Kate Beckinsale Returns as Selene in yet another installment of the Underworld film franchise. And that brings new opinions and, of course, a new review. I myself do not want to spoil too much of this franchise so I will keep the spoilers to a minimum when it comes to past films– and for those who’ve missed out on the first three movies, Awakening has a neat little recap sequence in the beginning. The franchise to date is definitely worth your time for a full watch.

This fourth installment in the series is actually only the third starring Kate Beckinsale as Selene. The third theatrical release being a prequel, Kate has had some time since being with this franchise. Since 2006 to be exact. But she makes a natural return and is in form rather quickly.

Selene, Michael and all the non-humans are in for a big change during this movie. There is a shift from the typical formula for plot and far less foreshadowing than the previous two titles featuring Selene. With humanity taking a stand and genocide being the more appropriate course of action, it leaves little room for reasoning. Anybody who has seen even a trailer is very aware of this. From the start, we are hit with puzzles with no answers to go with them. We discover these answers almost parallel to Selene’s perspective and this movie is very close to her as a character. There are some very interesting plot turns I never expected. Being a follower of the films, I was expecting something very different. But this is not a bad thing whatsoever.

The first two movies were relatively easy to predict and foreshadowing was done wide out in the open. Dialogue exchanges and primary plot made the path of the story arc very clear to the audience. We would be made aware of some figure or place that represented what we knew would be the climax to the film or the central fallback. In this regard, Underworld: Awakening took a massive deviation from that tried-and-true path. There was actually a sense of journey and discovery rather than focusing on pure confrontations with good choreography. Although this movie still had plenty of that.

Camera angles were fair, not so many high angles. Either level with the characters, or very slightly being at low angle. Most of the movie takes place looking up at characters; just enough to notice, not enough to bother. They are conveying a real sense of stature here. Any scene in this movie highlights Beckinsale’s physical appearance. She is made to look as we would expect. There are many closeups of her face and body during important scenes. With many having the feeling of loss or sorrow of some sort. Kate does a great job at being what she is: absolutely gorgeous with a touch of tragedy. There was one scene that particularly caught my attention where she was noticeably colored in the face, rather than the pale face we are used to. It was very unlike any other portrayal of her with lighting, as well.

The 3D in this film was worth mentioning. A scene with a shattering windshield actually had me put my hand up to block a piece of flying glass from hitting me. A quick laugh and a nod to the great job done. If you get a choice, go see it in 3D.

This movie did a decent job in terms of set and structure. Many different settings all with many different colors and the ability to keep me interested. There were low spots in this movie, but they were not boring. And the set made a certain “home” of a group of vampires into something I was sold on completely. Great job there in the set. The budget was put to good use.

One thing I want to mention specifically is the role of Dr. Jacob Lane portrayed by Stephen Lea. I am aware of this actor, and much like his role from V for Vendetta, his character was one I liked the most here. Through both the script writing and delivery, you can connect with both the noble mentality and the antagonistic appearance within his character. Very good job done by Stephen.

One criticism comes to mind and it’s when it comes to action sequences. I feel as if there were some sequences in this film that were either too short with need to be much longer, or very dragged on with no need. A car sequence felt like it took forever when it should have been short. And a battle with a higher level enemy was a flash when it should have been longer. Other than that, I have no complaints here.

Final Opinion

This movie has already been under heavy negative attack by some media groups. I am obligated to defend it against them. Although I like this movie less than the first and second installments, it stands alone in creative direction and independence. It is a different breed of writing and presentation. I feel it deserves respect for deviating and still making a great movie. Characters are able to relate to and you feel for Selene at least once in this movie if you are of the norm. It does not follow the building epic atmosphere of the first film; and more notably, the second film, but it acts as quite a journey and leaves many things open for the future. If you get the chance, go watch this movie in theaters. It’s a must-see for fans and a great watch for everybody else.

7.5/10

Review: Underworld Awakening is a post from: Rely on Horror

James Casselman

Proud Canadian and seasoned Resident Evil Fan.

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I just don’t know where to begin with you, AMY. You disappoint me. Yes, I know the odds are against you and all for being an indie developed title in a world filled with big, bad corporate funded games, but that does not excuse you from being a broken, unpolished and badly designed experience. It hurts me to say this after seeing so much potential in you. In an industry where true survival horror experiences are rare, I put much faith in you. I’m sorry it had to be this way…

AMY is the latest title from French developer, Vector Cell. It is an ambitious title that promised a full game experience for the low price of $10 across digital markets. Instead of flaunting the game’s scope, the developers should have taken a step back and examine how flawed their game was before releasing it. AMY is filled with poor design choices, awkward controls (even for the survival horror genre) and shallow characters. This game should have gone back to school to learn the fundamentals of what makes a game work and be fun to play. An omen to these flaws can be seen just in the opening cinematic. The framerate dips, it lags a bit, and it’s terribly acted.

The character in which you play as, Lana, is infected with the same contagion that the game’s enemies are. Being in the presence of the autistic and telepathic Amy mysteriously slows the infection. The premise is very interesting and I had hoped it would provide some engaging gameplay, but the surrounding flaws distracted from it. AMY’s own AI is also just awful. There’s no reason why she should wander off as soon as Lana lets go of her hand. She’s autistic, not suicidal.

To determine Lana’s infection stance, she wears a mechanical strap on her body that emits either green, yellow, or red light. Green being healthy, red meaning death. When the infection is spreading due to not being in the presence of Amy, Lana begins to hallucinate. The world around her shifts and turns in a truly entertaining way. The sound design—which is actually really good—compliments the scenes with whispers, noises, and other creepy sounds. A problem I faced with the infection indicator was when the light on Lana’s back didn’t change colors and I ended up just dieing. There is little to no reaction time when the indicator actually turns red. The clunky controls prevent you from escaping any hazardous red zones.

This game has an incredibly terrible checkpoint system. I found this out the hard way, and let me tell you that it helped revealed even more issues. Because of other issues that I will address shortly, I decided to take a break from the game to cool off. Upon reloading the game, I discovered that AMY does not save your progress mid-chapter. So what happens? You are forced to restart the chapter because it won’t save your progress. There’s no active save mechanism, so you’re forced to finish a chapter before you stop playing.

Due to this, I discovered that my first time through the game’s first chapter was filled with bugs that completely removed key scare moments. Walking into a bathroom at the start of the game did not trigger an event the first time around, nor did an enemy attack me shortly after. This was all saved for my second playthrough of the chapter which was also buggy, because the man attacking me was still on the floor where I originally found him. He wasn’t a generic monster character, so this was not an issue of model reuse. The game just did not remove his previously thought-to-be-dead corpse from the ground when he attacked me.

