Splatterhouse is not for the faint of heart. This game is bloody, really, really bloody. I'm talking about God of War 3 only pumps out 1/4 the amount of blood Splatterhouse does. So if you can get past that then you're in for a pretty mediocre game (WARNING THE USE OF THE WORD MEDIOCRE WILL BE USED MANY TIMES THROUGHOUT THIS REVIEW).
Splatterhouse is about a guy named Rick, whose girlfriend gets kidnapped by a mad scientist/demon. The demontist (demon + scientist) kills you, your friends from high school (which is weird since your character look like he's in his late 20's), and takes your girlfriend. Man you're having a bad day. So in order to help you get revenge a demonic blood thirsty mask god comes to you aid, and together you embark on a journey of revenge and blood guzzling.
Splatterhouse gameplay is very similar to God of War. The button commands are the same, and the QTE's are similar, but use the left and right sticks instead of the face buttons. The combat in Splatterhouse is simple, but enjoyable. You can level up Rick's abilities by spending blood points on the skill tree menu. They offer various abilities like health increase, new combos, and weapon longevity. Speaking of weapons you can pick up random weapons over the course of the game. Weapons can be things like a metal pipes, spiked slabs of wood, and even limbs. Later on you get a shotgun.
The problem I ran into was with enemy damage. Minor enemies can kill you in a couple of hits, which wouldn't be a problem if you didn't have to unload twice as many hits on them, while fending off 10 of them at a time, and having to recharge your health at the same time. When you first begin playing the game it's like the developers purposely designed this to make the game harder than it needed to be. But over time you get use to it. But one thing you'll never get use to is the camera. Overall the camera is decent, but when you need it most the cameras decides to make things harder for you and look everywhere, but where you need it.
The majority of the game is very linear, because it takes place in a mansion. Later you're teleported to different worlds, but they do nothing to break apart the linearity or the drab look of the game.
Graphically and Technically Splatterhouse is amazingly mediocre. The game looks mediocre, but the cut scenes look good. The framerate is generally steady, but it does drop once in a while. Rick's character model looks good, as do some of the bosses, but overall the game looks very mediocre.
The voice work is surprisingly acceptable. It's not the best, but no one sound out of place. Music music however, is problematic. I'm not a death rock fan, but technically I heard loops clipping in, and ultimately it doesn't do anything to move the game along. It's just a place holder, and there are parts in the game that have no music at all which I guess is for the best.
Overall Splatterhouse isn't a bad game, it's just not a good one. It's trapped in mediocrity limbo, and unfortunately no one wants mediocrity anymore. It's a mediocre length clocked in at about 7 hours long, and unfortunately ends on a cliffhanger when the changes of a sequel coming out are highly unlikely. Splatterhouse is a game you can rent if you liked God of War and Dante's Inferno, but for $60 it's not a buy at all. Splatterhouse would have been better suited as a $20 PSN/XBLA game, and probably would have gotten a more lenient review. But nevertheless for Splatterhouse manages to make it's mark nowhere besides being a decent game that was overlooked by everyone.
With these hidden gems to add to your backlog, it’s time to give some bangers the shine they deserve.
Numbers 6-9 were some of my absolute favorite early gen PS3 games. I'm still bitter about Incognito and Japan Studio.
The white knight chronicles and infamous games really need to come to modern platforms. MAG I really miss...poor zipper. The ps3 was definitely a unique console despite it being the worst home console of PlayStation.
The PS3 era was a happy time, so let's look back on some of its games that flew well under the radar.
One of my favourite games.
I played all the games in the list, it is a good list but there were plenty of other overlooked gems. Several have been remastered now e.g. Catherine, Red Faction, Kingdoms of Amalur.
Some more you could add, Space Marine, Singularity, Killer is Dead, and a whole bunch of indies like Deathspank, Critter Crunch, The Last Guy.
Haze is the greatest PlayStation 3 game to ever launch, it took first person shooting to a whole new level. Just shocked it never got a remake on PlayStation 5.
Sad that the team behind Dante inferno did not get their chance to finish the story. They had two other games planned
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Remember Me
Folklore
Tales of Graces f
3D Dot Game Heroes
The Darkness
Enslaved is a terrible port on the PS3 mind you, it's a great game though. But the PS3 version is....brutally ass. I wish I opted for the 360 version when I played trough it a few years back lol.
There’s some gems in the list but as far as “should play” MAG would be in a “should’ve played” for sure
Indeed. A bit hard to play a game that was entirely online with shutdown servers. A shame that it went from a game that could have been remembered for what it was, and instead is remembered as a poster child for why you should be wary of entirely online games.
I enjoyed it while it lasted, thoroughly.
I had the most kills with my knife, I’d sneak ALL game, destroying AA batteries 🔪
Too bad the industry hadn’t figured out how yet to support online games long term with additional content and MTXs.
Heck yes. MAG was one of the most satisfying fps I've ever played. Definitely miss it!
Bloody Disgusting looks back at the gory hit Splatterhouse as it celebrates its 30th Birthday.
Good review. Might give a try a this game.
Very precise review, and I definitely felt the same way when I played through it. I wrote a review of this myself for some friends on my clan's forum, though I was a little harsher with the score and critiquing. There are some areas I'd like to mention with this as well... jittery camera movements, completely inconsistent framerate issues with many dropped frames, unresponsive controls, and certain areas where the game simply is "broken" (these sometimes occur with the "jumping" sequences, where randomly the area you highlight to jump to, you will be unable to jump over to, no matter how many times you try. This will require at least restarting the game to fix the issue).
Also, like you said, the balancing is very far off, with some of the creature types being far too easy, while completely overpowering others. In my opinion, the voice acting for the mask was pretty good (and I'm pretty sure he or someone similar sounding was also the voice of several announcer spots for old cartoons, as well as playing Psy-crow in the Earthworm Jim cartoon), however I felt that most of the other characters were not really all that decent. Of course, they didn't have much to work with, given the script, but I felt like they could have done a much better job.
The upsides for me, were that they included "Hollow Ground" by The Haunted (back in their heyday), the game was entertaining enough, and that for the first couple hours it can be a fun time. However, the negative really outweighs the good in it I think, and as you said, for $20 or less, it could have been pretty good, but I for one am glad that I only rented it. I had it beaten within one night's time, including breaks, and the survival really didn't hold my interest very long, as it was more of the same repetitive gameplay, over-use of blood and gore, and the one-liners I'd just endured in the main game.
I HATE regenerating health.
Good review, but shouldn't a Mediocre game get 5/10 - being right in the middle of bad/good?
If you consider 7/10 to be mediocre, why do you need 1-6/10 to explain how bad a game is, and only 8-10/10 to explain how good it is?