Customer Reviews

Shellshock 2: Blood Trails

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Shellshock 2: Blood Trails is a first person shooter for the xbox 360, ps3, and pc. Blood Trails is not a direct sequel to Shellshock Nam 67', the title may suggest it but the two are very different. Blood Trails moves the franchise to the survival horror niche, which again is very different from the gritty warfare of the original. Sadly, Blood Trails rubs off as rushed, and poorly executed.

Very rarely do I pick up a title for cheap, and feel I got more from the instruction booklet then the actual game (in this case I picked the game up for 4.99$). So much of the game is a letdown, tank controls (sluggish beyond reasoning), a story that's as random as an ink blot test, and of course the inability to live up to the previous title which was even met with mediocre warm views. I tend not to bash games without a good reason, and I hope people understand I do not mindlessly hate on this title.A next generation title that makes you question the year in which it was made by the performance (or therefore lack of) is not a good way to start.

The plot was a bit rough to digest, between the main character you play as Private Nate Walker and his Sergeants actions to secure your willingness to fight against the unknown. Your brother has information worthwhile to the U.S. about some cargo dubbed `Whiteknight', you are sent forth to extract said info. During the course of the game you are faced with supposed horror (which to me the only horror comes from the difficult maneuvers due to the controls). The game takes place during the conflict in Vietnam, with the finale resulting in a coin toss with two separate endings, based on the players' choice.

The game leaves you wanting something else to fill the void of your purchase, as the game is rather short if you do manage to complete it. There is no multiplayer to speak of, raising or lowering the difficulty of the campaign doesn't add much to the experience, not even the 360's version with `achievements' help lengthen the game. I've spotted random enemies `respawning' before my eyes, frame rate drops, rough graphics that seem even more dated then the previous title, and a color palette consisting of brown, grey, green, and red, with of course an unhealthy amount of black (even when tinkering with the brightness setting things become either too dark to spot enemies, or too washed out to see straight).

Levels aren't exactly linear in a sense, the player can explore areas, but often times this turns into a state of confusion as much can be skipped with little to no consequences. Engaging the enemy can become a nightmare if your brightness setting isn't adjusted just right (as mentioned above). Even with the brightness accordingly set, I still find myself tossing of grenades, and wondering what happened to my inventory. You don't automatically collect ammo, you'll have to go over to a weapon and collect it yourself. Guns fire closer to bb or pellet guns than an almighty deafening rifle. In case I wasn't clear, sound quality is lacking.

The original Shellshock though poorly received still had a reasonable following, for the simple reason it was believable, lengthy, and had a lot to come back to with collectibles. Shellshock: Blood Trails feels like an attempt to demo a handheld game for a home console. Shame too, I was really interested in the future of this series. If I was asked to point out the good, I'd have to say the game makes for a good venting session when explaining your grief to friends after playing this.

The title of the review is exactly what to expect with this release. The plot of the game revolves around some experimental drug called "WhiteKnight" that was tested on soldiers during Vietnam. Needless to say it doesn't workout so well and it basically transforms the soldiers to 28 Days Later (Widescreen Edition) style infected. You assume the role of a newly arrived soldier trying to find your brother who was involved in the experiments.

Graphics are actually quite decent. Something that I found strange was at times the graphics appear to be seamless then at other times it looks as if its a cleaned-up, steroid-injected XIII (and I mean that in a good way). Controls/Player movement are okay, unfortunately there is no "cover" method and that hurts the gameplay significantly. While you still can kneel behind objects you can still get shot. Also the hit-detection seems a bit off at times. Many times you can shoot directly at someone and hit some sort of invisible barrier around objects.

Gameplay is an excellent blend of a Vietnam-style FPS and a horror-survival game (i.e. Doom 3). If you expect this to be a purely Call of Duty: World at War game you will be highly disappointed and if you expect this to be a purely Doom 3 game you will also be disappointed. Some parts of the game will have you navigating booby-trapped areas and fighting the Vietcong in the jungle shooting at you from all directions (and I do mean all directions) and other parts of the game you'll be fighting off infected in close-quarters combat (inside dark houses, tunnels, etc.) which is actually quite creepy (many times I found myself jumping and swearing at the same time).

This is probably strictly a like-it or hate-it release yet I find myself in the middle ground. While I love FPS's, I'm not the biggest fan of Survival-Horror games which sways my judgement a bit. But if your a fan of both, I don't see how you wouldn't highly enjoy this title.