Because enemies are much stronger than Lana, you must use stealth to your advantage. An issue here is so basic that I can not believe it passed testing. Walking or sneaking near a wall—something that makes sense since you must look over or around cover—slows down Lana significantly. This is an actual issue with collision detection; it doesn’t make sense. Why should Lana get stuck to walls as if they’re made of glue? Time sensitive sneaking becomes a hassle due to simply trying to walk along a surface to remain undetected. This especially becomes an issue in chapter 5 in which you must sneak past enemies without being seen. That’s not the best part, though. It seems that the developers stuck in a purely stealth mission here, but didn’t even care to say so at the start of the chapter. Instead of just dying by the sheer number of enemies in the area, they decided to secretly change the parameters regarding a game-over. Be seen and that’s it–you will have to restart to the very beginning of the chapter.

The game is filled with trial and error gamplay. This would be somewhat OK if it wasn’t for the horrid, NES-era save system that forgets that you’re playing this game with hopes of completing it over time and not in one sitting.

Navigation in a level is left up to a shoddy waypoint system. It’s inaccurate and moves too loosely. Trying to find doors that were locked to a specific key type becomes a huge inconvenience since the game does not give you much room for alternative routes. In a level filled with guards or monsters that can end up anywhere and break out of their own pre-determined paths, you would think a map or a simple system to recognize color coded doors would be implemented. Nope.

AMY puts an emphasis on puzzle solving and stealth. Combat is meant to be a last resort. Sadly, it seems that the developers of AMY see puzzles as annoying computer matching games that are also based on trial and error. The other form of “puzzles” is pressing a switch and debating whether Lana or Amy should be the one at the receiving end of the switch’s effect. It’s easy, trivial, and nothing more than a means to distract you from the game’s broken everything.

Combat is lackluster, but that was expected. Lana can swing at enemies with weapons found in the environment–there aren’t many. These weapons don’t last because they deteriorate after use. They also like to disappear from the inventory when you die and reload a checkpoint where you should still have them in your possession. The same can be said for Amy’s telekinetic powers. You’re supposed to unlock them and use them throughout the game to make things easier, but the developers seemed to have not noticed that they disappear when you die or move onto another chapter. This leaves no purpose to Amy’s power wheel which should be filled with abilities but never holds more than one.

The only positives about the game is the premise, visuals, and the sound. The gameplay these issues are wrapped around is abominable. AMY should have been left in development for several more months. It’s disappointing seeing a game that I was so excited for be released in such an unfinished state. After numerous promises about the game’s full retail experience, I think even $10 is too much for this title. If you’re a survival horror fan looking for something to tide you over, look elsewhere. AMY is just too flawed for its own good.

3/10

Developer Challenge: Because I like the premise of the game so much, I am willing to put faith back into Vector Cell and let them patch AMY. If they can provide a substantial update to AMY that fixes the majority of these technical and design problems, I will gladly change my score. Hydrophobia did something like this not too long ago, and I think AMY can do it too. I never want to hate a game, so I am hoping Vector Cell can deliver at least a means to fix the many holes in its creation.

Review: AMY is a post from: Rely on Horror

CJ Melendez

I'm a college student with a huge passion for gaming; horror being my favorite genre. I love being afraid to turn a corner or turn around in my games. The creepier the better.

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While I’m not one for the 3D fad the film industry is forcing down our throats, I guess there are certain movies that would lend themselves to this concept better than others. 3D experiences seem to be the next logical step after the crisp HD and incredible CGI have kept us glued to our seats the past four or so years.  In general I think horror is probably one of the best genres for 3D effects to be utilized simply because it puts you that much closer to what scares you, whether it be Michael Meyers or a shark, unfortunately eye-popping visuals don’t save anything, as we’ve learned many times in film and video games alike.

Shark Night is a train wreck.  For a teen flick it has all the staple characters, a scholarship football player who is on track to be a millionaire but has to keep his grades up, the med student who’d rather study than play XBOX, the smartass friend who only plays games, and the sexy girls; not unbelievably, the director doesn’t explore any of their backgrounds and only hints at their potential in incredibly sparing amounts, leaving anything said about them in some cheap attempt at depth of dialogue utterly worthless to the viewer.

The seven friends head up to a lake house that Sara -one of the seven- owns.  As the movie quickly progresses, people die and the plot thins out into the group not being able to escape the lake to get outside help because the sheriff, played by Donal Logue, (why did you tarnish your career with this movie, Donal?) is in cahoots with two other Bayou-Billies to keep them there for their entertainment and a dark secret.  All-in-all the movie is terrible and the 3D doesn’t help.  Shark Night is anything but engrossing enough to justify adjusting your eyes for its random shock moments. The Discovery Channel will appreciate this movie, however, as it is basically plugging their famous Shark Week as a major plot point. It amazes me that it made into theaters with its Syfy Channel production-value and story, but Hollywood never ceases to produce garbage that we all spend our hard-earned dollars on.  Rent the movie if you want a laugh, thankfully this movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, (look for scenes about finding an arm, shark spear-hunting and a waverunner ride gone bad).

Final Opinion:

2/10

One star for Donal Logue’s inclusion, and one because I think I saw nipple

Also, if you waste money on this, make sure you sit through the oddly long credits to see a cast rap video about their roles and what happens in the movie…it’s the toothpick in this shit sandwich.

DVD Review: Shark Night 3D (Spoilers) is a post from: Rely on Horror

Mike Angileri

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Resident Evil Archives 2 encompasses the stories of Resident Evil 4 and 5, with small sections quickly detailing the new chapters of both Chronicles games (Umbrella’s End for Umbrella Chronicles, and Operation Javier for Darkside Chronicles) and the Resident Evil Degeneration CG film. It includes all of the same sections as the first volume, “Story”, “Character”, “Creature”, “Items”, “Visual Work”, “Extras”, “Keywords” and “Database”, and each of these sections is generally divided into two parts, each focusing on either RE4 or 5. The book is designed on the same basic template the first volume was, and they look quite nice together on a shelf, and the interior layout of the book is very pretty, although I’ve been being very careful with my copy out of fear that it’s bound with the same crappy post-it glue the first volume was, which is a tattered, incomplete mess on my office desk now. The first volume had a few rough problems with some of the sections, especially with the character section, where there really didn’t seem to be a specific direction the design was going in, but all of that is solved in this new volume, which streamlines the whole approach, although there does seem to be a lot of wasted space in this book, specifically with the Chapter headers, which oddly take up two whole pages and say little more than the name of the chapter. If these where removed, or even broken down to 1 page or half a page, they would have left a lot more room for some of the sections later on in the book, specifically the “Visual Work” section, which starts to feel cramped and rushed towards the end.

