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REVIEW: HATRED (PC)

3/6/2015

9 Comments

 
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You probably all remember Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Even if you were a mere yoot at the time, its legend lives on. 

Every child has been told the bedtime story of how Radio 1 DJ Mike Read was so disgusted by the song's content ("Relax don't do it/When you want to suck do it/Relax don't do it/When you want to come/Come-oh oh oh") that he refused to play it, leading to a blanket ban across the BBC. 

This was somewhat ironic given we still have nightmares about a 1980s tabloid kiss-and-tell story, in which it was alleged that Read enjoyed making love to the sounds of alternative rock band The Icicle Works. Certainly, that's a mental image we find significantly more disturbing than any abstract call to discharge one's parts.

Anyhow, as a result of Read's moral outrage, Frankie's paean to ejaculation quite literally shot its way to the top of the charts. 

It would be a crushing shame if society had learned nothing in the intervening 30 years.

HATE HATRED?
Reviewing a game like Hatred - all we really feel like telling you about the game itself is that it isn't really very good, just a bit of an empty, flawed, shell of a twin-stick shooter, despite some mostly decent visuals - and getting into a lather is only going to fuel the anti-social notoriety that its makers intended for it. The game isn't accomplished enough to deserve that, least of all anybody's outrage.

Yes, you kill innocent people without any sort of moral context, but it's all bit sad and tragic. With its lead character calling himself The Crusader, it comes across as a studded leather wrist-strap of a game, a post-pubescent stab at self-harm shock that reeks of a failed attempt to provoke a reaction from an apathetic mummy and daddy. 


It has already stoked too much of a furore, already generated a few too many headlines, when really it should've just been released and forgotten. Nothing here earns the attention the game has somehow managed to date. 

All the valid discussions about freedom of artistic expression, that flowed in the wake of Hatred being pulled from Steam Greenlight, should never have been wasted on so insignificant and mediocre a game. 
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IRONY
Of course, the irony is not lost on us that - by choosing to "review" Hatred - we're further adding to its legend. 

Doubtless, right now, there's an army of trenchcoat-clad 17 year-old Hatred supporters punching the air and giving their Sepultura posters a Devil-horns salute, misreading the apathy that the released game has been met with as the terrified, defensive shrieks of a frightened society.

"Hey look - now they're pretending not to be outraged by it," they'll probably cackle to themselves in their undulating, semi-broken bleats.

Ultimately, though, they, you, us, were all pawns in a brilliantly accomplished marketing campaign. That's all Hatred is at the end of the day: an orchestrated media frenzy in search of a better game. It's The Wizard of Oz in black eyeliner, but look behind the leather curtain, and there's very little there.

SUMMARY: A mediocre game that only really succeeds at somehow fuelling undeserved outrage. Time to move on, everyone.
SCORE: 3.534231234 out of 9.431343141110000

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
  • REVIEW: NOT A HERO (PC)
  • REVIEW: WOLFENSTEIN - THE OLD BLOOD (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
  • REVIEW: HOTLINE MIAMI 2 - WRONG NUMBER (PS4/PS3/Vita/PC/M
9 Comments
Da5e
3/6/2015 03:39:52 am

Man, I wish The Kids were still into Sepultura; what's left of that band is doing a 30-year anniversary thing right now and I'm hoping for a proper line-up reformation. Arise is still a tremendous bit of thrashy death metal.

Anyway, Hatred is objectively a bad game, and that made me sad. It also seems to be taking itself seriously - I'd hoped it would be a bit tongue in cheek, but it really isn't. Isn't it an amazing coincidence that Steam changed their policy on refunds the day after this was released?

Reply
dirtysteve
3/6/2015 06:24:16 am

To be fair, there have been plenty of outraged whiners.
Hatred itself is cack tough, and the constant film grain is annoying.

Reply
Super Bad Advice
3/6/2015 08:45:15 am

I saw some footage of this for the first time the other day. It looks hilariously awful and forced - the (faux) hardcore equivalent of all those 'cool' games of the 1990s that were designed by committee and about as genuinely cool as a Marks & Spencer cardigan. At least other gore games like Mortal Kombat know they're absurd. The fact this has been delivered entirely po-faced makes it all the stupider.

I remember an Amiga game in the 1990s called Persian Gulf Inferno that got some notoriety for having the bad guys scream in Arabic and you be able to shoot them in a (for its time) fairly bloody way. That was shit as well.

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Superbeast 37
4/6/2015 12:47:13 am

I posted here some months back saying that it looked unimpressive but I'd buy it as a statement against censorship by the far left authoritarians.

I didn't plan on even installing it but on release day I thought I'd just load it up to see how well it ran on my rig.

To my shock I really enjoyed it. I found the combat to be deep and require a lot of strategy rather than just running in like a nutter guns blazing.

As this type of shooter goes I'd say it is one of the best. I'd describe it as less violent than Hotline Miami but far more fun and deeper.

I don't believe the game "stoked" or "fuelled" outrage or controversy though. As I say it is less violent than Hotline and a large number of other games, I actually found myself laughing out loud too so I don't think it was intended to be shocking either.

If it received more press than it deserved then I'd say that is entirely the fault of those who get offended and outraged as a full time profession. If such people didn't exist there wouldn't be a problem.

To me it is just a mildly violent and amusing twin stick that I personally would award a 7.538 out of 10. At £15 it's worth checking out.

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Da5e
4/6/2015 02:50:34 am

"a statement against censorship by the far left authoritarians"

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Superbeast 37
4/6/2015 03:57:51 am

I think I poorly constructed that sentence! Left wing authoritarians were trying to censor it so I was going to buy it to support my democratic right to choose what I consume.

The press and left wing authoritarians like to give an impression that there is a consensus supporting their views (they just love the fallacy of argumentum ad populum) and the more people that buy the game the more the phony consensus is shown to be just that - phony.

Lex-Man link
4/6/2015 02:02:24 am

I kind of intrigued by this game. The style actually looks pretty good and I quite fancy a dual stick shooter. Also the po faced writing makes me laugh. Might pick drops to about a quid.

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ChorltonWheelie
5/6/2015 12:43:32 pm

I to was going to buy this to stick it to the far left authoritarians and to raise two fingers to the press.

Then the mushrooms wore off and I remembered the press are rabidly right wing and we have a Tory government.....still...Superbeast, Superbeast, Superbeast, Superbeast, Superbeast, Superbeast, Superbeast stickin' it to the made up maaaan Yeah!

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dan de la peche
8/6/2015 01:22:15 pm

I'm just fucked off I live on my own so Dad won't get mad at me if I buy this, thus completely negating any reason to buy it. Fuck you Dad. You can't not tell me what to do, I'm a grownup.

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