Review: Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
A video game that parodies other video games? I was intrigued too. Not a game with massive publicity or massive appeal, Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is a third person shooter that seems to have been made purely to mock other games. It’s a simplistic, fairly rudimentary shooter that shines more in its storytelling than its core gameplay, but even then, it’s not a masterpiece. Matt Hazard is a failing video game character, who starred in a series of very popular video games before losing his appeal and being shunned for a young, new model. However, he’s called back into action, but all is not what it seems. Straight from the off, the mockery begins, a slightly average tutorial highlighting flaws in video games that feature shooters. Unfortunately, the gameplay never gets any better. The game is a standard “shoot everything in sight to get to the next checkpoint” shooter, and nothing more, although at points in the game, the average shooting mechanics are not as noticeable, when you meet enemies and characters in game that spoof video game characters from all over the place, my highlight being a boss battle which pits you against a Japanese RPG character who can only speak via text boxes. The mocking of the ellipsis is one of the high points of the game’s spoofing.
One of the many spoof characters in the game. Personally, my favourite.
I can’t particularly fault the game’s witty, entertaining script, but I have this feeling that the game wasn’t made for the gameplay, and the story was more important. The generic enemies and overall shoddy feel to the gameplay feels deliberate, to point flaws in other games, but therein lies the problem, as you are meant to play the game rather than like a spoof film, where you just watch it taking place. The gameplay in general is bearable though, which makes the game slightly enjoyable outside of the cut scenes and story. The game as a whole is entertaining and fun, but it certainly isn’t a purchase. The storyline is a mere 4-5 hours at best, and the boss fights can be incredibly frustrating. However, the achievements pop up like wildfire, and the game has enough redeeming factors to make it worthy of some of your time. It has minimal replayability, but one playthrough is all you need here. It’s clear that the developers had fun making this game, and it’s definitely one of a kind. It’s an experiment in video gaming, the jokey nature pointing out the flaws in other video games making the game’s entertainment value very high at times. Not a purchase, but it’s a game that should be played.
Rating: 
P.S. Neil Patrick Harris voices the bad guy in the game, so that’s gotta bump up the interest value here a little, surely?
From reading the article it seems that there is a great idea in this game, but it would have done better as a short-movie?