The “Story” Section is how the book opens, after a short recap of the games covered in volume 1, which nicely ends with Leon’s introduction to Resident Evil 4, to lead you into the first story section. The Resident Evil 4 section is actually surprisingly gripping, despite the fact that I’ve already played RE4 about a billion times. It gives a little extra insight into the events, as the story is being written with Leon’s thoughts in mind, and makes certain elements of fear that I hadn’t previously realized where there stand out, especially the way it focuses on Leon and Ashley’s growing panic over having the Las Plagas inside their bodies, and the fear of loosing themselves the same way that the villagers had. The section reads very nicely, and ends up reminding me a little of S.D. Perry’s adaptations. The translation is nice, and stands head-and-shoulders above the woefully poor translations in the first volume. Oddly, the section includes none of the information from Ada’s Another Order/Separate Ways mini-campaign, which is a shame since it is a part of Resident Evil 4’s story. There is in fact very little on Separate Ways in this book, and it only refers to it in the later “Character” and “Keyword” sections.

It seems as if the Resident Evil 5 section was written by a different team or something, because the translation almost immediately feels a little stilted, although not wholly bad per-say. The story book aspect the Resident Evil 4 section had is still there, but the wording of things is a little different, and honestly a little poorer, with back-and-fourth issues between Chris and Sheva making the whole section a bore to read (Chris said, Sheva Said, Chis reproached, Sheva countered, Wesker lol’d). Strange word choices also make it seem like they where evading saying certain things, like instead of using the word “killed”, they say “defeated”, like it’s a fighting game or something. And it’s the ONLY word they use. Unlike the Resident Evil 4 section, though, it does include the information from both of the campaign DLCs, “Lost in Nightmares” and “Desperate Escape”, and weaves them into the story exactly where they fall in the timeline (Lost in Nightmares is simply a part of Chris’ flashback sequence, and Desperate Escape gets a chapter all it’s own between when Chris and Sheva rescue Jill, and when they embark on the ship).

Next we have the Character section, which- while not being quite as in-depth as the first volume’s- is still interesting to read, although it’s a little weird at first, because each character’s story in the game is explained FIRST, and THEN it goes into their back-story, and then returns to the story of whichever game they are in (take Leon’s section, for example, which starts by talking about the kidnapping of Ashley Graham, and then goes on to detail the events of RE4 very quickly, then talks about his back-story, then talks about RE4 again, and then talks about the Harvardville outbreak from Degeneration.) Honestly, I think it would make more sense to start at the beginning rather than start at the end and then jump backwards until you get back at the end.

Leon wonders why everything is backwards, too.

The Creature section is very interesting, detailing on not only the creation of each creature, but also on smaller details, like what each one’s name means in each language (“Novistador” means “The Unseen”, by the way). It’s a shame that they didn’t go into as much detail with some of these creatures as the first volume did, which would often dedicate a whole page to each creature. The creatures of RE4 and 5 are lucky if they get little more than a paragraph.

After that is the Items section, which includes every item, bullet, file and bottle cap collected in both games, and details them briefly. It’s very cool to have all of the files in one place, although you don’t realize how few of them there are until you see that the files section only takes up 7 and a half pages.

Next is the section I (as an artist) was the most excited to see, the Visual Work section, which is a collection of selected production art from both games, some of it finalized, some of it not (early artwork of the Los Illuminados cultists made them look middle-eastern, like something out of Prince of Persia or Tomb Raider). Sadly, the environments section is condensed into two measly pages, with each beautiful piece of art shrunk down into nothing more than a pathetic little jpg. I was really excited to see this section, so you can imagine my disappointment when I can barely see some of the art (this was one of the things I was talking about earlier when I mentioned they could have gotten more room for things by cutting out the two-page chapter headers. If only to see these pieces of art reproduced just a little bigger). The RE5 section includes some storyboards, and the footnotes on some of the art is interesting, although there really isn’t as much art for RE5 as I would have liked (the RE4 art section is 26 pages long, while the RE5 section is only 14).

Next is the Extras section, which features quick overviews of the Chronicles games (previously only on the Wii, and coming to PS3 sometime next year for the Move controller) and the CG movie Degeneration. This section honestly isn’t terribly interesting, and is so short is goes by without a blip. It would have been nice if the Extras section also included say, new information on the many MANY pre-release versions of Resident Evil 4, and the early draft version of RE5 (where Wesker only had one eye, there was a Tyrant boss battle, and the game actually seemed like it could have been scary).

Lastly is the Keyword and Database sections, which go into detail on specific elements of the games, like names of people, organizations and events, and the Database section also includes all three Wesker’s Report documents, which are interesting to read, and offer lots of insight into his plans and thoughts. These sections may be a bit of a bore for the casual fan, but for fanatics like me, I couldn’t get enough.

 9/10

Review – Resident Evil: Archives Volume 2 is a post from: Rely on Horror

Rourke

I'm a young artist from Pittsburgh, PA who is a tremendous fan of all things horror. It's VERY difficult to actually scare me, so when something accomplishes it, I love it forever. Resident Evil has always been my favorite, ever since I was a little kid, but I'm perfectly happy to spend time with Silent Hill, Fatal Frame and many other games.

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Admittedly, after I played through the demo, I was pleased and hopeful for the full release, but I had a nagging doubt that it wasn’t going to live up to my expectations. Intoxicate Studios brings together young creators who have a real passion and dedication.  These guys are an independent studio, and Afterfall was funded with help from Nicolas Entertainment Group, a small developer.   Afterfall: Insanity is the first production on such a large scale, moving up from an amateur project to full-scale release. However just because Afterfall came from a small team, that doesn’t mean I’ve given it a free pass to suck– I’ve still run the game through its paces.

The year is 2035 – the privileged world has taken to underground shelters to escape the nuclear hellfire caused by World War III.  Enough time has passed that the horror of the surface has faded into memory, with some Shelter residents too young to even remember what the surface is like, or having not experienced it at all.  That bit exposition instantly reminded me of Fallout 3.  ”For on that day, the giant steel door of Vault 101 slid closed…and never re-opened.  It was here you were born, it was here you will die.  Because in Vault 101, no one ever enters.  And no one ever leaves.”

