| Author | Review |
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Doominatorx6
545,278
TA Score for this game: 227
Posted on 09 December 10 at 05:50 |
This review has 94 positive votes and 15 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Imagine this: A marathon going on downtown. Now during this marathon, snipers are jumping from rooftop to rooftop picking off the runners with rifles and rocket launchers, all while shit is EXPLODING EVERYWHERE. It's a race with TOTAL CHAOS.
That's the concept of free-to-play XBLA release "Harm's Way" from Bongfish (who's company logo literally looks like a fish who took a schweeet bong rip), a racer that emphasises the "harm."
Yes, I said FREE. On Xbox, that's a rarity. We've seen the surprisingly good Aegis Wing, to the completely broken Totemball. Last year, we saw the Doritos finalist "Dash of Destruction." It was alright, but really memorable for how it made fun of itself for how piss-easy the achievements were. And the fact ONE DUDE named Mike made it.
There's no plot or real "setting" setting to speak of in Harm's Way. You get three different post-apocalyptic levels and three different vehicles to race around in (all of which really REALLY remind of the upcoming Id Software shooter RAGE for some reason). All the standards of a racer, like drifts and nitrous are all here. BUT, here's the kicker:
Each course can have up to 4 "turret gunners" on the edges of the map. These gunners can pick off other racers (Each team has a racer/gunner), or shoot open shortcuts for their teammate. These gunners can switch between 8 turrets on the map, provided they aren't "in use" by another player. Additionally, pickups collected by the driver can upgrade the gunner, granting mine and rocket launchers. Wow!
The production values are surprisingly high. Visuals are high, much higher than you'd think. The audio is standard guitar riffs and the announcer gets annoying, but it's not bad, not bad at all. And there's no framerate dips, even when TOTAL CHAOS is occuring.
There's online play as well, as well as splitscreen support with bots, but it's surprisingly sparsely populated. Why? For the next reason:
achievements.
Free game = Free achievements, right? Well, since TONS of people have finished this game today alone, lets look. Theres a few that look intimidating, like getting a windshield shot or tire pop as a turret gunner, or fully upgrade the partner's turret as a driver, but you can do it, literally EVERYTHING, with a second controller in splitscreen. Easier than Dash of Destruction? You be the judge.
In closing, Harm's Way is surprisingly good for a freebie. A novel concept with good production values and fun multiplayer (and piss-easy achievements) make it worth the 300mb download.
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Radient Star
27,007
TA Score for this game: 227
Posted on 31 January 11 at 02:50 |
This review has 43 positive votes and 7 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Why are you reading this review? I can only think of a couple of reasons. 1) You stumbled upon it randomly. 2) You're a friend of mine, reading my review. How sweet! And 3) The most likely of all, you have heard the notoriety of this game and it's pathetically easy achievements, and equally pathetic price - 0 dollars, 0 euros, and 0 rupees.
Well guess what. I'm here to confirm what you already know - this game is ridiculously simple.
SINGLE PLAYER
It becomes hard for me to begin actually typing about the game. In other reviews, I began describing the control scheme and how it affected gameplay, the storyline, ect. But the truth is I haven't really given this game a fair chance. Like a prositute, I've used her and tossed her away when I could have fallen in love, settled down with her, had a bunch of babies and lived happily ever after. (Okay, I admit that is a disturbing analogy, especially since it's physically impossible for me to have children with another female.)
The ridiculous metaphors are a result of my inabilty to describe the game correctly, because as I mentioned before, I haven't really sat down and put some time into enjoying it.
MULTIPLAYER
No one plays this game for more than a couple of hours at best. Therefore, the online community is dead. I you want to unlock the single achievement for playing online, you'll have to set up session and boost like the rest of us.
If the game wasn't so insanely easy, maybe there would be a multiplayer. After all, throngs rush to Call of Duty : Black Ops in hopes of prestiging, and others run to Gears of War to gain their wings. As it is, there is little point for the community to bother, and thus with a sigh I conclude yet another section telling you very little about the game and at the same time all you need to know : easy achievements.
GRAPHICS/SOUND
I completely forget what the game looked and sounded like. Disturbingly, I am reminded of my previous analogy with the prostitute. Was I drunk last night? Who is this woman next to me? I've got to get out of here.
The resounding fact is as I sit here typing I can't recall any signifigant memories of this game at all.
ACHIEVEMENTS
They are easy. Is it burned into your brain yet?
