Preview
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard Preview (Xbox360)
Funny games are tough to do. Arguably, you could count the number of genuinely funny videogame narratives on one hand. Monkey Island, Ratchet and Clank, Sam and Max…and we’re beginning to struggle. However, Eat Lead could prove to be refreshingly different, with a rich vein of potential comedy attached to its uniquely novel premise. Eat Lead: The Return Of Matt Hazard features the titular hero, star of his own line of celebrated games on the fictional Marathon label who’s recently down on his luck and eager to step into a next-gen adventure after a prolonged absence.
With a fabricated back catalogue harking back to the 8-bit days, Eat Lead riffs on a range of fondly remembered games from yesteryear such as Super Mario Bros, right up to modern classics like Gears Of War via Mario Kart and Duke Nukem 3D. So convincing is Matt’s back catalogue, the cover art mislead some journos at the recent press unveiling into wondering why they couldn’t remember the character. See the mock fan website to find out how the ingenious marketing campaign has been fooling people at www.doyouremembermatthazard.com Eat Lead is ripe with loving homage to old videogame clichés and stereotypes, illustrated in not so subtle characters like Captain Carpenter, a rotund platforming hero with a penchant for exploring underground pipes or Master Chef, a familiar space marine character apparently missing an ‘i’ from the latter half of his name.
With the Marathon game label resurrected by shady tycoon Wallace ‘Wally’ Wellesley and renamed Marathon Megasoft, Hazard is brought out of retirement to star in Eat Lead – his triumphant comeback. It’s all a bit post-modern and sees Hazard - who’s life currently exists outside of the videogame – returning to the kind of kick-ass action that once made him so famous and beloved by all. Think along the lines of the oft delayed, long gestating Duke Nukem Forever and you’re getting close to what Eat Lead is all about. A washed-up videogame hero recently mired by numerous setbacks, heading towards a steady descent into obscurity, Hazard is lured by the proposition of regained glory causing him to walk right into a trap set by the manipulative Wally Wellesley. Ensnared within the confines of his latest outing, it’s up to you to foil Wellesey’s plot to kill Hazard and ultimately escape the many dangers posed by the game.
As videogame set-ups go, Eat Lead’s is a doozy. And with a script written by lauded, award winning games writer Dave Ellis of Dead Head Fred fame, the dialogue is guaranteed to be sharp and witty. Every so often, Matt will chime in with a quip whenever he pops a bad guy, our favourite so far being “A shot in the head is worth two in the chest!” Voiced by Arrested Development’s Will Arnett, Hazard sounds just the part, his gruff, gravely tones and comic inflection a perfect fit for the character. And although we didn’t get the chance to hear Neil Patrick Harris (aka Doogie Howser, M.D.) as the voice of the nefarious Wally Wellesley, the prospect is a promising one.
This elaborate set-up is not just an excuse for a Gears Of War-style, deep-cover-utilising, third person shoot ‘em up though. No, it is actually, but there’s much more to Eat Lead than initially meets the eye. Firstly, there’s the innovative Point-and-Cover mechanic, which allows you to direct your aiming reticule at any surface you want Matt to sidle up to for cover. A simple button tap then sends him dashing over to press against it amidst zinging bullets. There’s also the opportunity for the scenery to transform at any given moment due to intentional glitches caused by ‘hack effects’ that occur at pre-defined moments during the course of the game. For instance, the demo we were shown opened in the back of a butcher’s shop, slap bang in the middle of an intense shootout against a horde of white-apron-wearing, gun toting offal carvers. After a static line cuts across the screen, a word in Matt’s ear emanates from his disembodied advisor, ‘QA.’ Through the subsequent door a dusty Wild West street unfolds, complete with authentic wooden store fronts, whisky swilling villains and six shooters at dawn. After dispatching a wave of hostile cowboys and scooping up a powerful revolver, the demo returned to the butcher’s freezer now plagued by shambling undead versions of the enemies that had been killed moments earlier.
