Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is a video game that spoofs other video games. It’s an interesting idea that’s been done a couple times before (the latest Simpson’s game comes to mind). Matt Hazard does the parody stuff pretty well; there are pot shots at games like Duke Nukem, Mario, Mass Effect, MMOs, JRPGs, and tons more stuff. There’s jokes hidden all over, you have to be very well versed in games to pick up on all of it. The majority of jokes are done well; they don’t make fun of “a lot” of technical things, which is good because it prevents it from being too hypocritical which other parody games are.
So you play Matt Hazard, he’s obviously Duke Nukem. After a successful video game career he sells out and all of his games start to bomb. After years as a joke, he’s finally allowed another chance by staring in a new high profile game. The problem is that the designers planned to kill him off, and he isn’t having that. With the help of a member of the QA team, Matt Hazard fights for his life. All the while, the developers are hacking in as many nasty things as they can to take you out.
The gameplay itself is mediocre, the controls are passable, but the levels are just boring and uninspired. Most of the time you’re just pushing through the levels to see the next cutscene.
The game plays like a typical 3rd person shooter. There’s a cover system that works decent. You can easily get pushed out of cover, and your enemies can blow it away. How long it takes to destroy it can be pretty inconsistent. It’s rare that an enemy hits it enough to make it disappear, but there have been times where it’s going after just one shot. One really neat aspect of the cover system is how you move from one piece of cover to another. When in cover, when you point to another piece of cover, pressing action will have Matt up and take cover behind that piece (no matter how far away it is). Getting shot on the way can spot him though.
There are lots of weapons to choose from, you can only hold 2 at a time, but you can pick up any enemy’s weapon, so there’s always something around. If you don’t have ammo there’s always your fists. The game has a melee system like Uncharted. It’s easy to take out a couple guys with your fists and take their weapons. Aside from the typical third person shooter gameplay, there are also QTE style battles.
The idea that enemies are always being hacked into the levels is interesting, but because a very annoying part of the gameplay. Enemies are constantly appearing behind you, and surrounding you. When you clear out a room, suddenly it’s filled with enemies again and you’re in the worst possible position.
All in all, Eat Lead is a game that I would never recommend, it’s mediocre and it’s just not fun… but the script is great. Will Arnet is the voice of Matt and he does an amazing job. Neil Patrick Harris also plays the villain, which is awesome. It’s a hilarious game, and it’s worth a play through just for some laughs. I recommend renting it and checking it out just for that. It’s not a long play through, only about 6-7 hours, and there’s no bonus modes, just harder difficulties.
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