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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Action Developer: Vicious Cycle Publisher: D3 Publishing Reviewed By: Dale Kulas |
Duke Nukem Forever has been the running joke of the videogame industry for over the past decade until just recently when developer
3D Realms announced they suspended development. How ironic was it then that shortly before the unfortunate news Publisher D3
released a third person action spoof based on the travels of Duke called Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard.
opens up detailing about his 8 and 16-bit breakout hits with screenshots of past Hazard games looking like clones of Contra and
Wolfenstein 3D. However the overzealous Matt Hazard game publisher, Marathon Megasoft saturated the market with umpteen Hazard
games ranging from kid friendly water pistol shooters to the token kart racer. Now after a lengthy hiatus Hazard is back making his The
most intriguing aspect of Eat Lead is its amusing narrative. Even though in reality this is the first game starring Matt Hazard, the plot
triumphant return in his new adventure called Eat Lead. Matt grinds through level after level encountering old and new rivals while
programmers hack in alterations to the levels unbeknownst to Matt. The story is a breath of fresh air, yet only about half of the narrative
managed to get some chuckles out of me, yet the other half fell flat.
Eat Lead intentionally tries to be awesomely generic in level design, and while there is a little bit of charm in that the developers also
succeeded in making a very mediocre experience. There is very little balance throughout game play, which primarily consists of running
into a room, taking cover, blasting away all enemies, rinse and repeat a dozen times and then top off the level with a anticlimactic boss
battle. The action itself is very blasé, and maybe would have been better received if it was released three or four years ago. Make sure
to start the game off on easy/”Minor Hazard” difficulty, because after starting on normal/”Major Hazard” I was ready to rip my head off in
frustration by the second stage after the crazy unbalanced challenge that it yielded. The cover mechanics are intuitive yet it could have
benefited if Eat Lead contained sensitivity settings for aiming. As it is Matt takes far too long to spin around when enemies swarm him
from all directions. Settle for playing through on easy, which feels more like a typical medium difficulty setting anyways.
Hazard has all the usual suspects of weaponry, sans the glaring exception of grenades. This has got to be the first game where
adversaries can throw grenades (which Matt teases how cool it could be to toss back), yet Matt cannot pick up any to throw back. There
is a grenade launcher, yet it is by far the most useless and ineffective grenade launcher in the history of video games. Aside from the
programmers taking the day off when they implemented grenades, the rest of the weaponry such as the standard machine guns,
shotguns and laser pistols all work fine, and are slightly upgraded when Matt earns enough kills to apply a temporary freeze or fire
upgrade to them.
Not only is the game play incredibly average, as is the graphics and sound. Like the game play, the graphics seem “just there” with not
a whole lot of bang to them. The character models and levels look very ho-hum, and a lot of the times it appeared like the developers
created levels with only the lowest amount of detail options that a player would have when creating a house in The Sims. The only
interesting animations that stick out are that instead of blood, enemies ooze out blue digitized computer coding, got to keep that Teen
rating! The background music does have a generic charm to it, where a lot of it has a rejected 007 soundtrack vibe going for it. Props to
D3 for shelling acquiring some reputable voice talent with Will Arnett portraying Matt Hazard and Neil Patrick Harris voicing the sinister
Marathon Megasoft CEO, who both do a commendable job in their roles and breathe some life into Eat Lead.
Regrettably there is not a ton of replay value to Eat Lead. Upon beating the game a hard/”Maximum Hazard” difficulty unlocks, and that is
about it. There is no multiplayer at all, not even any sort of co-op which is almost standard now for these style of action games (though a
“Multiplayer Master” achievement unlocks upon beating the game where the developers practically admit to not having enough time to
include it). It would have been cool and seemed natural if the developers created a few 8-bit/early 3D style mini games after the many
other Matt Hazard titles mentioned throughout the game. Instead after spending the 7-8 hours completing Eat Lead, I was absolutely
finished with this title. Do not rush out and buy Eat Lead unless you see it dirt cheap and want to play something that does not take itself
seriously.