Matt will encounter multiple moments like this one, where the scenery can change seemingly on the fly presenting fresh challenges in the shape of a variety of enemies plucked from his previous fictional outings. Even from this short demo sequence, it’s clearly apparent that Vicious Cycle have hit upon something pretty special with the fundamental foundations for their game. The hack effects give the developer carte blanche to change the game’s setting whenever they like, to whatever they like. Well-timed changes in surroundings, weapons and characters will ensure that Eat Lead never lulls, keeping the pace fast and the gameplay varied. There’s also an eclectic range of weapons on offer - from pistols to plasma rifles - Eat Lead’s range of weapons recalls the diverse arsenal available in the superlative TimeSplitters.
Eat Lead’s narrative acknowledges that Matt is trapped within a game and as such the protagonist too is fully aware that he’s confined by certain rules and boundaries which exist within the context of videogame custom. If there’s a dancefloor filled with badly animated clones for instance, it’s the designer’s way of flagging up and spoofing an old videogame cliché rather than an excuse for lazy design. That’s the idea anyway, and Matt constantly chimes in with wry asides and observations. There are aspects of the game that fail to fit into the remit of a stereotypically meat-headed shooter though. For a game so in love with 80’s action movies the lack of blood is a minor disappointment for starters. Instead enemies ‘de-res’ into blue clouds of pixellated code, which Matt absorbs in order to learn new abilities and gain a boost to his attributes. Matt is also restricted to carrying only two of any weapon at once - so a rocket launcher can be carried alongside a grenade launcher for example – but it still seems odd that a title so self-consciously playing upon videogame conventions should make a concession to the number of weapons you can transport. Surely it would be more fitting to have Matt laden with guns and ammo like a geared up Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando.
Lead through the hands-off demo by producer Brian Etheridge (check back soon for our interview), Eat Lead is already showing a fair degree of polish despite the lack of facial animation or lip-syncing at this relatively early pre-alpha stage. Running on the developer’s proprietary Vicious Engine 2.0, Etheridge asserts that there are still major tweaks to the camera and melee system to be applied before release, and some visual elements are still placeholder. Nevertheless, Eat Lead is shaping up to be a solid third person shooter with a brilliantly sardonic sense of humour at its core. The choice of voice talent is spot-on and the idea is sound. Here’s hoping that Eat Lead manages to live up to its potential proving to be more than just the sum of its individual parts. After all, it wouldn’t be funny if Eat Lead turned out to be an abject failure. Judging by Matt Hazard’s first showing, we can’t currently imagine what could possibly go wrong. Rest assured, we’ll be back…
With a fabricated back catalogue harking back to the 8-bit days, Eat Lead riffs on a range of fondly remembered games from yesteryear such as Super Mario Bros, right up to modern classics like Gears Of War via Mario Kart and Duke Nukem 3D. So convincing is Matt’s back catalogue, the cover art mislead some journos at the recent press unveiling into wondering why they couldn’t remember the character. See the mock fan website to find out how the ingenious marketing campaign has been fooling people at www.doyouremembermatthazard.com Eat Lead is ripe with loving homage to old videogame clichés and stereotypes, illustrated in not so subtle characters like Captain Carpenter, a rotund platforming hero with a penchant for exploring underground pipes or Master Chef, a familiar space marine character apparently missing an ‘i’ from the latter half of his name.
 |
 |
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With the Marathon game label resurrected by shady tycoon Wallace ‘Wally’ Wellesley and renamed Marathon Megasoft, Hazard is brought out of retirement to star in Eat Lead – his triumphant comeback. It’s all a bit post-modern and sees Hazard - who’s life currently exists outside of the videogame – returning to the kind of kick-ass action that once made him so famous and beloved by all. Think along the lines of the oft delayed, long gestating Duke Nukem Forever and you’re getting close to what Eat Lead is all about. A washed-up videogame hero recently mired by numerous setbacks, heading towards a steady descent into obscurity, Hazard is lured by the proposition of regained glory causing him to walk right into a trap set by the manipulative Wally Wellesley. Ensnared within the confines of his latest outing, it’s up to you to foil Wellesey’s plot to kill Hazard and ultimately escape the many dangers posed by the game.
