Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage

"A mind-numbingly dumb hack n' slash gorefest ...and I *LOVE* it!"

Very few games sell me by concept alone, but the first time I saw previews for Sword of Berserk: Guts' Rage, I was instantly enchanted. You see, this is the kind of game that was made for me...

First off, if you're looking for another bland exploration / flip switching style game, you should stop reading right now. For this game, you can pretty much turn your brain off and leave the extra mental RAM for speeding up your reflexes. No sir, there are no puzzles here. No mazes either. This game is a beautiful massacre in it's finest form. Slash your way through enough grunts, and a door will open. There's really nothing to think about. You kill and move on.

But oh, how beautiful the whole thing is. Graphically, the game is bliss, especially considering this genre of game. Gatsu, our main protagonist, looks like a hybrid mix of Vampire Hunter D and Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. Nicknames ''Guts,'' he's the strong silent type. Missing and eye and having a nearly non-functional left arm, he's the toughest of hard-asses. Go bake a cake, Lara Croft, Gatsu will handle everything from now on. He's also very detailed, he could almost sell himself in Soul Calibur. He could definately pass as a Virtua Fighter 3 character.

The sounds are equally as impressive. From the atmospheric crunch of gravel under Gatsu's boots, to the top-level voice acting, Berserk is audio bliss. There's nothing more satisfying than hearing the juicy crunch that blesses your ears upon your sword's impact with an enemy. The louder the game, the more rewarding it is to split a foe in half and hear the fountain of crimson gore make it's brief presence.

Suprisingly, the game is pretty immersive as well. I instantly fell in love with most of the characters. Casca is beautiful, and you instantly feel a macho urge to protect her with your life. Even Puck the fairy is charming in his own way. The sometimes extremely long cutscenes really give you a feeling of what you're fighting for.

The real star of this game though, as it is so blatently and shamelessly advertised, is the violence. It's very rewarding when you run into a group of ten knights while in berserk mode. Visciously and mercilessly creating genocide is exactly your goal here. No thinking, little strategizing, just instinctual killing. The faster and louder you play this game, the more adrenaline you're rewarded with. It's pure bliss for an angry twitch gamer. The battles often get so hectic that you can barely see what's happening for the crowd of people and the sheer amount of crimson mist in the air... and man, I wouldn't want it any other way. This is easily the most non apologetically (is that a phrase? :-P) violent game since Loaded on the Playstation. Berserk is easily the most brutal thing on the Dreamcast, making the likes of Mortal Kombat Gold seem childishly tame by comparison. So yes, I fully admit to enjoying this game mostly because of the rewarding and over the top violence. After all, what's wrong with a little genocide?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/00, Updated 03/18/00