RLH: Run Like Hell

"A satisfying survival-horror title"

Last year I praised Black Label’s “The Thing”, which in my opinion truly gave a much needed breath of fresh air to the decaying survival-horror genre. It was great because it was a game with ideas, not just recycled clichés. In many ways “Run Like Hell” is this years “The Thing”, but unfortunately it’s nowhere near the level of “The Thing.” Yet it is a satisfying survival-horror/action game from a small time developer.

You take the role of Nick Connors an ex-air force soldier whom now resides with his wife on a mining colony in the farthest reaches of space. After returning from a routine mining job, he finds the entire space station in disarray. The colony has been wiped out by a savage unknown alien race and to make matters worse the station is being turned into a nest for these extra terrestrials. Nick also discovers a transmission from his wife who is trapped somewhere inside. Joining forces with a small group of survivors Nick fights to stay alive and find his wife before it’s too late. Yeah, I know, it’s a pretty routine storyline. Certainly nothing that hasn’t been done before in gaming and in movies, luckily there are enough cut-scenes to keep things interesting.

The gameplay is your pretty standard action fare. Players run about in 3D environments with an array of weapons and blast the living hell out of anything that moves. Nick’s assortment of weapons varies from machine guns, shotguns, lasers and stunners. Each weapon can be combined with various clips and damage amplifiers to increase their usage against some of the later-on enemies. Whenever you encounter an enemy it’s pretty lifeless, you just hold down the lock-on button and pump their guts full of led. There’s no real strategy or skill involved in the combat, you just move back if an enemy starts closing in and begin shooting again.

Asides from the shooting portions it’s your basic search for the keycard or password to proceed on, fight a boss, move onto next area and repeat. You’ll also encounter various mini-games like QTE’s, and button mashing events, these aren’t anything special at all but are a nice break of pace at times. The puzzles you’ll run into are a mixed bag, some are just too obvious while others you really don’t even have a clue of where to start. Luckily “Run Like Hell” centers more on its action than anything else. It also manages to earn it’s name respectfully as well, you can’t help but get a jolt of adrenaline when you’re being chased by a 10 foot tall Brute down a hallway. There is a nice amount of tension as well being enemies pop out of just about anywhere in the levels so you do have an always on your feet mood while exploring.

The games soundtrack is pretty scarce, most of the levels are made up of humming machinery or just pure silence, when you encounter various enemies a hard rock soundtrack will kick in with songs by “Breaking Benjamin”, this is really stupid being they don’t fit at all with the mood of the game and just get annoying as hell. The voice acting is pretty impressive, Lance Henriksen is the obvious standout but he’s surrounded by rock solid voice acting with the supporting cast of characters.

So in the end I did enjoy “Run Like Hell”, it’s completely uninspired and doesn’t push any barriers of its genre. Yet it is just a very solid survival-horror title with plenty of action and atmosphere to boot. If you’ve been interested in “Run Like Hell” for awhile as I was, you may want to rent it first since opinions will be extremely varied, but for those who do get immersed in it will most likely find an enjoyable game inside.

Pros:
+ Great Atmosphere
+ Plenty of Action
+ Great Voice Acting
+ Creepy Monsters

Cons:
- Lame Puzzles
- Weak Graphics
- Horrible Rock Soundtrack
- Shallow Gameplay

Overall- 7.5

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/03