Splatterhouse Review

Splatterhouse is a name that will resonate with old school gamers. Namco Bandai is looking to revive the series and make the name known to more players through their reimagining. The game stars Rick, his girlfriend Jennifer, and the psychotic Dr. West. After receiving an invitation to Dr. West’s mansion for an interview Jennifer heads there accompanied by Rick who decided to tag along to look after her. Shortly upon arriving Dr. West appears and kidnaps Jennifer while Rick is fatally wounded by the Corrupted Dr. West releases. Laying in his own blood, intestines hanging out, Rick notices the Terror Mask laying within arms reach in his pool of blood. The mask promises to aid him in his quest to save Jeniifer at which point they can part ways. This is where the duo’s journey begins.

HOT

Gore
If there’s one thing Splatterhouse has plenty of it is gore. Ranging from the dismemberments to quick kills to the sheer amount of blood you will spill that could replace the Earth’s oceans. After transforming into the Hulk sans the green skin Rick can deal out a world of hurt. Due to his new found strength Rick doesn’t have to worry about his fragile human body anymore since the Terror Mask has granted him regenerative abilities which are visibly seen through the bodies condition. This is another instance of the gore levels. Rick’s body can be ravaged and torn apart literally after long battles. Ribs are broken and exposed through huge gashes in the skin. Even his arm can be completely chopped off and only time will heal this wound. Eventually the bone regenerates along with the muscle and skin on top of that. Aside from personal harm Rick really does dish out the pain. His enemies will be torn apart in almost every way possible. This ranges from getting their head crushed between Rick’s large hands to having their colon ripped out through their anus (this is not a joke).

The most brutal kills come in the form of Splatterkills. These special kills are available after an enemy has been weakened to the point that they are outlined in red. This applies to both the common enemies and the boss characters. In the beginning levels players will see a lot of spines separated near the hips and arms casually ripped from their sockets. Some kills can’t even fully be described with text and must be seen to understand. For example, one monster has his leech-like head fisted in and out of his neck numerous times before having it ripped out entirely. These are things you cannot unsee.

Combat Efficiency
The combat in Splatterhouse won’t win any awards for innovation, but it does the job when it contacts with the enemy. The moves are powerful and definitely show their impact. Punches land with loud thuds, spurting blood, and sometimes launching the enemy across the room. As upgrades are purchased in the different areas regarding combat Rick’s unarmed combat efficiency is only strengthened. The grabs result in delivering a deft kick into the chest of your opponent causing him to fly away from you. If the attack button is held after a grab the enemy can be aimed in any direction to make him a missile through his accompanying Corrupted buddies. Combat also gets a boost from the Berserker mode. Rick is already a beast as is and this form he temporarily transforms into makes him an unstoppable force that leaves nothing but red covered rooms behind him. Spikes break through the skin on his back and blades come forth from his arms. Enemies can be diced into small pieces or a ground pound can be done to raise shards of bone from the ground. However, Rick won’t be limited to his fists the entire game.

Throughout the campaign there will be many weapons scattered on the ground. The most common of these is the 2×4. The melee weapons provide increased damage and specific moves. The 2×4 is used as a blunt object whereas the cleaver is used to dice the enemy to bits limb by limb. And speaking of limbs those are possible weapons too. Enemies torn off arms can be turned around on the remaining foes along with any decapitated heads. The best use of this comes when Rick has his own arm cut off and then it is picked up in order to beat down the enemy who made the mistake of severing it in the first place. The last type of weapon is ranged. The shotgun is extremely powerful, but as the rest of the weapons it can only be used so much before it is gone.

Story
Splatterhouse’s story sticks mostly with the original title, but with a few changes and additions. Rick has accompanied Jennifer to Dr. West’s mansion for her interview just to look out for her. Not to mention they have a date planned afterwards and, as Jennifer is unaware, Rick has brought along a ring. Unfortunately, the romance is ended before it begins as Dr. West unleashes the Corrupted upon the couple kidnapping Jennifer and mortally wounding Rick. The Terror Mask is conveniently placed within Rick’s reach as the life fades from him. In order to survive and save Jennifer Rick must don the Terror Mask which transforms him physically. The Terror Mask has a personality all of its own and it talks to Rick constantly throughout the story providing advice, information, and mostly pointless banter. The new duo fight their way through waves of Corrupted in order to confront Dr. West and get to Jennifer before it’s too late.