In our hands-on article, I mentioned that it was clear where the inspiration for Afterfall came from.  It’s stated even on their website that Afterfall is the product of a strong love for Fallout, and it shows.  However in this universe, gone is relative cohesion between Vault residents and water shortages, all run by a benevolent…ish Overseer.  In Afterfall is the very real, very damaging psychological disorder known as Confinement Syndrome, and the true viciousness of all those locked outside of the Shelters.  You didn’t think they’d be okay with a whole generation of having to fight for survival, did you?

Confinement Syndrome is basically a mental disorder that afflicts people who have been in confined spaces for too long (who would have guessed, right?).  How exactly this affects the everyday lives of people is really unknown but extreme cases are explained in game.  The condition is such a bane to their existence that the shelter residents are routinely required to undergo psychological evaluation from the chief psychologist/pharmacologist, Dr. Tokaj (pronounced “toke-eye”) who incidentally is the protagonist of the game.

The doctor will see you now.

The best (or worst) thing about Confinement Syndrome? No one is completely immune, including the higher-ups.  Each and every one of them meet with Dr. Tokaj on a regular basis, giving him an insider look into the mental health of the entire shelter.  In doing so, there’s something that Tokaj has discovered about them and about himself – that friends are in short supply in Shelter Glory.

There’s not much introduction, save for a little bit of exposition as to set the scene and a quick cutscene to introduce us to Dr. Tokaj – developers decided to ditch the pomp and circumstance and cut right to the chase.  Within three or four minutes of first loading up the game, you’re playing it.  Unfortunately, things kind of slow down from there as the game takes you through a mandatory tutorial section, whether you need it or not.  Even though the tutorials themselves are quick and seamless, the section itself is slow.

None of what Afterfall requires you to do is overly complicated, and that in itself is extremely refreshing.  The controls are simple, you don’t have a million different commands to remember (I ran the game on PC) but the controls at times seemed a little unusual.  For example your menu is ‘J’ and some prompts require you to use Enter instead of, perhaps a mouse-click.  The dodge and run button are both the space-bar and sometimes the command wouldn’t read properly – I would just start running for no apparent reason, or would dodge and walk when I wanted to run.  Not cool, but ultimately not a huge deal as it didn’t happen all that often.  Seeing how the preview copy didn’t impress me with its inability to use custom key bindings, I decided to play with the default control scheme this time around.

The game lets you take in the atmosphere of the shelter during this first little section and it lets you get a real feel for the atmosphere.  The main levels of the shelter are nice, clean and bright, but when Dr. Tokaj is required to travel to the 2^nd Sublevel to investigate the strange behaviour of the Shelter Residents, shit gets real.  This kind of atmosphere reflects the rest of the game – it’s dark, gritty, and undeniably creepy.

Oftentimes, people’s actions – the way they moved didn’t add up to what they were saying, causing a momentary lapse in immersion.  This is a real shame, because the voice acting in Afterfall is actually not too bad.  Aside from the VAing, I had a bit of an issue with the other audio on the game.  Regardless of settings, the music in the background would overpower dialogue between characters.  And while there are subtitles, having the music overpower the speech was a little annoying.  It probably didn’t help that the subtitles could have used a spell-check as well.  I understand completely that the studio is Polish, but   Turning the dial down wouldn’t hurt any.  Otherwise, the sound is great – it adds tonnes to the atmosphere of the game.

The combat, unfortunately, is still a pretty clunky affair.  You can look at this in two ways: a) it sucks and there’s nothing that can be done about it b) adapt and consider it a method of keeping the tension up.  Silent Hill 2 had a shitty combat system, but people still praise it.  The combat isn’t  broken by any means.

The game throws a whole mess of melee weapons at you, from the ever-present, all-powerful fire axe to brooms, wrenches and homemade maces.  There’s a limited number of firearms available which suggests that the game wants you to go the melee route.  The enemies aren’t really varied, but they offer their own unique set of challenges, and they all look really detailed.  Even if they don’t make the best of noises.

Tokaj makes notes on the enemies he encounters in his PDA.  It’s interesting to note his personal opinion on some of them.

The difficulty of the enemies helps keep that same tension up as the non-fluid controls.  Shelter enemies and guards are easy to overpower, but once you breach the Shelter walls and head outside on your own, you’ll find that friends are in short supply there, too. Be prepared for some pretty vicious encounters with the outsiders, ranging from your average savage wastelanders (damn Fallout lexicon) and cannibals to outright monsters, and strange apparitions  that appear whenever you walk in sunlight.  The apparitions I rather liked – alone, they’re easy to handle – one boss battle however threw dozens of them at me and I was left wondering why the game hated me so much.  I ran around the battlefield on the verge of dying, spraying precious ammo everywhere to get them away from me.  Tokaj screamed in pain – I screamed in panic and frustration.  Everyone was screaming!

Even if you were in darkness, the light would trigger the apparitions to appear.

Afterfall’s story has some of the standard clichés found in horror games, but that’s not to say that it’s boring, even if it is easy to get a little bored in the initial stages.  The initial stages of the game have a lot of puzzle elements, but not a lot of action.  Even then, I felt that the puzzles could be a little more in-depth, add a little more challenge.  The puzzles that exist are rather simple, sometimes random QTEs thrown out at you.  The hacking mini-game to progress past locked doors is exactly that – random button presses. The puzzles seemed to peter out as the game wore on, instead of get harder.

As for the lasting impact of the story, I found myself wanting to play the game further to find out what happens to the characters.  What caused the madness in the people on the Second Sublevel?  Is it the Confinement Syndrome or something else?  Why has the shelter turned against Tokaj when all he was trying to do was help them?  There’s very little replay value here after the story is finished, unless you want to be a completionist, or have an affection for re-living the past.

While Afterfall might not have the most noteworthy story, where it excels tremendously is in atmosphere.  The different areas of the Shelter, The City of Dark and the City of Lights are beautifully rendered, if not a little straightforward.  And unlike in the Fallout universe, the people here are vicious.  They hate you and everything about you – they come at you with sickles and maces, hammers and guns upon sight.  You want to stay hidden or run away, but it just doesn’t work that way.

The City of Lights – described as a pale skeleton of a once-great metropolis is possibly the most eerie place of all.  It does what Resident Evil 5 failed to do – make daylight an effective setting in horror.  How?  Tokaj has spent nearly his entire life in a shelter with artificial light.  When he takes his first steps outside, sunlight is an enemy.  Step into the sunlight (which is EVERY-FRIGGING-WHERE) and strange apparitions appear and you can’t see for a few moments.  Stay too long in the sunlight and you’ll just die.

