Splatterhouse

Hmm a game which combines huge amounts of gore, a heavy metal soundtrack and arcade style combat. How could anything possibly go wrong??

Well depending on your perspective it doesn't.

For those who have not heard of the Splatterhouse series. It started off in 1988 with an arcade game released by Namco. The premise was you played Rick whose girlfriend had been kidnapped by the evil Dr West while sheltering within his Mansion. The twist was that Rick had been killed and then resurrected with the help of the Terror Mask, turning him into a mask wearing maniac, imagine Jason Voorhes on steroids, who then travelled through the mansion defeating Dr West's twisted creations to save your girlfriend. The game itself was a side-scrolling beat 'em up which was made famous by its blood and gore and notorious difficulty. The game spawned two sequels both which were reasonably successful and created a loyal fanbase, the last sequel released in 1993.

Over 15 years later, a next generation version has been released. The story line is pretty much the same, you play Rick your girlfriend has been kidnapped by Dr West, you've been killed and then resurrected by the Terror mask. However the game deals a little bit more with why Dr West has done what he has done. But to be honest like any good B-Movie the plot isn't important, and in many aspects Splatterhouse is the B-movie of games.

The gameplay itself is very simple, heavy and light attacks, a grab button, jump button, dash and block. That's it simplicity itself. THis game is not going to tax your brain, even the combos are simple but this game isn't designed to be complicated, just fun.

The first thing you'll notice is its gory, and I mean gory. There is blood everywhere in this game often dripping from the screen or pumping from the recently removed limbs of your enemies. And it doesn't stop, considering that you gain power and experience from collecting blood it's not that surprising. When you pull off your death moves the gore kicks into overdrive with stomachs hearts ripped out of peoples throats, stomachs pulled through rectums and various limbs ripped off in various different ways.

Rick himself even gets his fair share of damage. Certain creatures will slice off Ricks arm in one go but Rick has no fear,he just picks up his arm and batters the enemy to death while waiting for his arm to regrow. And if his arm isn't around, there's chainsaws, shotguns, 2x4 and other various weapons of carnage to pick up and use. And if all else fails he can turn into a super pumped version of himself or spikes and claws to cause more carnage with.

Most of the game you will find yourself in a fully 3D environment travelling from one area to another defeating all the enemies you come across before moving on. There are parts where the game pays homage to its roots with side scrolling parts where there are traps to avoid, but these are far and few between. There are a couple of sets of collectibles, one being recordings of Dr West's journal which give you background information and the other is torn pieces of pictures of your girlfriend Jenny in various soft porn poses, so if digital nude pictures of women are your thing then your sorted!! As an added bonus though the original 3 Splatterhouse games are also included on this disc as unlockables so you can experience the whole series, which I'd recommend trying though they are not easy games. There is also a separate survival mode where you fight wave after wave of creatures for a set number of rounds and then get graded on your performance.

The other noteworthy thing about this game is its soundtrack. The original score is takes on the original theme from the first game however the licensed tracks come from bands such as Cavalera Conspiracy, Five Finger Death Punch, Goat Whore, The Haunted, Municipal Waste, Lamb of God, Mastodon and more. The tracks work well and if your a metalhead, there is nothing better than ripping off someones head to the dulcet tones of Max Cavalera.

However its not all good news. As you can probably guess, variety is short on the ground. After a while even this much carnage gets dull, it didn't affect me too much a I played the game in several sessions, however if you sat and played through this in one sitting you may well get bored. Also the side scrolling sections suffer from some bad jump animation causing the odd death plummet you were sure you'd missed. I also found rare game breaking glitches, though these only happened the once and may well have been patched by now.Also the voice acting is hit and miss. Dr West hams it up big time, but the banter between Rick and the mask can has very comical moments as well.

The end of the game is also a bit of a let down with no real boss to kill. There are boss fights throughout the game but they are simple whack the health down to a certain point then QTE yourself to victory. In fact the game is very easy once you understand the enemies apart from one incredibly overpowered enemy which will wipe you out in two hits, you won't struggle through this on the normal difficulty and if you leave the hard difficulty to your second playthrough Rick will be so powerful that you'll walk it even easier than your first run.

And that is its problem, its not going to take you long to finish this game. Even all the Achievements won't strain you with the survival arena achievement being the hardest to get and once you've got a strategy your sorted.

So would I recommend you buy this game. Well if your a fan of the original games you probably have already played this. Anyone else, well if you want to waste a few hours playing a fun game which you can switch your brain off and enjoy the carnage I would.

It's not the most high concept game with the most intricate ideas but much like the B-movies it takes its inspiration from, its fun and gory and knows it .

7.5/10

The Daily mails worst nightmare

It's definitely a fun game but not worth a full price release. If this had come out on XBLA it would have been one of the best games on there. I can imagine it gets quite tedious if you wanna get all the achievements

I think the only tedious achievements are the arena ones. If you play through on normal difficulty first then through on hard picking up any achievements you missed first time round its quite fun. Although harder your character is so tough he waltzs through the bad guys making it just pure gory fun!

got this on sale and cant wait to play it

Great review, I loved the game. Lovefilmed it and maxed it out over a weekend

Excellent review Tenners!!

I'm glad you've reviewed this. It deserves a bit of promotion from our impartial, open minded GSA reviewers. Very decent game! You've made me want to boot it up now!!

Colne Crusader wrote:Excellent review Tenners!!

I'm glad you've reviewed this. It deserves a bit of promotion from our impartial, open minded GSA reviewers. Very decent game! You've made me want to boot it up now!!

I don't know it takes Colne almost a year to read one of my first reviews, tsk tsk!!

Thanks for the good words though!

Tenlo I think it's because Colne is now my stalker, he's following my posts now

Doh! I can see irony is lost on you dimwits!!

Started this last night and its none too shabby

A bit dull and a bit annoying but its a reasonable button masher


Only trouble for me is the loading times which are ridiculous

How a designer is allowed to release a title that does not cache a level so that the fucker does not have to reload everytime you die is beyond me. Seriously some of the parts of this game are very frustrating and tricky and having to wait 30 seconds or more each time you die is uttter bollox

I will battle on as the actual game is ok but with a bit of polish and some beta testers that were not on acid and it could have been great



After another 4 hours on this last night of which I guess 3 were loading screen watching, I can only state that this game is actually toss

I have no real problem with a difficult platform section in a game, but when the controls are cock and then you get a load screen followed by a dull cut scene every time you fail, it just makes me want to snap the disc

I will persevere for the ach points, but having given this title enough effort now I would advise anyone else not to purchase it

It starts off ok but the ill thought out platform sections and the loading times make it a thoroughly dismal game

Started playing this again last week. I'm approaching the end now, and I must say, i'm quite glad I played it really. I wouldn't like to have paid full whack for it, but I've quite enjoyed some sections. There are some really good moments that I'm glad I haven't missed out on! The camera can be annoying, as it doesn't fall in behind you as you run forwards like you might expect. It is fully manual, which took a little getting used to in a game like this that constantly surrounds you with foes. Also, as Everton said, the load times when you die are horrendous. Just as well, I haven't died very much! I also agree with the other points raised above, but I am enjoying my linear, mindless bloodbath. It's quite refreshing!!