Customer Reviews

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazzard

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I knew this game would get bashed. It got bashed by all the reviews of so-called critics and others. However, I had to put my 2 cents in.

First, I have at least 10+ people on my friend's list who LOVE this game. Not one has said they did not.

Second, IMO, this is a classic. And I also feel it is for the 'older' crowd who can appreciate the very cool humor this game has. If your over 40 you will love this thing. (Play on easy - trust me)

This is more of a cult game, and, as with most cult movies, they bomb when they come out. They are panned by critics and then, slowly, & with a bit of time, they become classics. This is definately one of those titles.

Playability is smooth no matter what people say. The 'cover' system reminds me a lot of Quantum of Solace (another great game) and the voice overs are very cool. As the number 1 player in the world (XBox 360) said on his blog recently, it's very "refreshing" & "funny" and a nice change of pace.

I feel that the programmers deserve major brownie points for this title. It is so clever and filled with nostalgia that only a gamer from the 'actual' 80s would appreciate this. Truly, because of the new generation of kids, the humor, hidden jokes & level graphics are beyond them (with all due respect).

So, if you are a gamer who was raised with some of the first videogames that *ever* came out (Handheld Computer Football or Pong anyone?) then this title is for you.

It also would, IMO, make a great gift for an Over-40 couple who want a fun drinking game for a Friday night (on easy mode remember!).

One last thought. I've read numerous reviews on many sites as well as this one. After finishing this game to full completion (1000 gamerscore) I've realized that the developers did most of what people are complaining about ON PURPOSE. Namely, the silly 'Melee' attacks, the feminine running style of the character, the absolutely hysterical AI, and most notably, the graphics.

Again, if you're at least 40 or more, you'll appreciate this absolutely wonderful change-of-pace compared to what's come out the last few years. It's the perfect mockery to everything videogames were back in the 80s, 90s and yes, even up to today.

Kudos goes out to the whole team (who I know are reading this) for making something that is truly so refreshing and unique that I say, FORGET the bad rap. In 10 years, people will still be talking about this title for the plain and simple fact that more and more older people are getting into videogames everyday. And that is who this game is truly for.

Rented this game not knowing what to expect...and was pleasantly surprised. The game is easily beaten on its most difficult setting (there is one more difficulty you must unlock after completion) in about 6 hrs....tops. The game is quite fun, there is a lot of gunplay, and an assortment of maybe 14 different guns...maybe a few more but there is not much to distinguish a .45 from a 9mm in this game...but the variety of rifles, heavy weapons is nice.
The game allows for taking cover, blind fire behind cover, jumping over your cover etc. The controls are a bit "loose", but only gets in the way a couple of times. The enemy AI is OK, not great, and the boss battles are interesting, but nothing you cannot figure out after a try or two. The dialog is actually VERY funny, as it makes fun of all genres here. The game certainly never takes itself serious, and it really is a casual 6 hr game that would be best utilized as a rental...but I guess buy it if you cannot find it for rent and list it the next day on amazon to sell.

I say this a lot: "Comedy is hard." I don't do comedy in my own writing. I throw in some funny here and there, but usually to relieve the tension or because some amusing moment grows out of the larger narrative. But I can't imagine writing a full on piece of comedy. It's just too easy to screw up, because few things grate more than bad jokes. Weirdly enough then, the worst part of Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is not the comedy. Not that the humor shines or even really succeeds very often, but it's more consistently enjoyable than the actual game play, which is consistently dull, mixed with healthy doses of crappiness.