The sun is a jerk everywhere.

In one instance, I was making my way through a dilapidated shopping mall.  The scenery was littered with charred remains of human beings as if they were frozen in time.  I expected them to be dead – I should have known better.  So when one of those things came to life and started running at me, screaming in agony, it was a surprise. There was another instance where I was required to go through a room – I can’t quite remember what for, but it would have been completely unremarkable were it not for the sound of incomprehensible whispering, growing louder and louder in intensity.  This happens at several locations in the game, and even something as innocuous as whispers in the dark can be extremely effective.

This caused Tokaj’s Fear Lock to set in, blurring vision and making ensuing battles rather difficult and all the more frightening.  Fear Lock It adds an authentic edge to his character – going from someone who is cool and collected, to someone whose losing their mind.  There were instances where ‘I’ jumped or was weirded out, but Tokaj didn’t flinch.  Corpses flung about, weird mutations happening to people he once knew – what a heartless bastard!  Fear Lock (a result of seeing too many traumatic or frightening events) unfortunately is something I wished I would have seen a little more of, because it’s a great tool for creating tension.

No wonder everybody wants to gouge his eyes out.

So I’m faced with a bit of a dilemma now.  There might be a bit of an issue with my final score, which is why I’m explaining this here.  I know that I can’t grade Afterfall on the same scale as I would grade a game coming from a heavy-hitter like Capcom or Konami, with millions more in capital.  It’s hard not to as well, considering that – as a gamer, you’ve only got so many dollars and time to spend with a game and you want the best bang for your buck.  On that same token, I can’t inflate the score to more because it’s not from a heavy-hitter like Capcom or Konami.

Seeing as how the Pre-Order for a $1 didn’t pan over well with its prospective audience, $35 isn’t a bad for the kind of experience that Afterfall: Insanity gives you.  It was enjoyable with a nicely sized campaign, but little replay value.  It was extremely atmospheric, and kept me on the edge of my seat for the duration.  The character interaction speech-wise, and their motivation seemed authentic, and despite a couple of shortcomings, the whole thing was wrapped up in a beautiful-looking package.

7.5/10

Review – Afterfall: Insanity is a post from: Rely on Horror

Janus

I love to be scared - the anxiety, the adrenaline. Whether its being enveloped by a good book, teetering on the edge of my seat in the theatre or plunging head-first into the world of survival horror, I want to be there.

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Welcome to Corpse Party, where all your decisions will decide your bloody fate. The game originally came to existence on 1996 when a team of independent Japanese developers decided to play with the RPG Maker suite and created a 16-bit horror game. Thanks to XSEED games, finally after several years, the game gets an overhaul on the PSP with enhanced graphics and redesigns that enhances the game overall.

The game opens with a group of friends late at night in their school. After an exhausting day of school festival, they decided to tell ghost stories and to commemorate the last day of one of the girls in their class. Later that night their teacher joins them (and was actually part of the little prank played on one of the characters) and the group decides to create a charm to remember that night forever. After performing the ritual, an earthquake strikes and separates the group. They soon wake up wandering in a dilapidated elementary school, Heavenly Host Elementary School, a school that once existed in the same ground where their school is. They realized that the school is somehow alive and their nightmare begins.

The games is basically a visual novel game mixed with some RPG elements. You will usually control a single character or a small group and search the school for clues. As you continue on your search, there are some hazards (and stalkers!) to avoid and decisions to be made. A huge chunk of the game play is definitely spent on exploration but this is not necessarily a bad thing, this is survival horror after all. A lonesome walk in the school corridors can be extremely disturbing with all the ambient 3D sounds, Heavenly Host definitely knows how to put you in edge. Speaking of which the soundtrack of the game is amazing. The game retains the Japanese voice acting and you pretty much read into subtitles during dialogues.

As you play more deeper into the game you might notice that the characters you control are trapped in the same building but can’t seem to meet each other. They are stuck in what the game calls as “close spaces” and things the you do can or will affect the close space of another character. This is very interesting and creates more tension as you wonder if your actions will actually lead to the demise of your other friends. As you explore you will also come across with lots of corpses lying around with a file to read about them (you will sometimes meet them as a spirit too or even a living version of them!) and it is very interesting reading through them, kind of reminds me of the “itchy tasty” diary from Resident Evil. This ever-changing world of Heavenly Host makes exploration very fun but sometimes it gets tedious when you die and did not save.

It’s worth noting that if you get a “wrong” ending, then you will start over. This is VERY annoying as you cannot ever skip any of the dialogues or scenes when you play through a chapter all over again. It is very frustrating to play a whole half an hour and then one wrong decision will cost you to repeat all over again, this is one of my complaints playing the game. I warn you, you will definitely die a lot of times in this game.

The main strength of the game is its very detailed storytelling and dialogues. As you read through a file or stumble on a dead body, the sub text offers a very detailed explanation of what you see matching with some 3D sound effects and everything feels so eerie. Reading through this puts me on edge and sometimes even produces hair raising effects. The anime visual art style fits the game naturally too. This is what I truly enjoy while playing the game, as long as you commit to this game, it will definitely deliver the goods and will keep you engage. You know that a story is good when you start to feel for the characters and I really did, I was heavily invested in these group of friends and I felt their frustration and fear as a play through the game.

Overall the game offers 5 chapters and depending how well you do, you might finish the whole story within 10 hours or more. Additionally, there are a lot of “wrong endings” to be completed as well as 20 extra chapters to supplement the missing parts of the story.

In the end, Corpse Party is a very unique experience and truly delivers, however it demands your engagement and patience. For 20$ this game is definitely one of the Play station Network’s gem (yes, unfortunately, it’s only available via PSN) and I would say one of the best experiences I’ve had on the PSP. This is not a game for everybody but I definitely recommend this to horror fans. Corpse Party is definitely a horror gathering worth attending and is truly the best way to bid farewell to the Playstation Portable.

8.5/10

Corpse Party – PSP Review is a post from: Rely on Horror

Angel C.

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This FX original series is just getting off the ground, what with eight episodes under its belt and it keeps getting more interesting and seems to draw in more viewers with every new episode.  With its star-studded cast of Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton, Jessica Lange and a growing group of others that add to the story, i.e. Zachary Quinto and Christine Estabrook, etc., “American Horror Story” (AHS from now on) has a lot going for it.  It is simply a breath of fresh air when compared to the extremely oversaturated “horror” that American films have been doling out at regular intervals (I’m looking at you, “Paranormal Activity”). 

