either kick them, or smash them with your gun when they get close, to avoid being damaged. When attacked by multiple monsters, you can walk and shoot, dodging their attacks. You have your life bar, and also your power shield bar, that protects you from taking a damage when attacked. There are shield recharge spots strategically placed during the course of the game, and you will need to manage your power ups and healing items well.

The way it set up, its with check points, so when you die, you have to restart, from the last checkpoint location. Its somewhat pain in the ass, since sometimes you have to go through lenghty mission, and then die almost when you reached the next checkpoint, and restart it from square one. You also have an option to save anywhere, and when you restart the game, you will start from the nearest check point.

During the game, you encounter many real time events, where you have to press and select your choice of the action to perform. Like in the beginning you being chased by huge monster, and there are various obstacles on your way. You need to choose jumps or slides, which needed to be done at the right time, or your character will slowdown, and get eaten.

You also have to solve puzzles, some usual guess the password to open the door, and other like how to trick huge monster to go into test lab, and when he gets there kill him before he kills you.

THere are several enemies that I had encountered so far, Alien like soldiers, that are very fast and dangerous up close, so you have to keep them at the distance. THey also can block your shots with their arms, so you need to trick them to break their guard. Brutes, are hulkin monsters that practically unstopable, and you have to find ways on how either trick them into traps, or some way to scare them off. THere are also spider/scorpion like smaller creatures, that are real pain, as they swarm on you, trying to surround you, and sting you to death, and when they die, they release even smaller spider like things, that explode on contact.

Bosses they I had faced so far, were interesting to fight, and quite challenging(Especially 1st Boss, that sends waves of small bugs at you, before attacking you, and can only be hurt when he brings his defences down to attack you.

You can upgrade you weapons, like autorifle(and probably most used gun for the duration of the game) you start with(which has infinite ammo), with various parts you find, to make it more powerfull and usable. You find various chips that can be installed in the weapons, such as damage, more bullets in the clip, faster shooting and other.

You also collect ammunition for other weapons like shotgun, that have limited ammo, but also have much more powerful impact on the monsters.

So far I have found 4 weapons: Auto-rifle you start the game with, shotgun, stun gun(has to be used only on smaller enemies) and recoil rifle(pulse rifle) which is quite powerfull, but very ammo consuming.

The game also have a pretty creepy atmosphere, with dark hallways and rooms hiding monsters, and good sound fx, like screeching and screaming noises monsters make. WHen I was playing last night, I got startled few times, but the monsters attacking me, when I didnt expected them.


Voice acting is very nice, and Lance did a great job as main character. Other actors do a very good job as well. The story is interesting, and keeps you wanting to know more.

I will go and play some more, and post more impressions later

[BEBOPlover]

Nice impressions, Despair.

Thanks

[Despair]

Well, I finished the game last night, so here are some of my thoughts on it:

Dont believe the reviews. The game plays well. As I said before graphics, characters and weapons are done nicely. Main character looks like a mix of Lance Henriksen and Arnold, and animated nicely. Game environments change as the game procedes, with Alien mass taking over most of the station(simular to Alien hive growth in Aliens ), more ambushes avait you in the narrow hallways, and as you pass the hive openings.

Later in the game you encounter more creatures, most of them look creepy, and are huma alien hybrids. Like scorpions with Human heads attached to them, or Aliens with human arms growing out of their bodies. Monsters also evolve and adopt, as you get further into the game, and you need constantly upgrading your weapons and shields, otherwise they wont be very efficient against them. They also gain speed, and special abilities, like becoming invisible, so you cant lock on them, and have to fire wildly, hoping to get them before they get you. Pretty cool touch.

You will option to collect about 8 different guns in the game. I talked about few of them in my first impressions, and here some of other weapons you can find: Homing Missle Launcher, that also has secondary Guided Missile function, where you can guide the missle like in MGS/MGS2, Alien Gun, that your enemies use, Special Assault Rifle(ultimate automatic weapon, especially, if upgraded), that also fires Grenades, and very cool Crossbow, that you need to make in order to be able to kill Brutes(those huge Ape like creatures).

There are 7 chapters in the game, each having 1 or 2 Boss fights. Boss fights are pretty intense, and for the most part challenging. You have to think of some techniques to use to avoid their attacks, hurt them, and also to take care of smaller enemies, that also attack you during boss fights. And always watch your life bar

Also in some of the fights, you have an option of using different ways to dispatch your enemies. For example when encountering multiple Brutes on your way, you can simply charge them straightforward and blast them with your Crossbow(if you have enough ammo ), or you can go with more sneaky approach, and lure them into charging you, and then blow up explosive cannisters placed around, for some huge damage. The choice is yours.

As I said before, the story is interesting, its a variation of the Aliens, where you have a small group of survivors fighting unknown and seemingly unstopable alien menace. The creatures you fight, is simular to Borg(collective mind), as they assimulate everything organic they encounter, and gain knowledge and memories of the creatures they bring in. CGI cinemas and in game cut scenes are done nicely, and voice acting is EXCELLENT. I found out that Brad Douriff is also in the voice cast. THat makes it 2 Hollywood Actors that were in Alien series working in this game

Game is not very long, I would say about 10-12 hours. Unfortunately, the game doesnt offer you anything in the replayability, since once you done with it, you done. No hard mode or other extras or secrets usually offered by this kind of games as a reward. So while I think the game is very good in most of the aspects, this one is one area that makers could have done better.

My final verdict states: If you are fan of action/horror games, and looking for a game that is creepy and action packed, has interesting story and great voice acting, I reccomend you to try it out. Rent it(or buy it if you see a good deal on it, but dont pay whole $55 for it).

[bahn]

hey Despair. don't forget to include what system you covered it for when you make threads - nice report.

[Jeremy]

Awesome. You managed to restore my faith in this game.

[bahn]

Despair's review gets the front page exposure!

[bbobb]

Originally posted by bahn
Despair's review gets the front page exposure!

Wooohhhoooo... now I need to get around to doing my Sly Cooper and Star Fox Adv's reviews. Well maybe if I get my Math homework done early enough tonight I'll write them up.

[Despair]

WOW Thanks. I'm honored

[bahn]

hail sarcasm

[BioMechanic]

I'd all but written this game off - thanks for the great words, Despair. I'll certainly rent it now.