My final thoughts... A free game, worth the price, if you are an achievement whore like myself. If, on the other hand, you are looking for true love, a game you will gleefully open and when you put it in your Xbox and here the whhhhrrrr as it begins to load you get excited, look elsewhere. Because first of all you can only buy it on Xbox LIVE and secondly (and more importantly) you won't be excited to play it.
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Haseo ATC
68,649
TA Score for this game: 227
Posted on 20 January 11 at 02:01 |
This review has 28 positive votes and 5 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
If you're looking for a game that you can 100% with no effort, Harm's Way is as good as it gets. It took me half an hour to get all 12 achievements, and I was intentionally taking my time, as the gameplay turned out to be better than I had expected. I don't think I would have minded if I was required to put in another hour or two into this game.
A couple of the achievements you might need to use split screen to get, especially if you can't find any online action (I couldn't). Two achievements are acquired though online multiplayer, but neither require you to actually play a match, just enter the match lobby. So simple.
The gameplay is very straightforward. Being the shooter I found to be more fun and far easier than being a driver. Driving the vehicles was a pain, as all I seemed to be able to do was go really fast until I crashed myself. However, that crash is an achievement in and of itself, and none of the achievements actually require you to finish a race as a driver.
All in all, if you've got 15-30 minutes to spare for an easy 100%, you can't get much better than this. You might even have fun. 
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Sonic Sleuth
212,478
TA Score for this game: 227
Posted on 18 April 11 at 05:41, Edited on 18 April 11 at 05:41 |
This review has 17 positive votes and 3 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
We have all heard of Doritos tortilla chips, and in the gaming world, we've pretty much all enjoyed a few Cool Ranch bags in the past. In recent years Frito-Lay has tried to capture the younger generation by combining our love of video games and chips into one obsession. Sometimes they do it with nasty test-market chips, and on rare occasions they'll hit on the tastiest chips you've ever had, but in the last few years they've grabbed us with Doritos-themed freebie downloadable games. Recently two budding game developers were given the chance to get a leg up in the Xbox 360 game market and win a fifty thousand dollar grand prize after working on their downloadable creations. One of the finalists, Bongfish's Harms Way, provides racing and shooting action in one unique package.
Harms Way is a unique racing game that involves choosing your role - play as the driver of an off-road racer, gunning for first place... or play as a lone shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald style, blasting away at the other cars as they speed past. Skill and timing is necessary to nail these speedsters before they're obstructed from your views by the surrounding mountains and cliff faces.
The unique and most interesting part of the game is playing as the gunner. You’re teamed up with a racer, be it a computer-controlled or human player, shooting the environment to bring down rock formations, shooting at the other racers, and opening areas that were previously blocked in order to shortcut your racer on the road to first place. Chills will go down your spine as you zoom in to shoot other players through the windshield for the One Shot One Kill achievement, or shred the tires of a competitor to unlock the Flat Tire achievement. While playing as the racer, help can be created for your gunner by driving over gunner upgrades or downgrades. Upgrades help your gunner out by cycling through a growing list of guns, from a Vulcan machine gun, to a mine layer, and finally a rocket launcher. Downgrades makes the opponent guns less powerful, one ability at a time. Each upgrade will make the enemy team squirm at every corner, fearful of the coming death shot.
Harms Way would be a much more interesting game if there was an online faction to support it, when playing the game later at night, you'll be lucky to find players on Xbox Live to beat. While Bongfish allows gamers to take on bots when humans aren't available, shelling computer competition from three hundred yards away just isn't the same. Also, Harms Way is relatively limited as a racer, with standard game play and only three desert tracks.
I enjoyed Harms Way a great deal, and the main problem I had with the game was the ease of the achievements. I understand Bongfish wanted to make it easy to get people interested in the game, but every achievement can be unlocked within about twenty minutes of game play. So, what’s wrong with that? Well, some people that completed the achievements in twenty minutes may not see a reason to load the game back up, especially at this time of year. Contrast that with Chime, which Sonic Sleuth recently reviewed... one big, easy achievement makes you happy, but a couple tough ones keep you playing for hours. With Harms Way, you have a fun and unique game experience, but without many online gamers, and no more achievements, there's not a lot of reason to keep going back. While Bongfish earned my vote in the Doritos $50,000 contest, I think these minor flaws will be the undoing of Harms Way.
Check out our other reviews at www.gamedebateclub.com!
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GP Draggy38
84,902
TA Score for this game: 227
Posted on 19 July 11 at 05:31 |
This review has 14 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Interesting aracde game we have here...
First of all, it was free.. So why not download it and check it out.
second of all, achievements are easy as hell.