Following the Harmon family, (McDermott and Britton’s characters) “AHS” takes us to Los Angeles as they move from Boston to start fresh after a string of bad family issues (no spoilers here) that threatened to tear them apart.  While that concept may be a tad cliché of horror, “AHS” is full of surprises, so it was smart of them to get any formulaic plot-points out of the way right out of the gate.  With every passing episode, more of the story is unraveled and sense is to be had, but with those realizations come more questions and mystery.  New characters are introduced almost systematically, deepening the already dark and twisted plot, and demanding the audience’s attention.  

One of the great things about this is that it proves that a story can be frightful and enjoyable without gallons of blood.  Where it’s lacking in gore, however, it more than makes up for in sex, suggestive themes and not-so-suggestive themes (I’m talking things I didn’t think you could get away with on TV).  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not tasteless smut, it is all story-driven and plays a big role with the characters’ back-stories. 

There is so much to love, (including an elusive “Rubber Man” who reminds me a little of Pyramid head in terms of mystery).   I highly recommend this show to anyone in the mood for a refreshing, sans cookie-cutter horror story.  Be sure to catch it every Wednesday on FX at 10:00/9:00 central.  I will be writing individual episode guides to catch anyone up!  Keep checking back!

Score so far: 10/10

American Horror Story: A Review So Far is a post from: Rely on Horror

Mike Angileri

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Less than a year ago, Capcom released Marvel vs. Capcom 3 to the masses. It was met with much success and thus has led to this year’s update of said fighter. Everything you know and love about last year’s game is still here, albeit tweaked here and there, with a slew of new additions, of course. Some of the characters have been given updates in order to make them up to par with other, more stronger selections, to make things a little more balanced (Captain America is a beast!). While small updates like being able to mash buttons while performing some hyper combos and being able to perform X-Factor while airborne (a last resort move that now lasts a shorter amount of time) also breathe some new life to the already-established formula, though it may go unnoticed by casual players. The biggest additions are, of course, the new characters, of which there are a dozen added to the game’s already beefy cast (which is still a tad shorter than its predecessor).

Since I am diving into this review with my Resident Evil goggles on, the one new addition to the game’s roster of beloved Capcom and Marvel characters I’m going to be focusing on the most is none other than Nemmy himself. Nemesis looks like he’s lost some weight with his fighting game debut. I mean, it wouldn’t be absurd to suspect that he has been hitting the gym post-Resident Evil 3. Hell, the man may be a bit slimmer than before, but he towers over any other entry in the game’s roster, except Galactus, of course (yes, he’s playable in his own dedicated mode now). And as you might imagine, Nemmy is quite slow. But like any slow-moving tank coming at you, fear and panic will definitely be flowing through your veins. So, he may be slow, but he still has one hell of a move-set at his disposal for hardcore Resident Evil fans to master.

First let me openly state that I’m nowhere near the skill levels presented by even the most green tournament players out there. Far from it. I don’t completely suck though (OK, maybe I do…). But hey, I had a blast taking Nemesis out for a spin and he complemented my mainstay duo of Chris and Wesker quite nicely. So, yeah, I’m quite grateful for the game’s Mission Mode. Said mode gives players a chance to truly learn some useful combos with their favorite characters. Yeah, you still have your standard Training Mode in which you can customize certain attributes to your liking, but Mission Mode is where it’s at if you’re really serious about learning how to chain together various moves to be even more effective when engaging in online play. So, I did just that for Nemesis.

As aforementioned, Nemmy is quite slow, so double-tapping the left or right directional button is definitely something you’ll find yourself doing a lot to get up close and personal with your opponent. But don’t fret, Nemmy also has a solid repertoire of long-range attacks, with some even varying by angle. As expected, you’re able to utilize Nemmy’s iconic rocket launcher, with one of his moves involving a clothesline maneuver followed by a rocket shot. You can also opt to simply stand idle and unload rockets at your opponent, but even for a minimally skilled player like me, that’s not very fun and I would rather get in close to try my best to pull off some decent combos.

Other attacks Nemmy could perform involve the tentacles that burst out of his hands and body. Whip-like in nature, one move has you grabbing hold of your opponent, followed by a slam to the ground. This can also be pulled off when an opponent is jumping at you at an angle. There’s also some other neat special moves Nemmy has, but I’ll leave those to your own discovery. What I do want to make note of are Nemmy’s hyper combos.

You’ve probably already seen Nemmy’s final hyper combo, where he mutates into his final, tentacled, blob-like form from Resident Evil 3. It’s a gruesome and downright awesome transformation, resulting in one of my favorite hyper combos in the game. Oh, just make sure you’re close to your opponent when you’re performing it, if not then…well, you just wasted a hyper combo…Another of Nemmy’s hyper combos has him unleashing rockets at his opponent, concluding with a fierce body slam. In the end, Nemmy is quite a solid addition to the game’s roster of well-known characters. And really, it’s about time we get to play as a BOW in Capcom’s all-star fighting game series. William DLC anyone?

After familiarizing myself with Nemmy and his distinct moves via Training Mode and Mission Mode, I took it to the game’s other traditional single player offering: Arcade Mode. Of course, I had an all-STAR team comprised of Nemmy, Chris and Wesker (who would sometimes be replaced by Jill). Hell, if you’re feeling creative then you could even have a true “Raccoon” City team by swapping out someone with another one of the Ultimate version’s new characters, Rocket Raccoon. I won’t spoil any endings, but Nemmy’s is quite cool, and we even get to see one of the classic villains in the series rear his crusty head once more. Oh, and it’s extremely satisfying to save the Earth by using Nemmy to deliver the final blows to Galactus.

Of course, the majority of players’ time with the game will be spent with the robust online mode that has also received some enhancements and additions. The most notable, and demanded, one being the Spectator Mode, in which you’re no longer made to stare at diminishing health bars while you wait for your turn to fight. This Ultimate version also brings forth enhancements to the online mode’s matchmaking, as it’s now easier to find matches without having to resort to the single players Fight Request option exclusively to find a quick bout (though this still proves to be the fastest way to connect with other players online, at least for me). You can also opt to challenge a buddy in local multiplayer as well, which always proves to be a good ol’ time, especially now with the new maps (with one new Resident Evil one) and characters this Ultimate version introduces.

