"The worst Valve game yet."

I purchased the Half-Life Platinum pack and while playing all the games included in it I stumbled upon this one. I must say this game was the worst of the lot. Ricochet isn’t at all like the other games included in this awesome package. Basically you fight one person with one weapon and slowly rejuvenate ammo for it. The object is to bounce the Frisbee-like disc off the wall and hit your opponent, or knock him off his platform and make him fall to his doom.

Gameplay 4/10
This game plays exactly like all the other games in this package, same buttons and everything. However the levels are really strange and involve you to hop around on platforms, by stepping on little arrow. If you miss however, you plummet to you doom. It’s too complicated at first and too brain-dead once you master it. You can’t jump or duck in this game and it’s EXTREMELY hard to hit your opponent. They hop around like a bunny-rabbit and it takes several hits to knock kill them. Bouncing discs off walls creates an even more difficult time, because they are more likely to hit you than the enemy.

Graphics 6/10
The graphics are not at all like any of the other games. This game has lots of brightly colored platforms with dark backgrounds. It’s hard to see you enemies in this game to except when they move around a lot. The bright colors hurt my eyes and actually made me dizzy after roughly fifteen minutes of play. Which is the main reason I didn’t like this game.

Sound 6/10
Sound was ok for this game. There is now “Theme” or music that plays during the games. The actual sounds are mostly pings and blips. They mostly occur when “fire” or anything related, discs ricocheting, being hit, etc. Not to mention, the screams that the enemies gave when they died, where always slightly humorous and relieving after the match.

Replay Value 2/10
Once get the gist of this game (about 10 minutes time). You’ll probably come back to it only one or two more times, three at the very max. Sure it’s different than most shooting games. It’s entertaining for very short and uncommon intervals.

So, I would recommend that you not buy this game. However you definitely should buy the Half-Life Platinum Pack. If you do then once you’ve played and are sick of all the games, you may or may not want to check this game out.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/31/03