The story goes as thus: Rick and his girlfriend, Jen, are heading to the creepy mansion of Dr. West for an interview about his work at the university. While there, Dr. West attempts to kill Rick and drag Jen off for his own "needs." During the initial struggle, an Aztec mask falls to the floor near Rick and tells him it will help save Jen if he gives over his body to the Mask. Rick surrenders to the mask, leading him on a very Lovecraftian horror tale in the pursuit of love and vengeance.
This Is Why We Got A 'M' Rating
Okay, so first, this is not a game that you can have just anyone play unless they are a huge fan of horror and gore. The visuals for this game - while not cutting edge in graphics - can get pretty brutal. It is an M-rated game after all and it seems like the team kept to their word to pushing as hard as they could without going AO (Adults Only). The best example of this would be one of the "puzzles" requiring you to place three monsters on metal anal plugs so you can push them into a furnace. A scene that ends with the Terror Mask actually saying "…And that is why we got an M rating."
While I did love the visuals as they were, I will say I was a bit left down in the overall variety - mainly with the basic enemies and the Splatter Kills of the game. All of the press leading up to release led me to draw the conclusion that there was going to be an overabundance of these specialized animations. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Yes, some of the levels had the creatures themed differently (Big "Zombies", Big Zombies Filled with Lava), but they were quite similar in nature. They only true difference I found between them was when it came to the Zombie Clowns that actually had different moves and attacks.
Continuing there, there were only about seven Splatter Kills in the game. Two of which were the fall back on anything that fell in the "Big Zombie" category. I know these are not all that easy to get set up, but I was hoping for a bit more variety. The same basic "Rip The Torso In Half" Splatter Kill is used for even the unique clowns mention above. Maybe it was me building up too much from the early videos, but it just seemed like something may have been cut here.
You Hear That Rick?
I am definitely one for crude humor or self-aware humor in media. It's why I love Deadpool so much. It was also a contributing factor to what I enjoyed about Splatterhouse. The mask always had some awesome and fitting little quip to add in at the right time - sometimes to lighten the mood and then sometimes to give a small, yet fitting, shout out to the original game. This was especially true, even though it reminded me of Pete from Goof Troop saying all the dirty stuff. Before you say it, yes I know it was the same voice actor, but nothing was done to hide that fact. Please understand, I'm not complaining here.
As anyone who has read up on Splatterhouse would know, they had a pretty heavy soundtrack lined up for the game with a lot of great metal. Only issue I had was that it played for only a few seconds at a time as the enemies would be cleared and fights would be over before you could get into the music. Sometimes fights would be over before the music began and I'd just have Rick stand there while the music finished queuing up. The only time this didn't happen was when it was the classic music given a new mix. I found it easier to play the tracks from my iPod instead of waiting for them in game.
… And Squeeze The Jelly Out!
So how did everything actually play out? For the most part, a lot like any other smash-em-up, platforming game. Go here; smash some enemies. Go further; rip off arms for weapons. Go even further; fill up containers with blood and gore. Rinse. Repeat. Nothing stood out as ground breaking for the genre. Just like Castlevania and Dante's Inferno, it is all the same basic style, just with more blood and visual violence.
As slightly mentioned above, there were "puzzles" in the game to add a bit more than just an endless gore fest. Unfortunately, none of them were really all that challenging. The only ones I had issues with - until I figured out the motivations - were the ones that required ripping an eyeball out of a pillar with specific symbols around it. It started as a guessing game at first until I realized the challenge was to cover certain areas in the blood of enemies to show you which symbols are the ones to select. That, of course, just put it all back into the "We need more than just gore" category for the puzzles.
Another weird thing was the actual boss fights of the game - most of which just resorted to taking on waves after waves of the corrupted until one really big one stepped out. This of course would have been fine except for two things: the boss of the second level was - in my opinion - the only real boss of the game. There were actual waves and on a first play through, a little challenging. I know you are thinking, what about the final boss that had to be a boss right? Unfortunately no, this brings me to the second thing. They took the BioShock 2 way out and just had you defend against wave after wave of Corrupted until a QTE settled it with one colossal Corrupted. Very anti-climatic to have the only real boss so early on.
The House That West Built
So here comes the part where I give you my overall opinion on if the game is worth your money or time. While other reviewers have hammered the game as being a failure, I would disagree. Would I tell you to go out and buy it right now? Only if you are in the market for some truly tasteless gore and humor mixed into an action game. Splatterhouse is really intended for a specific audience and Namco makes no allusion to the contrary. If the videos and images shown to you have piqued your interest at all, then totally give Splatterhouse at least a rent. You could call this a buy if you were a fan of the challenges added to Dante's Inferno or Batman: Arkham Asylum. They will give you a bit more replay after you have hammered through on Brutal difficulty.
Splatterhouse was developed and published by Namco Bandai Games on November 23rd 2010 for the PS3 and XBox 360. The game retails for $59.99. A PS3 copy of the game was supplied by the publisher for review purposes. I beat the game on both Normal and Brutal modes and played a bit in the survival modes.