Imagine a game mixed between racing, and twisted metal... The driver is trying to win the race, while the turret shooter is trying to help the driver win by shooting other vehicles. The driver controls what the turret gets to use by driving through upgrades and downgtades.
Single player:
Not too bad. Kinda a fun campaign. Easy to whip through and get used to controls. A good time waster if your just looking to kill some time and play a fun arcade game.
Multiplayer:
Split screen is fun, and something you can use to boost some of the achievements. Grab a couple friends, bring them to your house, and enjoy yourselves.
Online mutliplayer is alot of fun and somewhat more of a challenge than just the campaign....That is, when people are actually online to play. Not many people play after they get all the achievements, and i honestly dont know why. As i said, very fun game.
Achievements:
very easy!! Just play through the first map on campaign and youll most likely recieve a few. Continue playing and youll unlock the rest, except the ones where you need someone else...therefore, hop online, and git r done. Should not take you more than 30-45 minutes for all 200 gamerscore in this fun , FREE arcade game.
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Funnyman Ford
103,318
TA Score for this game: 227
Posted on 15 October 12 at 06:29 |
This review has 7 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
This game is INSANELY easy to fully complete. If you are looking for a game that will add another easy 200 points to your gamerscore, then you most certainly have checked out the right game; and with it's TA Rating, it's rightfully so.
The game is not complex and is fairly straightforward. There are teams of two and up to four teams in each match.
Teams consist of:
1)The Driver- The person who drives around the course while trying to pick up powerups scattered on the map, avoid getting shot by other teams' turrets and win the race all at the same time.
2)The Shooter- This is the person who takes their spot up at top of the edge of a different part of the map. There are multiple turrets scattered around that they AIs or players can use or fight each other for control over. Besides fighting each other, their main job is to shoot at the other teams' drivers and try to blow their vehicles up or at the very least slow them down.
Since none of the achievements truly require you to complete the story mode, it is looked down upon as a waste of time.
Again, if you want easy achievements and a really easy game to fully complete, download this game for free on the XBLA. Since it's free and has amazing achievements, it's a steal!
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II 9572AD II
60,019
TA Score for this game: 227
Posted on 20 December 10 at 12:19 |
This review has 3 positive votes and 6 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
The idea behind Harm's Way is not a bad one. The execution is.
Graphically, the game is quite nice. I figured it would be decent fun.
Driving is very floaty and barely controllable. I'm not looking for ultra-realism - I generally hate all sim-style racers - but I haven't played a game with driving this bad since Enter the Matrix.
Gunning is similarly unsatisfying, as it's largely spray and pray. Most turrets are positioned in places where either the cars go by faster than the turret can turn, or you only get a brief glimpse of the car's front end waaaaaay off in the distance and by the time you can react the car is gone.
The best thing about Harm's Way is that nearly all of the Achievements can be gained without actually playing the game.
It's only getting the second star from me because it doesn't glitch out or crash, and I generally reserve the lowest score for games that do.
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Dr Zugg
8,768
TA Score for this game: 227
Posted on 29 January 11 at 01:51 |
This review has 3 positive votes and 8 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Stackin' G's OFFICIAL Harms Way Review
Hey Guys....
Okay, So lets get down to the basics....
There are a total of 12 Achievements that will give you a total of 200G..
This will then award you with a total of 232 TA Score...
To get all achievements it will take you approx 30-45 Minutes..
So yeah its an easy 200G/232 TA Score...
I rate this game...
-Gameplay 5/10 - Its kinda fun, But pointless at the same time..
-Graphics 7/10 - Good High quality graphics for a FREE Game...
-Achievements - 9/10 - Very easy for 200G, Its 9 Because there is Online achievements..
Hope this helps guys..
-Dr Zugg
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DamageContrl
22,263
TA Score for this game: 227
Posted on 20 January 11 at 19:58 |
This review has 10 positive votes and 21 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
This game isn't worth the price. It's free.
There are 3 levels that look almost identical, almost nonsensical team names, and horrible driving controls. The guns are pretty fun but there's almost no explanation about what to do or how to take over other turrets (an achievement). I liked blowing the cars up, but even that was fun for about 2 minutes. Quite possibly the easiest achievements ever in a game but unless you have a friend who downloaded the game, good luck finding someone to play it with.
The cars bounce around and slide across the track, which can make driving difficult, espcecially in a game where you have to dodge bullets. There are are shortcuts around the track, but the AI gunners won't shoot anything but the other enemies cars, so in order to use them you need a human who you can talk to, but every time I searched for a match, it couldn't find anyone playing the game,
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