Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard

"Better than Matt's Games from the Late '90's..."

Better than Matt's Games from the Late '90's...
Vivox's Review of Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard

For me, Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard was a game I was definitely looking forward to. The unique concept, and the fake pictures of Matt's "classic" game escapades really put the game on my radar. Well, I was (pleasantly) shocked this Friday when I called my local game store and they had the game early (wasn't the release date the 5th or 6th of March just a few days ago?). Excited, I ran down there and grabbed the game to play over the weekend. So, did Matt Hazard live up to his "classic games", or is Eat Lead a let down like his late '90's games were?

Story: E.L. (I'll use this abbreviation for Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard for the remainder of my review) has a pretty unique premise. Matt Hazard (a videogame character inside a videogame who knows he's in a videogame... whew, that was a "mouthful") is a classic game character who fell out of the spotlight after over-exposing himself and allowing himself to make alot of awful games. Going from classic games in the 1980's to less than stellar (pretty much garbage) games such as HazMat Carts in the late '90's. Flashforward a few years, and the company that used to make his games is looking to bring Matt back from the brink of obscurity in a brand new game. Matt is betrayed however, and soon finds out someone is looking to kill him and replace him with a new videogame action hero (that's as much of the story that I will reveal so as not to spoil anything, all this is revealed in level one). The story is fresh and funny as hell (I found myself laughing at pretty much every cutscene). There is a ton of inside jokes and nudges making fun of old and modern games, and the story actually managed to keep my attention thoughout. The Story gets a 10 out of 10.

Gameplay Part 1: E.L. is a third-person shooter that doesn't try to do anything new or spectacular, but what it does do it does admirably. The shooting and covering system work great, and you'll never become bored with it. But you, however, become annoyed. In some areas, it seems like you'll face an never ending horde of enemies, and if you die towards the end of a long skirmish, you'll have to start the whole thing over. And when enemies destroy your cover and kill you, you'll find yourself swearing out loud. But the payoff for completing some of these areas is a sense of exhilaration and even accomplishment. So, basically, you shoot some bad guys, go to the next area, and shoot some more bad guys. But it never gets old. In one part of a level you'll be facing Russian soldiers just to have the game throw a curve at you and within seconds you'll be blasting zombies or cowboys or space marines. It's frickin' crazy, but in a good way.

Gameplay Part 2: Scattered around the levels (infrequently) are special (temporary) shield pickups (Master Shield, Matt becomes invincible for 30 seconds) and power pickups (Maximum Hazard, Matt's attacks become twice as powerful for 30 seconds) that will help sway battles in your favor. Matt will also (eventually) collect "code data" from fallen enemies that will fill a meter at the top of the screen that will allow Matt to shoot ice or fire bullets. Ice bullets (the more useful of the two) will freeze enemies until they shatter and are useful against the tougher enemies (such as space marines). The fire bullets will ignite enemies and hurt them over time. The boss battles in E.L. are handled as QTE's (quick time events) where you'll need to match the button prompts on screen. Their pretty easy and over too quickly, but they don't hurt the game at all. And it is pretty satisfying to smash some guys head into a railing after you've spent the last half hour working your way to him (fighting in the dark while he's trying to snipe you the whole time, with a one hit kill that makes you start over at the beginning of the section... this part was infuriating). One boss fight in particular stands out because it's done in the style of a J-RPG (Japanese Role-Playing-Game) boss battle. This scene is hilarious and fun at the same time. Ever wonder how a RPG protagonist would fare against a guy with a gun? It's one of my favorite parts in a game so far this year. So overall, the gameplay isn't groundbreaking, but it is fun (if somewhat annoying at times). The Gameplay gets a 8 out of 10.

Graphics: The games lowest point. The graphics are nothing special, but they get the job done. You'll notice a lot of jagged edges and other minor graphical problems. The game has some well designed enemies and environments (some of the levels are in flux and warp in front of you eyes, which is pretty cool). One small section of a level even resembles the classic Wolfenstein 3D (this part should have been expanded upon in my opinion, it was cool running through Wolfenstein 3D style-graphics in a modern game). Also, the game has some cool looking effects such as snow falling inside of a casino. For me personally, I could care less about graphics. In every other department E.L. does fairly well, and makes up for the games graphics. Not like I was expecting Killzone calibre visuals from this. The Graphics get a 7 out of 10.

Music/Sound: Now this game is third-person-shooter. So that means it probably has some mediocre music, right? Wrongo. The game actually has surprisingly good music. Its phenomenal at times even, which is somewhat shocking. Maybe it's just me, but I found the music to be just awesome. What about the voice acting? you ask. Again, phenomenal. All the voice actors do a great job and just make you laugh. Throughout the game, Matt will deliver lame action-hero style lines right out of the '80's that will just make you laugh their so stupid. But that's the point. To make you laugh. And this game will do that alot. The sound effects in the game do their job, as everything sounds like it should. Guns sound like guns. Not much else I can say here. The Music/Sound gets a 10 out of 10.

Replayability: Hmmm... The game falters in replayability. The game has Trophies, which will definitely have some people coming back for more (like me), but beyond that there is only one ending, no unlockables, or multiplayer (despite one of the Trophy's proclaiming multiplayer... it's essentially a joke Trophy). I'll definitely play the game again, but for other people, they will probably go through this game one time, maybe two, but that's it. But the single player does make up for this by being somewhat lengthy compared to alot of games I've played lately (probably around ten hours, maybe a little more my first time through). The Replayability gets a 7 out of 10.

Buy or Rent?: I'd personally say buy. It's only $50, yeah, still expensive, but I want this game to do well so I can get a sequel dammit. But if you want meatier gameplay and more features, just rent it (at least for the Trophies if you love 'em like I do). It's not as deep as say... Resistance 2 or Killzone 2 (first-person-shooters, I know, but E.L. is a shooter, and those two are the only two off the top of my head to compare E.L. to). But the single player is somewhat lengthy and awesome, so if you can overlook the lack of multiplayer or depth that a Resistance or Killzone has, buy this game.

Conclusion: E.L. is a fun, well put together game this is the funniest I've played since my beloved Conker's Bad Fur Day (for the N64) all those years ago. The game has some flaws, but overall its a surprisingly fine tuned, funny, exciting, awesome game. It'll probably get Killzoned because of its release date, but I hope it does good enough to warrant a sequel... as long as Matt Hazard doesn't do what he did in the late '90's and start making bad games... I shudder thinking of Matt's late '90's games...

"It's Hazard Time!"

EXTRA CON: I didn't want to put this in the review, so I'll put it here. It has no bearing on my final score, but I have to say: what the hell! The previews showed all these "classic" Matt Hazard games... and you never get to play them! I wasn't expecting to have all these full old school games made just for this game, but it was a tease showing us these classic games and then not including even a level of each. A small gripe however, as it doesn't detract from the overall game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/09, Updated 05/07/09

Game Release: Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard (US, 02/26/09)