Survival horror for the die-hards

By William Barker

Run Like Hell for the Xbox gets a new gun, new levels and downloadable content compared to the PS2 version

Ported from the PS2 version of the same name, Run Like Hell on the Xbox gets a number of updates - but one wonders whether that will be enough to satiate the appetite of Xbox gamers everywhere who are yearning for more top quality survival horror games.

Set in the future, you play a geezer by the name of Nicholas Conner, allegedly the love child of Sara Conner from the Terminator universe and a Dutch gigolo she met in Amsterdam while on a five-day cheese appreciation tour.

Anyway, this Nicholas chap heads out on an expedition in his space ship for a few hours, and when he arrives back at the space station docking bay it seems that everyone has disappeared and that someone - or something - has been decorating the place with human entrails.

Next thing you know, your sexy co-pilot gets her head chewed off by a furless Yeti, who proceeds to spit her severed head at the computer terminal you were working on. They just have no manners, those otherworldly beings...

So now it's your job is kick arse and of find out exactly where these aliens came from, and why they targeted your space station, and whilst I thought the story was wafer thin to begin with, in retrospect it's actually not that bad the further you progress.

The majority of the game is spent meandering around the empty space station, pushing buttons on computer consoles and wondering when the next alien is going to drop from the ceiling only to face your vengeful wrath.

It's not the most original game, playing much like your Resident Evils and Silent Hills, though the controls worked well enough for me and seeing that there's few buttons involved, confusion is not a state of mind you'll be encountering on a regular basis.

As well as the 'use' button, for opening doors and toggling switches, there's the shoot button and change target button, and though there are more buttons to use, for 90 per cent of the game it will be these buttons who will be your three closest friends.

Alien - "I am your father!" Connor - "Correction - were my father..."

There is a smattering of puzzle solving to be had, along with the expected combat and exploration, and most of these brain-teasers are well thought out and quite interesting.

There were only a few occasions where I had to break glass and smash furniture (mum's, of course) to channel my unbridled anger at the puzzles' lack of logic.

The combat is where most gamers will want to be spending their time, however, and it's not too shabby in my book.

Before we get into specifics, the mood that the game creates - thanks to clever use of ambient sound samples and an eerie orchestral soundtrack - really bump up the scare factor and make wading into combat a meaningful affair.

It's an incredibly violent game, but visually it is somewhat lacking, and this is where the thrilling atmosphere saves the day. One minute you may just be walking around, with the hum of the space station's oxygen recyclers your only company. The deathly quiet sets the scene marvellously and lulls you into a false sense of security...

Then - BAM - just when you're beginning to think that the aliens have gone to the intergalactic cantina for a round of Guinness and fisticuffs, the suspenseful music kicks in abruptly (in true Dolby Surround if ya got it) and you shit your pants as a result.

Geiger-esque aliens will drop from the ceiling and all of a sudden that 12-inch subwoofer you bought from JB is rhythmically pumping out fat chunks of bass in tandem with your machine gun, firing clip after clip of hot lead.

Unlimited ammo with some weapons makes progression a little less hazardous, and doling out the pain to what are fairly generic - but sizeable - aliens is great fun and reminded me of turn-based RPG games, even though it's played out in real time.

Movement is often quite slow because you can't run quickly while firing, and this makes the boss monster fights very difficult. But when you get used to auto-targeting your foes it's fairly easy to strafe out of the way of their attacks, or to quickly circle them and fire a few rounds up their plug 'oles.

The aliens in RLH are quite scary

It's when multiple enemies converge on you that things can get nasty, but the game's pacing is quite good in general and it never gets too hard or too boring, save for a few slow spots where combat plays second fiddle to exploration.

There's even a few areas where you'll be fighting alongside CPU controlled compatriots, adding a bit of verve to proceedings.

As well as unlimited ammo - which makes laughing maniacally while firing a must - and cool RPG-inspired weapon upgrades, the game makes use of 3D characters and levels, where a lot of traditional survival horror games are programmed with 2D rendered backgrounds.

This 3D level design allows the camera more freedom, but at the end of the day it's much of a muchness really.

Played from the third person perspective, the graphical quality is okay, but RLH's PS2 roots give it a few wrinkles and grey hairs here and there, and we know that the Xbox is capable of much better. The level design is above average for this sort of game, which is almost redeems the visuals, but not quite.

For mine, it's the weapons that are the central characters of the game, and they look the part too. There are 10 standard weapons all up, but you can also cobble together new weapons, thanks to the inventory menu's 'combine' option.

It allows you can take literally anything, even a med-pak, and try to combine it with a laser sight or 250 watt microwave oven. Usually it will amount to nothing, but sometimes you can get lucky and invent something cool, and hopefully violent.

Weapons can be upgraded RPG-style to fire in quicker burst modes and with more powerful rounds as well thanks to firearm mod chips. While the game isn't the best in the survival horror genre, weapons fans will dig it - and here's the line-up:

Oh, and to call this game violent would be an understatement, as there's blood and gore all over the shop. But before you fob this game off as a trashy ultra-violent Resident Evil clone, which it is for some of the time, it's actually got some really interesting ideas.

In addition to the combining of items and upgrading of weapons, like any survival horror game you have to survive to win, and thankfully there's an almost never-ending supply of unnerving bio-growth swallowing up the station, and aliens who want nothing more than to puke acidic filth all over you.

Watch out for the bio-growth, it smells like kat poo

Some of the time the aliens are too powerful for your weapons to do any damage - usually the bigger ones - so you'll only be able to run away from them, or lead them into a trap.

These 'escape' sequences reminded me of Dragon's Lair, Shenmue and their ilk, where you're always running towards the screen, and you have to mash the right button at the right time to avoid running head first into obstacles, such as cleverly placed zebras and rusted out bathtubs.

These sections are few and far between, which is probably a good thing because they are incredibly basic (but not easy), yet at the same token they do inject a touch of variety into the game, while also inspiring the game's name - Run Like Hell.

Run Like Hell is a survival horror game for the Xbox that's just dripping with atmosphere and suspense, and though I was loathe to review it with my anti-survival horror leanings, in hindsight I actually quite enjoyed the experience.

The story is what holds the game together, and almost 100 pre-rendered cinematic sequences sweeten the storytelling deal. The combat and scare-factor aspects will keep you playing, and had a few bits and bobs been tightened up, the game would have scored a lot higher.

It's a fairly cheesy game through and through, and many long-time gamers will baulk at it's amateurish design, but there is a level of suspense that belies its B-grade production values, and if you do a little digging, you'll find there's heaps of simple-but-fun running and gunning to be had with Interplay's survival horror game.

Game: Run Like Hell
System: Xbox
Players: 1
Online: Yes
Developer: Interplay
Distributor: Red Ant Enterprises

Rating: 65%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Run Like Hell is on the shelves now.