As videogame set-ups go, Eat Lead’s is a doozy. And with a script written by lauded, award winning games writer Dave Ellis of Dead Head Fred fame, the dialogue is guaranteed to be sharp and witty. Every so often, Matt will chime in with a quip whenever he pops a bad guy, our favourite so far being “A shot in the head is worth two in the chest!” Voiced by Arrested Development’s Will Arnett, Hazard sounds just the part, his gruff, gravely tones and comic inflection a perfect fit for the character. And although we didn’t get the chance to hear Neil Patrick Harris (aka Doogie Howser, M.D.) as the voice of the nefarious Wally Wellesley, the prospect is a promising one.
 |
 |
|
This elaborate set-up is not just an excuse for a Gears Of War-style, deep-cover-utilising, third person shoot ‘em up though. No, it is actually, but there’s much more to Eat Lead than initially meets the eye. Firstly, there’s the innovative Point-and-Cover mechanic, which allows you to direct your aiming reticule at any surface you want Matt to sidle up to for cover. A simple button tap then sends him dashing over to press against it amidst zinging bullets. There’s also the opportunity for the scenery to transform at any given moment due to intentional glitches caused by ‘hack effects’ that occur at pre-defined moments during the course of the game. For instance, the demo we were shown opened in the back of a butcher’s shop, slap bang in the middle of an intense shootout against a horde of white-apron-wearing, gun toting offal carvers. After a static line cuts across the screen, a word in Matt’s ear emanates from his disembodied advisor, ‘QA.’ Through the subsequent door a dusty Wild West street unfolds, complete with authentic wooden store fronts, whisky swilling villains and six shooters at dawn. After dispatching a wave of hostile cowboys and scooping up a powerful revolver, the demo returned to the butcher’s freezer now plagued by shambling undead versions of the enemies that had been killed moments earlier.
Matt will encounter multiple moments like this one, where the scenery can change seemingly on the fly presenting fresh challenges in the shape of a variety of enemies plucked from his previous fictional outings. Even from this short demo sequence, it’s clearly apparent that Vicious Cycle have hit upon something pretty special with the fundamental foundations for their game. The hack effects give the developer carte blanche to change the game’s setting whenever they like, to whatever they like. Well-timed changes in surroundings, weapons and characters will ensure that Eat Lead never lulls, keeping the pace fast and the gameplay varied. There’s also an eclectic range of weapons on offer - from pistols to plasma rifles - Eat Lead’s range of weapons recalls the diverse arsenal available in the superlative TimeSplitters.
 |
 |
|
Eat Lead’s narrative acknowledges that Matt is trapped within a game and as such the protagonist too is fully aware that he’s confined by certain rules and boundaries which exist within the context of videogame custom. If there’s a dancefloor filled with badly animated clones for instance, it’s the designer’s way of flagging up and spoofing an old videogame cliché rather than an excuse for lazy design. That’s the idea anyway, and Matt constantly chimes in with wry asides and observations. There are aspects of the game that fail to fit into the remit of a stereotypically meat-headed shooter though. For a game so in love with 80’s action movies the lack of blood is a minor disappointment for starters. Instead enemies ‘de-res’ into blue clouds of pixellated code, which Matt absorbs in order to learn new abilities and gain a boost to his attributes. Matt is also restricted to carrying only two of any weapon at once - so a rocket launcher can be carried alongside a grenade launcher for example – but it still seems odd that a title so self-consciously playing upon videogame conventions should make a concession to the number of weapons you can transport. Surely it would be more fitting to have Matt laden with guns and ammo like a geared up Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando.
Lead through the hands-off demo by producer Brian Etheridge (check back soon for our interview), Eat Lead is already showing a fair degree of polish despite the lack of facial animation or lip-syncing at this relatively early pre-alpha stage. Running on the developer’s proprietary Vicious Engine 2.0, Etheridge asserts that there are still major tweaks to the camera and melee system to be applied before release, and some visual elements are still placeholder. Nevertheless, Eat Lead is shaping up to be a solid third person shooter with a brilliantly sardonic sense of humour at its core. The choice of voice talent is spot-on and the idea is sound. Here’s hoping that Eat Lead manages to live up to its potential proving to be more than just the sum of its individual parts. After all, it wouldn’t be funny if Eat Lead turned out to be an abject failure. Judging by Matt Hazard’s first showing, we can’t currently imagine what could possibly go wrong. Rest assured, we’ll be back…
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Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard 2D Soldiers Trailer
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Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard Powerups Trailer
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