Environments
The gore isn’t the only visually interesting piece present in the game. The environments have their own dark and ominous feel which complements the blood that will inevitably be covering them. Dr. West’s mansion is the first place visited and it is filled with narrow hallways, creepy paintings, crumbled architecture, and other signs showing lack of maintenance. Later levels show rooms transformed into bloody muscle covered from floor to ceiling. One of my personal favorites was the Corrupted Carnival. It isn’t the most original setting, but it does include some disturbing imagery. One of these set pieces was the Statue of Liberty’s head with the eye and mouth missing. These empty openings were soon replaced by a demon eye on mouth making the statue look alive and devilish.

Classic Adventures
Those old fans of Splatterhouse will be pleased to know that the prior 3 games were included. Of course these aren’t available from the beginning. As the player reaches certain chapters in the campaign the old games will be unlocked in order. Those who loved the originals will find a lot of joy replaying them. For those of you who are visiting Splatterhouse for the first time may find this inclusion beneficial to aid your knowledge of the title’s roots.

NOT

Combat Effectiveness
As I stated above, the game’s combat is effective…when it works. Due to poor hit detection some fights can switch in favor to the enemy in the blink of an eye. Rick’s punches seem to be hitting the enemy, but they’ll stand there unaffected by his attempts. It’s extremely frustrating during boss battles or the later timed levels as it is crucial to make every punch count. There were numerous times when Rick was standing at the side of an enemy and an entire combo completed without any contacts. Obviously this left our protagonist completely exposed and he was punished accordingly by the surrounding enemies. Not only does Rick have trouble hitting his target, but sometimes the hit detection causes stationary enemies to hurt him. An example of this is shortly after dodging a boss’ swing attack his now motionless arm still caused Rick to get knocked away from him with a decent amount of health lost. As said earlier, later levels require consistent and precise combos especially on the harder difficulty to stay alive.

Platforming
It’s understandable that the game wanted to switch up the pace in order to keep the experience from becoming repetitive, but this wasn’t the answer. Well, it could have been the answer. The execution of this feature was so poor and pointless not to mention that it didn’t exactly play out properly half the time. Some areas have latches to jump between to reach other areas. This is mainly a X/A bashing point until Rick reaches his destination. Although there were many times where the latches were highlighted and the jump was not made for whatever reason as if there were any other possible places that made sense to jump to.

Side-Scrolling
These moments in the game were implemented as a call back to the classic Splatterhouse games. I wish I could say they were a wonderful addition, but obviously that won’t be the case seeing as how this section made it in the NOT section. The side-scrolling sections were dreaded each time the camera angle changed to this new perspective. It is annoying due to the fact that the player will face their fair share of cheap deaths. Sometimes it’s because Rick decides instead of jumping a good distance forward he would rather hop a foot ahead off the ledge. Other times its because of the one hit kill hazards. Death in these sections rewards the player with getting to start from the very beginning. I believe only one side-scrolling part included a checkpoint. The rest make it mandatory that you reach the end without dying.

Load Times
Here’s another huge gripe players will have with the game. For a next gen game these load times are unacceptable. Even if the player is immersed in the story and characters of Splatterhouse that immersion can be easily lost during the long wait periods they will endure as they try to progress or come back from a death. It also doesn’t help that the content on the load screens is annoying as hell. Enjoy choppy clips of Corrupted making noise. And don’t worry, the load times are long enough to make sure it loops plenty of times for you.

Glitches
The game has its fair share of problems. Amongst these are glitches. The most prominent is when the game decides to lock up for a few seconds at a time. As games have continued to be spit out onto the market I’ve come to terms that most games will be released prematurely with bugs present and awaiting a patch, but when the rest of the game barely captures the attention of its audience this is very hard to forgive.

Camera
Third person games are no stranger to camera problem and this game is no exception. Accompanying poor hit detection the camera angles can provide moments where the player is completely side swiped by an enemy that was previously unseen off screen. These just become more instances to add to your annoyances compiled on this disc.

Verdict

Splatterhouse could have been a great arcade style remake, but it ended up being weighed down by countless issues. The gore is entertaining at first, but is barely a mechanic to revolve a game around entirely. The story is a fun ride for the most part especially if you can find the differences from the classic. The classics are also available as a fun diversion from the main campaigns mediocrity. Aside from that though the game is plagued with glitches, combat shortcomings, and disappointing mechanics that weren’t fully developed. Hard core fans only need apply.

[Editor’s Note: Splatterhouse was reviewed on the Xbox 360 hardware. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]