Matt Hazard: Bloodbath and Beyond review

Two dimensions, only one joke

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Old-school shooting and jumping

  • +

    Some decent bosses

  • +

    Get to run through Rapture

Cons

  • -

    It's not clever or funny

  • -

    Running and gunning is miserably unambitious

  • -

    Mostly copies other games

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Some people can’t ‘do’ funny no matter how hard they try – and Matt Hazard does try so very hard. His second game ditches the wonky third-person combat in favor of side-scrolling shooting, and ditches the wonky jokes for… erm, yet more wonky jokes and predictable platform game gags.

Once again, Matt’s running through a series of videogame worlds cribbed from other games, hunting for a comedy evil Russian. You’ll visit parodies of BioShock, Mario, Mirror’s Edge and, er, Team Fortress 2. It’s an odd choice of titles – there’s no real comedy value in leaping through an area that looks a bit like Rapture, nor anything remotely clever about the parody.

A greater problem is that the run-and-gun shooting, while pleasant enough, is miserably unambitious. There isn’t much here that Contra or Metal Slug haven’t been doing and perfecting for years, aside from a few decent bosses.

Feb 1, 2010

More info

GenreShooter
DescriptionThis PlayStation Network title has run-and-gun shooting that, while pleasant enough, is miserably unambitious. There isn’t much here that Contra or Metal Slug haven’t been doing and perfecting for years, aside from a few decent bosses.
Platform"PS3","Xbox 360"
US censor rating"Mature","Mature"
UK censor rating"",""
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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Tom Sykes
When he's not dying repeatedly in roguelikes, Tom spends most of his working days writing freelance articles, watching ITV game shows, or acting as a butler for his cat. He's been writing about games since 2008, and he's still waiting on that Vagrant Story 2 reveal.