Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard Preview

Well, this one from D3 Publisher and Vicious Cycle Software looks interesting. But, is it?

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Character customisation is absent, but you can temporarily endow your weapons with the properties of ice (freeze stuff) or fire (burn stuff) once you've sucked up enough 'code packets' from expiring foes. Two other temporary power-ups can be discovered in the field: 'Maximum Hazard' doubles weapon damage and lets you deliver one-hit melee kills, while 'Master Shield' turns Matt's skin to steel a la the Metal Cap in Super Mario 64.

From the demo we were given by one of Eat Lead's producers, these mechanics come together competently enough but without much spice. On the standard difficulty setting at least, some enemies fall too easily prey to familiar 'peep-out-and-pick-off' tactics. Others are more counterintuitive. Probably the cleverest we were shown were the 2D sprite-based Nazis ported into the fray from Matt's Doom-esque early nineties' adventures, who would dodge bullets by turning side-on to the camera. Headshots proved ineffective, as the technology which made them possible didn't exist when these Krauts were first rendered. Some effort has been made to tailor guns to enemy types: zombies don't like the taste of shotgun pellets, while the aforementioned water pistol works best on the 'SOCOM soakers' - bright neon troopers recycled from one of Marathon Soft's ill-advised jaunts into kiddy gaming.

We were also introduced to one of the game's boss characters, Alto Stratus, the sexless, voluble star of the long-running Penultimate Illusion turn-based role-playing series. No prizes for guessing who they're ripping on there. The ensuing battle was as much a pop culture collision as one of bullets and blades: a little window hung in mid-air near Alto's head, showing him picking spells and techniques from a command list once his turn gauge had filled up. It's definitely worth a giggle or two.

Sadly, one reason this sequence stands out in retrospect is that what we saw, on the whole, wasn't terribly funny. There were smiles here and there - e.g. Matt yelling "Not to trivialise the danger here but I love this cover-to-cover mechanic," - but laugh-out-loud hilarious the script generally isn't. One reason for this may be Mr Hazard himself: it's hard to chuckle along with some cheesy macho '90s throwback (voiced by Will Arnett, would you believe), even when he's dishing out self-referential acid. Nor did we see much evidence that the contemporary tactical shooter template Matt has come to inhabit would receive the same treatment as Final Fantasy's text boxes. A few potshots at Marcus Fenix and co certainly wouldn't go amiss.

When we first set eyes on Eat Lead we were afraid it would be too much of a parody, a loose succession of gags and spoofs with no real identity beyond what it irreverently appropriates from other games. That fear can be laid to rest, but another one has risen in its place - that the satire is mere window dressing for a bland experience. Ultimately, if you can't provide a compelling alternative to the thing you're mocking, the joke's on you.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is coming to Xbox 360 and PS3 this Spring.

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