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About this product
Product Information
Players can blast the bad guys, score the hot chicks, and kick down the fourth wall of gaming in Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, a shooter that satirizes video game mythology and industry clichés. Matt Hazard, voiced by Arrested Development's Will Arnett, is a Duke Nukem-esque hero whose years of unemployment have him looking to reclaim his throne as the king of over-the-top action games. In reality, Eat Lead is Hazard's debut game, but developer Vicious Cycle and publisher D3 have concocted an elaborate backstory for the character, placing him in a dozen fictional games such as 1983's seminal side-scrolling shooter "The Adventures of Matt in Hazard Land," the GoldenEye 007 parody "You Only Live 1,317 Times," and "Haz-Matt Carts," Hazard's inevitable slip into kart-racing purgatory.
Unfortunately for Hazard, fictitious developer "Marathon Software" spread his character too thin, and by the time of 2002's Viva Piñata-esque children's game "Choking Hazard: Candy Gramm," he was a washed-up has-been. But Eat Lead offers redemption, as gamers help Hazard on a quest for blood and relevance in the first actual game among his 13 fictional adventures. Though primarily a third-person 3D shooter, the game's story and style are subject to dramatic graphical, sound, and gameplay changes because the comeback is not exactly what Hazard envisioned. It seems that Wallace Wellesley, a Marathon executive voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, created Eat Lead as an elaborate ruse designed to make Hazard's life even more miserable. Continuous hacking of the game causes a number of inexplicable situations, such as Hazard fending off gun-toting cowboys in a futuristic space station, and only gamers can help the gruff protagonist make sense of the chaos and resurrect his career.
The game itself is a parody of not only old action movies, but of the games that parodied those action movies, such as Duke Nukem and Doom. Not to say there are no original components, as the game truly shines with its witty humor and actually well-thought storyline. Unfortunately, it seems the humor and astounding soundtrack were focused on more than the gameplay, leading to certain mechanics and situations that become needlessly difficult from unresponsive or clunky controls. Overall, this game is very fun, but quickly becomes a chore if you go into it expecting it to feel like a fast-paced and enticing shooting game. While it falls short from other games in the genre, it still holds its own and is worth owning. The game and box also came in excellent condition.
I bought this game for the easy 1k achievement points. You can get all but 4 on your first play though. Two of the remaining can be easily gotten. The only one that is really difficult is trying to kill 3 testers with 1 grenade. They are in short supply so you have to save them. Plus these guys more around a lot so your lucky if you ever see 3 close enough to kill with 1 grenade. Other wise its well worth it. A ton of comedy, and the infinite lives make this game have some replay value.
MY SUMMARY: Rent, don’t buy. Play it on Minimum or Moderate Hazard. Laugh. Return. The platinum trophy is not worth the frustratingly-hard gameplay.
PROS
HUMOROUS DIALOGUE
EXCELLENT VOICE ACTING: Characters say ridiculous lines with so much conviction.
DECENT GRAPHICS
MANY EASY TROPHIES: Most can be earned in a single playthrough.
CONS (MAXIMUM HAZARD SETTING)
Eat Lead was fun until I tried Maximum Hazard. That is when all the little quirks became unforgiveable detractors.
LINEAR, UNIMAGINATIVE GAMEPLAY
MINIMUM HAZARD PLOT: Go into area. Shoot bad guys. Door opens. Enter next area. Shoot more bad guys. Door opens. Enter third area. Shoot more bad guys. Repeat multiple times until reaching a big, overpowered boss.
MAXIMUM HAZARD PLOT: Go into area. Shoot bad guys. Die. Respawn. Return to area. Shoot bad guys again. Die. Respawn. Repeat first area without dying. Door opens. Enter second area. Shoot new bad guys. Die. Respawn in first area. Repeat both areas without dying. Oops, you died anyway. Respawn. Return to first area because there are no $#! checkpoints until the third area. Eventually you will make it to boss, only to die fifty times and throw your controller through your tv. This is not fun.
PINPOINT ACCURATE AI GUNFIRE: How do these goons manage to run and fire without missing? I don’t know, but I had hours to think about it during repetitious replays.
MATT THE BULLET-MAGNET = CONSTANT DEATH
POORLY DESIGNED COVER MECHANICS: Why is the X button always required to move from cover? If you accidentally push L joystick at the same time as X, you’ll simply rotate around cover. Great. A grenade is on the crate and Matt is stuck running circles around it. Boom. Hope you don’t mind replaying that section again for the fifteenth time.
ABNORMAL BUTTON CONFIGURATION: The fire/reload buttons are not where they are for most FPS games, and cannot be changed.
POOR IN-GAME HELP: Use an internet search for help with boss battles.
TOO FEW CHECKPOINTS
ONLY ONE GAME SAVE
WIMPY GUNS
INACCURATE MACHINE GUN FIRE
NO GRENADES OR GRENADE THROWBACKRead full review
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard...was worth it
You can pretty much tell if this game is for you by reading the description of it. This is not ment to be one of the elite shooters of the Next Generation consoles. It is ment to be funny and entertaining game. Which it is. You start out fairly normal, fighting your typical bad guys, but before long, you find yourself fighting zombies, space marines, guys with water guns, etc. If that sounds like fun to you, then go ahead and get the game. Its worth it. If it just sounds plain dumb, then don't get it. Stick to more serious shooters.
If you grade it solely based on how good of a game it is (compared to more serious games) it will probably be 3 star game. But I give it a 5 because it does exactly as it is ment to do. It entertains!
If you played ANY of the old Hazard games, you know it is stupid. This takes it new limits. Monologue could have used more work. Sometimes it borders on humorous, but mostly even stupid for a hazard game.
The controls are a little clunky. The move from cover to cover is not the greatest, which considering it really required for use, you sometimes find yourself in the open when you should not be.
Graphics are mediocre.
Walking and running are rather clumsy.
But if you get it at a good price, still not a bad game.
If you are a fan of hazard.