I've been playing this game for a week now and am completely involved with it. I have found the game to be creepy and nerve wracking, fully enjoyable. There is no comparison to the original Shellshocked Nam game. Altho there are zombies in this game and there were not any zombies in the Southeast Asian conflict, I find it easy to overlook because the game is so much fun. The game is based in Viet Nam and on that war. I am old enough to have served and remember the conflict well. You could say I am a student of that war and that's what drew me to this game. Any way I would rate this game an 8 out of 10. If you decide to play it I hope you enjoy it as much as I am. Paul

Rented this game at my local blockbuster and was glad I did. I expected a decent game like the first shellshock for the original xbox and I was mistaken. The graphics are terrible and grainy, and the storyline is pretty lame. But for you 360 achievement hunters out there this game is an easy 1000 points (If you can tolerate playing through the game twice for one of the achievements).

To me this game was fun. I defiently enjoyed the campaing and had fun playing it. Basicly, you go to Vietnam and are assinged special missions in which you end up fighting zombies and regular Vietnamise troops. This is a fun game but is nothing like the first Shellshock because you mainly fight zombies. Don't get me wrong it's a good game but it is noting like the first Shellshock.

This is probably the worst game I've ever played. The first level is in the dark which makes it impossible to see the bad guys. There is no map or arrow indicator to tell you where you're going so all you do is wonder around in the dark getting stuck on walls and objects and attacked by bad guys. There's more I don't like but those are my big issues.

It is a decent game! It is not what I was looking for, as Im into WWI and WWII games! Overall, some good graphics and some interesting situations

If you are looking for something like CS or L4D series....
you will definitely be disapointed.

But if you are B zombie horror movie enthusiast (Especially historical war based)
You will be surprised like me!!
(Actually it's better than most of these movies)

The haunted atmosphere really enjoyable and sometimes makes me want to scream!!
it's a totally different game experience.

But just like other fans said:
You will like it or hate it......
All depeneds on what you are looking for (Kill tons of enemies or haunting experience)

To me it's like a "Interactive" zombie horror movie
not just a FPS game.

this is the sequel to "shellshock nam 67".that video game was based on the horrors of the viet nam war.it is my 2nd favorite military based video game ever,2nd only to "turning point:fall of liberty".
this sequel ,however,is nothing like the original.if you were looking for a great 2nd part to #1,you came to the WRONG place.shellshock 2 has some marines in nam again.but,only about 0ne in 4 enemies are a commie.the other 75% are zombies.so basicly,this soldier goes around the jungle and villages spraying undead guts everywhere.it is EXTREMELY gruesome.as a matter of fact,the guts[thiers or your own] will splatter all over the screen and you will have to peek through them for a few seconds.its basicly gore for gores sake.
the story is you and your pals are looking around for the white knight.only no one will say what it is.some say its a person.some say street drugs,others think halucenogens or maybe super soldier serum.all i know is it makes people into zombies.not slow zombies that fall apart due to decay.im talking about zombies that get back up after you hit them with a grenade blast.or take 5 shots with a shotgun before slowing down.
for what it is,i ranked it with 3 stars.that to me is average.average because there are far worse games out there and at least i got to kick some butt.but also average as in its not that great as a military or adventure game.and its so so even as a monster game.
a all to common feature in this game is a fighting style that requires the player to hammer certain specific button patterns to out wrestle random opponents.i dont like it.whoever thought that up needs to be fired.its on other games too like "prince of persia"."star wars:the force unleashed" and "kung fu panda".
all in all,the game feels rushed and with no semblence of the first part at all.they might as well have been sepaerated at birth.hopefully this one kills the series.or whats next?i shudder to think.

Although I'm a huge fan of the idea of zombies in the Vietnam War, this game is just not very fun. For starters, if you are used to playing any of the Halos or Left 4 Dead then the sensitivity in this game is way too low. The default sensitivity is a complete joke, it takes five minutes to do a 180 turn. Even turned up all the way it still feels slow at times. Next, the graphics look like something out of a mediocre PS2 game. The AI is just terrible. The level design is boring and linear. The zombies aren't even very cool. The best part of this game is probably the sound, providing you have a decent surround system. I'm about half way through the game and it feels like tedious work at this point so I doubt I will finish it. The game is also too easy even on the hardest difficulty setting.