As of the time of this writing I’ve yet to try out the game’s upcoming Heroes and Heralds Mode, because…well…it’s not out yet. Said mode will be a DLC add-on that should be heading our way soon. So, what’s so significant about this particular mode? Well, it’s basically comprised of a multitude of cards, each representing a certain character and each housing its own set of special attributes. Two of these cards happen to be HUNK and Leon. But wait! Don’t get too excited just yet. I did say they were cards, and they’re just that. You’ll be able to use the HUNK and Leon card and tag one of them to your desired fighter to see the enhancements it bestows upon you. So, yeah, no playable Leon or HUNK (yet).

 Final Opinion

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a worthy upgrade to last year’s all-star fighting game, pitting the best of Capcom’s family of titles against Marvel’s heroes and villains. For $39.99 you get 12 new characters, a good selection of new stages, a much demanded addition to the online package with spectator mode, and an overall enhancement to some of the mechanics of the base game (though, as aforementioned, this may only be noticed by the hardcore fan-base). It’s definitely worth it.

Yeah, I prefer Street Fighter IV’s overall mechanics over Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s, but that doesn’t make the experience any less fun than it is. Street Fighter’s not as rapid and a bit more strategic, whereas Marvel vs. Capcom provides a wholly satisfying and over-the-top experience in and of itself, that still manages to be ultra-tournamet-friendly. Thus, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is the definitive version of the game you’ve probably already spent dozens, if not hundreds, of hours playing, whether that be online or off. This is truly a game that should be in any fighting game fan’s collection. And, come on, what other fighting game can be known for housing a quartet of iconic Resident Evil characters (now including Nemesis)?

Yes, after many long years, Nemesis finally gets the girl…if you decide to team him up with Jill that is.

8.5 out of 10

reHorror: Nemesis finally gets his S.T.A.R.S. is a post from: Rely on Horror

Jorge Bocanegra

The Big Cheese.

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First thing’s first though.  It was pretty evident when we got into the game that this outing to Isla Nubar is not a horror venture.  Seeing as how this is Rely on Horror and not Rely on Barbie-dolls, we kind of wish it were (a horror game – we don’t like Barbies…anymore).  However we’re not exactly ready to penalize the game because it was catered to a different audience.  That audience likes Telltale games – point and click puzzle adventures.  Like a nice, fully loaded chili dog.  As a hot dog, it’s pretty good, but if you look at it as a Thanksgiving feast, then you’re just not going to be left very satisfied.  Jurassic Park is like the chili dog, and a lot of people’s expectations were for the full-course Thanksgiving feast.

So how did we like our chili dog?

Visuals are about what you’d expect from a Telltale game and better than we expected.  While they weren’t mind-blowing, they look nice.  The game (on PC) supports a wide variety of resolutions (although getting there was a pain, having to go through each resolution).  The video wasn’t the smoothest, however – we got caught in a couple of hiccups and snarls during our playthrough on a fairly decent rig.  While the sound and audio are pretty good, there were some problems we definitely had with the characters’ lips not syncing with the audio.  It’s almost as if they’re not even supposed to.  This is unacceptable, especially since when characters talk, most of the time you’re looking at their faces.  It breaks the immersion that Telltale tries so hard to set up.

You were saying something?  No?  Just as well – your mouth wasn’t moving…

It’s important to note that Jurassic Park isn’t exactly gory.  Telltale keeps it well within the teen rating that the game’s been given, due in part to Universal Studios keeping a tight leash on the game to ‘keep it in line with the spirit of the original movies.’  The game definitely is not the Dino Crisis remake we’ve all been hoping for, but that’s not to say that the game has been treated with kid-friendly gloves.  There are some pretty nasty moments with dismembered limbs and dead bodies, but don’t expect to be soaked in blood.  As a matter of fact, there’s a distinct ‘lack’ of blood to be found here, save for a few places making this more appropriate for a younger audience.

Jurassic Park the Game (JPTG from here-on in) is a different story.  There are undoubtedly familiar set-pieces and we found ourselves giggling with geeky glee when we heard some familiar phrases and names, but it’s different – and that’s a good thing.  Set semi-concurrent/shortly after the events of the first movie, we see Dr. Grant et all’s triumphant escape from Isla Nubar early in the game.  JPTG’s perspective switches from Dr. Harding and his daughter Jess, a group of mercenaries, a doctor and an unknown individual in their escape from the island.  Each of the characters have their own motivations for being on the island – most of which are elusive, and oftentimes they change.  Is it hard to follow along?  Not really, so long as you pay attention.  Their stories and motivations are interesting enough and the writers have done a nice job of wrapping up some of the loose ends of the canon material.  In the end, we wanted to see them get out alive.

One of the bigger overlying stories is between Dr. Gerry Harding and his daughter Jess.  Gerry plays the typical divorced dad, devoted to his job and rarely seeing his daughter while Jess plays the stereotypical rebel child.  She smokes, she’s quite the little thief, she fails chemistry and she spouts out a couple of anachronistic catch-phrases.  The two of them follow almost a predictable plot course:  he protects her, then becomes overprotective, she becomes angry with his ‘sudden’ fatherly-like actions.  At one point the annoying sound of her voice begs for her to be gulped down by a T-Rex.

So close…

Say what you will about the stereotypical nature of it, but the character interaction between the key players, especially Jess and Gerry seems authentic.  They argue and bicker and then joke around like everyday people would.  One particularly wrenching scene occurred when we flubbed a QTE fighting some raptors.  In the chaos, Gerry grabbed hold of Jess to protect her.  While we couldn’t see the messy result, but we could see Jess close her eyes and wrap her arms around her father as the both of them were torn apart by raptors.  Not sure why that scene stuck with us, but it certainly did.  Jurassic Park has something against kids – they’re forever traumatized by their experience there.

Ultimately the game play is what’s going to be the major deciding factor here.  While millions of fans may attest that a few QTEs never killed anybody (but missed ones do, mind you) whether or not you want to play this game will ultimately depend on how you feel about that.  WSAD, arrow keys, tracking mouse movements onscreen are all used (PC version here, mind you).  If you were expecting running and gunning dinosaurs, then prepare to be disappointed.  Even when controlling the mercenaries, guns weren’t used in the traditional sense.

The pain-in-the ass about quick-time events is that they seem so easy. Put on the spot though, the potential screweditupitis skyrockets.  So much so that we actually found Jurassic Park punishing in some areas.  With all of the reviews stating how easy it was, it’s no easy feat to admit that – and no, we don’t suck.  How well you perform these QTEs is graded and you’re awarded a medal at the end of each section.  Screw up enough times and you get NOTHING!  We found ourselves wanting to go back just to achieve a higher score.