A little background. No, you're not forgetting anything - there haven't been any other Matt Hazard games. The conceit of this game is that Matt Hazard used to be a popular action game character from way back in the 8-bit days. The opening cinematic tells his story, voiced by Arrested Development star Will Arnett as Matt Hazard. He does his standard gravely tough guy voice, and it mostly works. The set-up made me chuckle. The load screens gave me a smile. Then it came time to play this ugly, third-person, cover based shooter and I was a lot less happy. It's not horrible, but it's not fun either. There's some interesting variety as the game mixes and matches genres from Hazard's prolific game past. So you might end up fighting cowboys alongside zombies alongside space marines. My favorite baddies are from a kids water pistol game Hazard was in called Soak-em. But there aren't that many of them and the weapons they drop aren't fun. Hazard earns some power up abilities as the game proceeds - he can either make his shots freeze enemies or set them on fire. Except the fire's blue (I assume because it's suppose to be pixels disintegrating) and is totally unsatisfying.

There are a lot of jokes in the game - pretty much they just throw everything they've got against the wall and hope some of it amuses. Arnett does a solid job as Hazard. Neil Patrick Harris has a much smaller role as the big enemy, but there's nothing he can do to make that crappy character work. It's not a good sign that my favorite jokes almost all happened during the load screens. My favorite was where it said "Tip" and then proceeded to just give dictionary definitions of the word "tip" instead of anything to do with the game. I also like that you get 60 X-box Live achievements for just watching the credits. So there's the game's biggest selling point: easy achievement points and some smiles interspersed with a haphazard arrangement of laughs. Which is to say, not really selling points at all.

This game is plain stupid. It's storyline is a mockery of successful games like Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, Final Fantasy7, World Of Warcraft, Hitman, Halo, and Resident Evil. (I think I named most of them). It even mocks Tropic Thunder with the producer character in the movie that acts like a total prick. The only upside to this game was it's similarity in controls to COD. Enemies are either extremely easy or insanley difficult to kill, there is no happy medium. Don't waste your money on this game unless it's less than $10. If anything, borrow it.

This game was incredibly easy to obtain all 1000 gamerscore in. I beat it in about 8 hours. There were some frustrating parts, but overall it was very easy. As far as the game goes, it is very generic. The only redeeming qualities of this game are that it has easy achievements, and that it is voiced by Will Arnett. I couldn't help but think that the whole time I was playing as George Oscar Bluth from Arrested Development. Other than that, the game is kinda boring. While I was playing, I wished it a better cover based third person shooter, like Gears of War. Other than that, I would not recommend buying this unless you really want to increase your gamerscore that badly. Thank you, and as always comrades, have nice day.

I only sort of like this game. I get frustrated within a 1/2 hour of playing it, but then always return to it later on, for another frustrating 1/2 hour.
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This game is a very standard first person shooter. The hook is that the guy you are playing knows he is a video game character. This is the centerpiece of the idea of the game: this guy you are playing in the game is being attacked via the game by a "real" guy who hates your character, for whatever reason.
So, there's some humor involved - and it's mildly funny. But, they really should have taken it a few steps further. The game has stereotypical villians, and they could have made them much more ridiculous and funny with just a few simple changes. The bosses are the best in this regard. It's the main bad guys you fight who I feel could have been stepped up a notch.
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And it's the gaming system I find so frustrating. It takes a surprising amount of ammo to kill anyone, unless you get a headshot. Which isn't too hard as most of the AI just hides and pokes out, repeat - so you'll know where their head will be for and easy kill. But many times - MANY times - you'll be focusing on what's ahead of you when out of NOWHERE bad guys will appear directly behind you and kill you. This is utterly annoying as you have no radar and the path behind you was absolutely closed off. Also later on, any cover you have will disappear if hit enough times by enemy bullets, and when your options for cover are limited, you're dead. This is more frustrating than challenging.
I find the movement and cover system to be quite clunky. And it's all these things tied together that make me give up every half hour - it's just annoying and not fun. But I always pick it up again because I want to win it, and I like the humor of the game itself.
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It's pretty cheap right now - but just remember, you get what you pay for.

