Xbox: Raze's Hell

March 21, 2005 - In a different approach to diversifying and deepening its future lineup, Majesco is well under way with a quirky and darkly comic third-person action game, Raze's Hell. In development by Artech Studios, a team mostly known for Jeopardy!, Trivial Pursuit Unhinged, and Wheel of Fortune, Raze's Hell is an original science fantasy game. The star here is Raze, a gothic looking gargoyle of sorts, whose world has been diminished by a horde of sweet, cute Kewletts. Given an arsenal of moves and the motive of returning order back to his previously happily bleak world, Raze sets out to wipe clean the Kewletts, their twisted princess, and their strange, deadly empire.

Raze's Hell is a single-player, third-person action game set in 20 mission-based landscapes of strange alien nature. Your missions are varied. You'll have to go out in full attack of the Kewletts, picking up energy orbs along the way to power a set of projectiles -- you start with a plasma-like machine gun and a powerful sniper shot. And you'll then get into search and destroy missions, destroy-the-hell-out-of- everything-you-see missions, escort, rescue, defend, create diversion, and ambush convoy missions, among others. The first few levels show Raze infiltrating enemy bases and wiping out weird, Playskool-esque generators.

The gameplay is simple stuff, but strangely likeable. Raze's Hell looks a little like the PS2 adventure game Primal, with a little Shadow Man thrown in. It plays a little like a lot of action games, with basic attack all enemy levels and a few switch-hitting puzzles to break up the shooting and dodging. But once you learn to switch weapons, reserve ammo, and use it intelligently, you take that first step. Then when you learn Raze has a deadly bowling ball effect, in which he rams over and crushes into jiblets the awful Kewletts, the nature of the action all of a sudden becomes far more dynamic.

Throughout the 20 levels, you'll collect 10 organic weapons, but your bowling ball attack and your simple but powerful fist attack is just as satisfying. Though not stated directly, Artech's goal here is to provide pure delight to gamers who love to smash warm, cuddly fuzzy furry things. Smashing these guys into purple jibs is quite the satisfying delight. One of the better strategies I learned was to fire away at an enemy until they become woozy, then run up to them and crush them into gut splattering goodness.

There are more than 20 enemies, some with lasers, others with cannons, and some wielding bunny rocket launchers. The enemies will seek cover, strafe, jump-strafe, and gang up on you. Not bad, actually. But again, the game's emphasis is to please you with darkly squishy deaths. When you use the inflator weapon to blow your enemy into a balloon and then pop him…ahhh, pure delight.

Artech promises several online features to boot. You can play though the entire game offline in two-player co-op mode. Artech is currently promising to deliver "insane online deathmatches," a slew of mini-games, and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Just what the doctor ordered.

Thus far, Raze's Hell is a mixture of been-there-done-that gameplay blended with a sick, dark humor that seems to weight heavily in its favor. I turned this thing on and sort of moped through a bunch of levels, but when I started getting creative with my kills -- splattering guts and bowling into enemies, etc. -- the game took on a different life. This is dark shining future for this sick little game.

That's it for now, but don't worry, we'll have more on Raze's Hell soon.

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