“If I don’t get a gold medal, what’s the point of even running?”

The game isn’t just QTEs – there are puzzles to be solved to advance, one of the earlier puzzles involving moving a baby triceratops out of the road, which was easier said than done.  We felt pretty damn proud of ourselves when we solved them, proudly looking over at our diplomas and knowing we did our teachers proud.  Of course our moment of glory with the baby trike was rather fleeting when the mother found out,  turning the easy-going head-scratcher into a frenzy of mashed buttons and squished bodies.   We’re pretty glad graduation was not like this.

It’s times like this where the game gets its scare-moments.  Going through a relatively simple puzzle, or just watching a cut-scene and you know something is going to happen, but that’s where the horror ends.  We wouldn’t even call it horror: more like anxiety.  Telltale unintentionally turned the anxiety up to 11 when the cursor glitched and failed to show onscreen for several puzzles or mouse-pull QTEs, resulting in a reloaded save and a cruddy end-level result.  This happened more than once, and it was a piss-off every time.  It needs to be fixed.

When you look at Jurassic Park for what it is, it’s a pretty decent game.  We wish it leaned a little further towards the horror-genre, but as we said previously, we’re not going to trash it because of that.  It’s a good addition to the numerous Jurassic Park games and eats up a few hours to play through.  Medals on PC and Achievements/Trophies (for console versions) offer some replayability too.  At $30 for the standard version, it’s a good choice for a younger gamer on a budget, or someone who’s really not knee-deep into the blood and guts kind of games yet.  We wish we could have had access to the limited edition version for some extra material goodies, which is available through the website.

It’s too bad Telltale artificially bolstered the scores on Metacritic, because we feel that this game would have done pretty well on its own.  Now it seems like many won’t even give it a chance, and that’s a shame.

7/10

Review: Jurassic Park is a post from: Rely on Horror

Janus

I love to be scared - the anxiety, the adrenaline. Whether its being enveloped by a good book, teetering on the edge of my seat in the theatre or plunging head-first into the world of survival horror, I want to be there.

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“But wait!” you proclaim, “Isn’t this just the same game released on the Wii a couple of years ago?  Slathered up with some new paint and put in a new box?  Sounds like a rip-off to me.”  It would definitely appear that way at first blush, but there’s plenty that Overkill-Extended Cut offers to 1-up the Wii version.

Overkill – Extended Cut contains new and exclusive levels, game modes – including a Director’s Cut version, new weapons to decimate the undead with, Trophies and other unlockables that add intense amounts of replay value, an online leaderboard, plus the ability to play the whole thing in 3D.  Not to mention the fact that the game has been upscaled and runs a lot smoother than the Wii version did.

One of the big bonuses of Overkill: Extended Cut is the 3D support.  Since we don’t exactly have access to a fancy 3D TV for stereoscopic 3D, we had to settle for the anaglyphic 3D (if any of you out there do have a 3DTV, let us know how it is in the comments section).  While it does add a new ‘dimension’ to the game, it takes a while to get used to and I personally preferred the 3D off.  It might be because of corrective lenses, but others have claimed that it’s just dandy and prefer the 3D on all the time.  Depending on how you view 3D, you could fall into either category and it’s definitely a nice inclusion.

Your playable characters

Story-wise, this is your typical House of the Dead game.  You (and preferably a partner in local co-op) shoot some zombies, collect some unlockables, save some civilians, shoot some more zombies.  This story specifically follows Agent G and Detective Isaac Washington as they track down Papa Caesar and Clement Darling.  Extended Cut also features a whole new side story that features two vengeful strippers on a path of destruction as well.  It’s not outright porn, and the extra content features the same kind of comedic banter, appalling language and disgusting monstrosities that make the original campaign so great.  It’s a welcome addition and it definitely fits the grind-house style feel of the game.

Pussycat.  It says “Pink Pussycat.”

The game isn’t overtly difficult on normal, but at the same time, punishes you severely for dying.  While continues are unlimited in normal play, each time you die costs you about half of your points total.  We certainly wish it wasn’t so punishing, especially on the higher difficulties.  The most frustrating event being dying two-shots before the end of the level (seriously, it happened.  TWO SHOTS AWAY!)  The included Director’s Cut has limited continues and tougher baddies, and Hardcore Mode is headshot-only mode.  The difficulty ‘is’ there, for those who want it.

Of course there are some things that we’d wished would have been polished out before releasing.  The game controls similarly to the Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii – complete with shake to reload, but sometimes you really have to jerk on the controller to actually get a response (….).  Call us vain as well, but some of the aesthetics definitely have the tell-tale signs of being a Wii port, despite the best efforts to mask it.  Additionally there are enemies or artifacts on screen that are supposed to be there, but then disappear.  And although online is utilized for the leaderboards, we can’t help but feel that there was a lot more that could have been done with it.  Overall these are some downers, but they don’t ruin the experience.

So…the issue of swearing.  When you’re an adult, abrasive language suddenly loses a lot of its shock appeal, simply because you’re an adult, you can talk however the hell you like.  Overkill’s extensive lexicon of foul language was supposed to be over-the-top, and it certainly is.  However, an attempt at being gritty and hardcore is simply obnoxious.  Initially I personally found it pretty damn funny, but as the game pressed on, I found it slowly start to chip away at my sanity, until I was saddened that one of the minigames was in fact, not to shove a bar of soap as far down Washington’s throat as I possibly could.

“SHUT UP!  JUST SHUT THE F*CK UP!”

Don’t have a Playstation Move?  Overkill – Extended Cut can also be played with the Dual Shock as well.  But in all honestly why would you?  It’s like playing Rock Band with the standard controllers –it can be done, but where’s the fun in it?

House of the Dead: Overkill – Extended Cut is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously.  The voice-acting, gore, sexual themes, violence and heavy language are so over-the-top that it’s hard to take a game like this seriously, which is exactly the intended experience.  Like how Saints Row compares to Grand Theft Auto – sometimes the over-the-top style of the game is better than a gritty-realistic type. If you’re looking for the latter, then Overkill – Extended Cut just isn’t for you.

For those looking for the former, grab yourself a Move controller and get ready for the best House of the Dead experience you can get without a handful of quarters.

7/10

Review: House of the Dead: Overkill – Extended Cut is a post from: Rely on Horror

Janus

I love to be scared - the anxiety, the adrenaline. Whether its being enveloped by a good book, teetering on the edge of my seat in the theatre or plunging head-first into the world of survival horror, I want to be there.

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