Raze's Hell Review

Raze’s Hell is a third-person-shooter where instead of hunting aliens or demons, you hunt cute and cuddly little creatures bent on taking over your homeland. It is a fairly average shooter at its core, but the social commentary, the joy of sticking it to disgustingly cute characters, and the $19.99 pricetag make this a game that is still worth playing.

Story and Features

The story in Raze’s Hell is about a kingdom of cute and cuddly critters called Kewletts that decide to bring joy to the ugly and pathetic creatures that live outside their borders. Their idea of freedom and happiness, however, is in reality genocide and they begin killing off entire villages. Your character is named Raze and he is one of the creatures the Kewletts are out to eliminate. Raze stumbles across an ancient relic and is granted amazing powers which he then uses to take out the invading Kewletts. At its heart, Raze’s Hell’s story is a commentary on the war in Iraq (since the Kewletts are going out to “save” those that didn’t really need saved), but it is done with tongue firmly in cheek so it never feels too overbearing or politically motivated.

In addition to the single-player story mode, Raze’s Hell also has a nice collection of minigames, a co-op mode, and Xbox Live play. The Xbox Live play is made up of fairly standard deathmatch modes, but it is fun for a while and very much appreciated coming from a budget title.

Gameplay

Raze’s Hell is a straightforward third-person-shooter that focuses on straight up action rather than puzzle solving or item collecting or exploration. You just move from firefight to firefight against the Kewletts but the game is well paced and the combat is interesting enough that it doesn’t feel repetitive. The game is also fairly challenging and the odds are never in your favor, but you have an impressive arsenal of weapons at your disposal. In the game, your ammunition is a special fruit you pick from strange trees, but functionally, you weapons are just shotguns, sniper rifles, and grenade launchers. You also have a melee attack that you can use for close quarters combat. All of the shooting and combat is well implemented and the controls are fairly intuitive. You can flow from shooting to melee attacks effortlessly and that really helps to keep the game moving forward at a brisk pace. It doesn’t really do anything new or different from what we have seen in other shooters, but it is still very fun. The only real complaint I have about the gameplay is that it sort of feels like you are sliding around on ice as you move around, but you get used to it and the game is enjoyable overall.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, Raze’s Hell uses a very distinct art style that works well. It isn’t the most visually stunning game you’ll find on the Xbox, but it features huge levels and lots of special effects so it looks pretty good as a whole. The design of the Kewletts is right at that perfect level of being too cute for their own good and it is fun and satisfying to mow them down during combat.

The sound is also well done. This is a surprisingly funny game and the Kewletts are always yelling hilarious stuff as they run into battle. Some of the best moments are when you sneak up on Kewletts having a conversation about the horrors of the war or when they will comment on the game’s budget price. The voice acting is well done and the great dialogue really adds to the appeal of Raze’s Hell. Sound effects for the various weapons sound good as well and the music suits the mood of the game very well even if it isn’t all that memorable.

Bottom Line

There are better games out there for the Xbox, but with a price tag of only $19.99, Raze’s Hell is definitely worth adding to your collection. It is an undeniably funny game and being able to finally take out all of the cute and cuddlies of the world is surprisingly satisfying. The gameplay is fairly standard third-person-shooter fare, but the whole package of the humor and the nice graphics and sound make up for it. Raze’s Hell also includes a co-op mode and Xbox Live play, so this is a great value. I highly recommend Raze’s Hell for at least a rental but it is worth buying at this price.