-Why did I buy this?
Okay, This game is a bit dated, but it just seemed to be an over the top tongue-in-cheek poke at the video game industry. The premise is just not-serious and I broke this out immediately on receiving it in the mail. That and I was hopped up on coffee that night. :)

-Capsule:
A fairly straightforward "over the shoulder" 3rd person shooter. A nice variety of wacky enemies. A couple of boss fights that are near perpetual cheap-shots. The gameplay is overall solid, but doesn't require a lot of heavy thought and the levels are linear. What makes this game worth looking at and playing is the humor and writing that makes fun of itself and the game industry in general. Recommended buy at the $15-$20 mark.

-What stood out during the game?
The voice acting, the amusing parodies and references to existing video game characters, the entertaining writing, the handful of just annoying legs of a chapter (mostly boss fights) that seemed to need near-dumb luck to pull off. Good action music score with lots of big hair metal guitar.

-More thoughts:
In the world of Matt Hazard, Matt is a washed up action video game character for the company 'Marathon' and after proving that he has no marketing and business sense, runs the company into the ground. Until 'Marathon' is resurrected by a guy with a lot of cash and the company is renamed 'Marathon Megasoft' Matt is tapped to stage his comeback in the next generation game platforms. But wait, he was scripted to die at the end of level 1. Forever. Why? Stay tuned true believers...

That's the basis of the story right there. A bit wonky if you consider that a video game character managed to make business decisions for a "Real-life" company. This over analysis isn't good for you in Eat Lead... just smile, nod, and let the story keep rolling.

This is honestly the strength of this game. The story. Not that it is epic. It's not. It's that quirky movie story like Ferris Beuller's Day Off where the fourth wall gets broken to possibly make fun of what you're already thinking. "Oh. Great. A tutorial. It's not like I need one of these to tell me how to move around and shoot a gun after 25 years.", grumbles a slightly annoyed Matt at the beginning of the game when you say "Sure, do the tutorial". There are references abound in the form of cliché enemies, and some occasionally amusing parodies of other popular figures. For example, there's "Master Chef" Who is a dumpy-looking short-order style cook who waddles around in some kind of futuristic space armor. Captain Carpenter is a burly blue overalls wearing kind of guy who knows how to fight nasty turtles, and poisonous mushrooms, but can't handle a gun to save his life. Altos Tratus which looks and behaves like your typical Final Fantasy character. One of my favorite moments was with this character before the fight. (Altos)"..." (Matt Paraphrased) "An elipsis? What the is it with you Japanese characters and ellipses? What does that even mean?"

I've talked about the writing and how it's amusing for what it is, but not the game play. In short it's good, but nothing too original is happening here. The game uses a find cover and shoot system. At first I found this annoying, because when I typically play FPS type games I just ram may way through enemies and once the body count is high enough, go exploring the areas I've cleared out. This is not something I can do in Eat Lead. The cycle is pretty much the following. A checkpoint save will occur. You will get to an area or room and you will wind up trapped in that room until everything but you is dead, or deader if you want to be picky about the zombies. To survive, you have to hide behind cover and pick at enemies this way. Sometimes just standing behind cover works pretty well too. Regardless, you just can't stand there and shoot for long. You also have the option to run up and melee attack most enemies (there are exceptions and some can fight back rather well). In some cases it was more effective for me to run up on opponents and slap them around versus shooting them and wasting precious ammunition.

There was some thought put into what your options are regarding the use of cover and for this I am grateful. It's not Time Crisis for crying out loud. The cover aspect is present for a majority of the notably linear format of the game. There are exceptions such as selected fight scenes where you have to hit certain button/stick combinations to put the beat down on an special enemy. There is also a level where you have sniper stations where you have to pick off enemies with said rifle before one of your friends is killed. Neither of these events are plentiful enough to be annoying. There is also a few sections where you have to avoid the lasers of your in-game nemesis 'Sting Sniperscope' These rounds force you to run and find cover, but is thankfully only in a handful of places -- because these are 1-shot kill events, and it can be frustrating at times.

