Raze's Hell

"Raising Hell Has Never Been This Fun! (Or Cheap)"

Majesco has been catching a lot of buzz lately, putting out Phantom Dust, one of the best games to grace the Xbox, and Psychonauts one of the best platformers any console has ever seen in a while. Surely they wouldn't want to risk their streak by putting out a poorly done 3D action shooter like Raze's Hell, as a budget title nonetheless. Fortunately for them, Raze's Hell continues their wonderful streak as a unique, quirky, comical 3rd person Action game that you can buy (at a steal!) for only 20 dollars. Well, lets get to the formalities...

Graphics 8/10: The game does not look at all like a budget title. The graphics are colorful and suit the game perfectly. The cutscenes are nicely rendered and are nothing like what you would expect to find in a game for 20 dollars, There is some slowdown however, in the parts of the game where there are 30 plus units on screen at one time. It can get rather severe, but usually dies down after a little while. The levels are also somewhat blurred, but not really anything that would bother you unless you absolutely concentrate on it for minutes. All in all, the graphics are excellent for a comical action game such as this.

Sound 7/10: Not too bad, nothing Lucasarts worthy. The voices are done well, the explosions sound like explosions. You know. The phrases the Kewlitts utter while dying or before death are golden and are even better than anything the grunts from Halo 1/2 say ever.

Story 9/10: This is where the game shines. Kewlitts, sickeningly cute creatures resembling Teletubbies have lived a perfect existance throughout their years. And in their massive generousity, they have decided to extend their perfectness throughout the universe, unfortunately for the uncute, this means massive extermination of anything not Kewlitt. As Raze, you are to send the Kewlitts to their oblivion by any means necessary.

Gameplay 8/10: Raze's Hell is one fantastic action game! There's nary a moment where you won't be shooting, slashing or blowing something up. Enemies attack you in huge numbers and the basic concept of the game is to get from Point A to Point B while killing everything in your way. The game grants you a lot of variety when it comes to the types of enemies and how to kill them, but it's basically the same formula throughout the game. There's no puzzle solving here, just death.

The action is reminiscent of Oddworld Stranger where you have several types of ammo that each have it's own advantages, and choosing the right ammo is essential for your situation. To be blunt, if you liked Oddworld Stranger's Wrath, you will love Raze's Hell. It's full of the same kind of action and humor as Stranger's Wrath, and it's just as fun. The biggest complaint is the difficulty of the game, it does send a lot of enemies at you at one time, but games these days are too easy anyways.

Multiplayer: It is a BLAST! Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, CTF, and SOCCER! It's all really fun and completely unexpected in a value title such as this.

Value 10/10: 20 bucks for this Gem.... C'mon!

Overall 9/10: Keep in mind that this overall score isn't based on the game as compared to others in the genre. This score is more of a, What you're getting, compared to what you paid, sort of thing. On the regular scale, it would get more like a 7 for it's faults. If you don't own this AND Phantom Dust you are severely missing out, two excellent games for less than the price of one. Go out and get them, NOW!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/03/05