Raze's Hell review

Raze's Hell is a game which is going to appeal to anyone with a twisted sense of humour, anyone who has ever dreamed of killing a telletubbie. The story starts off with a typical fairy tale beginning, a princess speaks to the Kewletts who live in happiness within their kingdom, she tells them that they should spread their happiness throughout the land, and the Kewletts set off to do just that in a military style.

The whole concept of cute care bear lookalike creatures trying to spread happiness by committing genocide and taking over the world, is funny and very original. You play the role of Raze one of the hideous creatures the Kewletts plan to destroy, you return to your village to find it totally destroyed; you stumble through the forest until you find your way to a cave. You are given your special powers in the cave and you meet your companion, who vaguely resembles a flying piece of Weetabix.

The game plays like any other third person shooter, there are a few options for weapons which are reloaded by hitting different coloured bushes, each colour representing a different weapon. The melee gameplay is let down a little by the sluggish response times, you will often find while attacking a kewlett that they will move out the way and no matter how fast you move the control you will still end up sending you character in the wrong direction.

The game features a stealth mode were the player crouches and sneaks up slowly behind a Kewlett, A kewlett generally makes a funny comment when you sneak up behind it then you drive your hand through its back lift it up in the air and slam it back down again, afterwards you continuously hammer the creature into the floor as blood flies around the screen.

There are many innovations in the game, to gain health you don't pick up health packs you violently tear your enemies to pieces then you absorb what look to be their liver, intestines and other inside body parts. The game is very gruesome in a cartoon sort of way, when attacked Kewlett's blood flies everywhere and splatters against the screen, if you use the roll attack the enemy will automatically fly against the screen, which gives you a close up as the blood spurts out in every direction. There are a bunch of signposts in the game, which have jokes many based on famous war quotes changed ever so slightly so that they fit the game's story, these do add to the game as I often found myself stopping to read them.

The co-op is great fun, imagine inviting a bunch of your mates around to help in the slaughter of seemingly innocent telletubbie look-alikes. The online play is good but it is nothing out of the ordinary, it features king of the hill, death matches and all the other features we have come to expect in the average shooter.

The background music is dark and atmospheric, mixed with the continuous rattle of the rain and boom of the thunder it fits the theme of the game well. The Kewletts have a lot of one liners, usually once you have heard an NPC's one liners and wise cracks it is easy to get tired of them very quickly, this is different there is a large variety of them and most of them provide a quick laugh or two. The other voice acting is also pretty decent your flying companion sounds like Otto from star Wars. The bullet sound effects are also very crisp, although sometimes the noise of the blazing guns can completely block out the background music.

Even after the story and the multilayer have worn off there is still a bunch of highly addictive mini-games to play through, including mini-golf which comes close to being the most addictive mini-game ever, the player has to hit an over sized golf ball around an over sized golf course, and direct it into the over sized hole using an arsenal of weapons and melee attacks, while a Scottish voice tells you how terrible you are at golf.

Raze's Hell launched at the friendly retail price of £19.99, yet for its cheap price the game does not seem like a budget game it features a number of game modes which make it a valuable buy. Once you’ve finished the single player mode there are a bundle of other game modes for them to try, including mini-game, co-op and on-line play which are guaranteed to provide hours of extra enjoyment after the main game has been completed. The game itself is based on a funny concept and it keeps the player amused throughout, with one liners from the Kewletts and the joke signs placed on the battlefields.