The weapons are pretty varied, but not particularly amazing. If you have ever played "Armed And Dangerous" with its vast collection of wacky weapons, this would have made things a bit more amusing. Sure you get classic 6-shooters, laser pistols, sniper rifles and the like, but none of the guns are stand out awesome. Not a crucial complaint, but worth noting. Also of note is that you can only carry 2 weapons at a time. Since you can't backtrack, sometimes conserving ammo is crucial -- and a little annoying when you're sloppy in a fight.

Enemies are fairly diverse and some are imaginative. The 2D sprite enemies are the standout among them. They run around in the 4-5 frame sequence, shoot at you with their 2D rifle then turn sideways so you can't hurt them. Honestly, the only enemy that made me super frustrated was the boss with tentacles. In the beginning you have to run around and avoid the six tentacles that lash at the ship, and each one has a pretty good reach. Now you have to run around and wait for one to get stuck in the boat so you can shoot it. After the first tentacle is taken out you now have enemies spawn periodically too. This lead to me dying... a lot. fortunately, the checkpoint system is pretty forgiving overall because if I had to fight that first round again after clearing it and then getting killed at stage 2 with the same boss I would have been super unhappy. I died at least 20 times fighting those tentacles. That was annoying.

I can't think of anything meaningful in terms of graphics and sound. They met the requirements in that characters and the environment looked reasonable for the context of the world being presented, and other than the action music having occasional big hair metal guitar riffs in it set the tone adequately as well. I'm not saying the A/V experience was awesome nor was it bad. It did the job and I wasn't seriously annoyed by odd glitches or music that made me need to kill some aspect of the audio experience.

The Achievements on this game (for Xbox360) are in some cases outright gifts. There are a couple of tricky ones too, but you can get a pretty good score just playing through in a competent manner. Some people may be annoyed by the freebie achievements, but at the same time, it's not that big of a deal -- it's not like achievements _do anything_.

-Multiplayer:
In short there is no multiplayer in Eat Lead. You get a 'gift' achievement at the end of the game that pokes fun at this topic. Obviously Xbox Live isn't too useful for this title.

-Difficulty:
I admit it. I played through this game on easy. When you clear the game once, you can backtrack and play any level you want at any difficulty setting. So you can clear it on Easy, then go back and play the last level on medium and hard to 'clear the game' (I assume) at those levels too.

I bumped it to medium and was promptly owned by the game. I managed to slog my way to the final boss fight only to die repeatedly for about an hour and a half. Some of these fights lasted 2 minutes before my death. In short, I died a lot and it makes me sad. No, I didn't clear it either. It was 2am and my wife told me to go to bed. :) This getting stuck was really frustrating. In retrospect, I'll try and bring better guns next time to see if that helps.

-Errors:
There were a handful of times where blasts and enemies hands would pop through a wall or cover. I can only think of 2 or three instances of this happening, and in all but one of them I was able to quickly recover from the problem without dying. In all cases the game never lost its mind and had a hard lockup or freeze.

Bought this because it had the voices of Will Arnett and Neil patrick harris. Found it to be a fun and challenging game. Takes a little while to get used to the controls and the enemy is kind of predictible, but the humor of the game kind of makes up for that. I can't see someone that is a hardcore gammer liking this game, but a casaul gammer definitely.

This game deserves a lot more attention, as this game is fantastic! I laughed out loud at least once every 5-7 minutes. I couldn't put this game down!

I love the way that this game makes fun of overdone cliches in videogames. Buried beneath this front though, is a pretty solid third person shooter that is very easy to get into. It starts pretty simple and the further you progress in the storyline, the more funny and far-fetched the story gets. There were some sequences that could I could have been without, but for the most part I enjoyed this game throughly. You wont find a deep shooter with the cover mechanics and tight controls like Gears of War, but what it lacks in that department it makes up for in its charm and comedic approach to gaming.