3D Realms announced they suspended development. How ironic was it then that shortly before the unfortunate news Publisher D3
released a third person action spoof based on the travels of Duke called Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard.
opens up detailing about his 8 and 16-bit breakout hits with screenshots of past Hazard games looking like clones of Contra and
Wolfenstein 3D. However the overzealous Matt Hazard game publisher, Marathon Megasoft saturated the market with umpteen Hazard
games ranging from kid friendly water pistol shooters to the token kart racer. Now after a lengthy hiatus Hazard is back making his The
most intriguing aspect of Eat Lead is its amusing narrative. Even though in reality this is the first game starring Matt Hazard, the plot
triumphant return in his new adventure called Eat Lead. Matt grinds through level after level encountering old and new rivals while
programmers hack in alterations to the levels unbeknownst to Matt. The story is a breath of fresh air, yet only about half of the narrative
managed to get some chuckles out of me, yet the other half fell flat.
Eat Lead intentionally tries to be awesomely generic in level design, and while there is a little bit of charm in that the developers also
succeeded in making a very mediocre experience. There is very little balance throughout game play, which primarily consists of running
into a room, taking cover, blasting away all enemies, rinse and repeat a dozen times and then top off the level with a anticlimactic boss
battle. The action itself is very blasé, and maybe would have been better received if it was released three or four years ago. Make sure
to start the game off on easy/”Minor Hazard” difficulty, because after starting on normal/”Major Hazard” I was ready to rip my head off in
frustration by the second stage after the crazy unbalanced challenge that it yielded. The cover mechanics are intuitive yet it could have
benefited if Eat Lead contained sensitivity settings for aiming. As it is Matt takes far too long to spin around when enemies swarm him
from all directions. Settle for playing through on easy, which feels more like a typical medium difficulty setting anyways.
Hazard has all the usual suspects of weaponry, sans the glaring exception of grenades. This has got to be the first game where
adversaries can throw grenades (which Matt teases how cool it could be to toss back), yet Matt cannot pick up any to throw back. There
is a grenade launcher, yet it is by far the most useless and ineffective grenade launcher in the history of video games. Aside from the
programmers taking the day off when they implemented grenades, the rest of the weaponry such as the standard machine guns,
shotguns and laser pistols all work fine, and are slightly upgraded when Matt earns enough kills to apply a temporary freeze or fire
upgrade to them.
Not only is the game play incredibly average, as is the graphics and sound. Like the game play, the graphics seem “just there” with not
a whole lot of bang to them. The character models and levels look very ho-hum, and a lot of the times it appeared like the developers
created levels with only the lowest amount of detail options that a player would have when creating a house in The Sims. The only
interesting animations that stick out are that instead of blood, enemies ooze out blue digitized computer coding, got to keep that Teen
rating! The background music does have a generic charm to it, where a lot of it has a rejected 007 soundtrack vibe going for it. Props to
D3 for shelling acquiring some reputable voice talent with Will Arnett portraying Matt Hazard and Neil Patrick Harris voicing the sinister
Marathon Megasoft CEO, who both do a commendable job in their roles and breathe some life into Eat Lead.
Regrettably there is not a ton of replay value to Eat Lead. Upon beating the game a hard/”Maximum Hazard” difficulty unlocks, and that is
about it. There is no multiplayer at all, not even any sort of co-op which is almost standard now for these style of action games (though a
“Multiplayer Master” achievement unlocks upon beating the game where the developers practically admit to not having enough time to
include it). It would have been cool and seemed natural if the developers created a few 8-bit/early 3D style mini games after the many
other Matt Hazard titles mentioned throughout the game. Instead after spending the 7-8 hours completing Eat Lead, I was absolutely
finished with this title. Do not rush out and buy Eat Lead unless you see it dirt cheap and want to play something that does not take itself
seriously.
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