Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond Reviews

It seems like every review for this game has been taken down lately, so being a Matt Hazard fan since Matt Hazard 3D, I think I should talk about this one.

Lets get one thing out of the way: Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard wasn't very good. The controls sucked, it wasn't pretty, and the cover system was broken. However, the plot and writing for the game were above and beyond, and showed they weren't afraid to make fun of other games, while at the same time make fun of themselves. The worst game with the best story...

Now, we get Blood Bath and Beyond, (must repress urge to call it Eat Lead 2) a sidescroller similar to metal slug or contra with over the top violence, a crazy cast of enemies, (ranging from cowboys to samurai to canadian mounties) and that same fourth wall breaking humor.

Choosing a side scroller over a third person shooter was probably the best choice they could have done. The game plays really well. It's just a mindless sidescroller where you mercylessly slaughter everyone from the start to the end, by yourself or with a buddy. (but coop is local only...POO!) There is no voice acting in this one, but rather text conversations instead, which as the game explains, was because of the budget cuts after the poor performance of Eat Lead.
Ripping on YOURSELF? Nice touch...

There are 8 levels in total, all ranging in length and difficulty. The three difficulties are pretty noticable. "Wussy" is tough by itself but still only has occasional cheap moments, (which i'll mention in a bit) "Damn this is hard" (an obvious parody on duke nukem's "damn im good!") is... well hard. And the highest difficulty (which I actually can't name or the censors will have a field day) is absurd. NO ONE (as of this writing) has beaten it yet. The plot is something to do with 8-bit Matt Hazard being kidnapped and you have to save him, but a game like this really needs no backstory... anyone remember the plot of Metal Slug? Exactly.

Now, the subtitle is "Blood Bath and Beyond," and boy is it a blood bath. There is blood EVERYWHERE. Your default gun may not make the rain red, but other weapons like machine guns, shotguns, and rocket launchers make the guts go flying. You can even shoot guys in the background, but i rarely found myself doing so unless they would shoot at me from there. You also have to ability to manually aim, but like background shooting, you'll likely rarely do it. You have a health bar too, but you die pretty fast. Some situations (such as one hit crushers) are flatout cheap, because sometimes you can't see them and walk into them, and others kill you THE MOMENT YOU RESPAWN. Really?

The achievement list seems tough, but it's really not. Beating the game will net you 2 'cheives, (one for 1/2 the game and one for completion) while others reward you for a high score, collecting all the matt hazard game boxes, (such as my personal overlooked favorite, hazmatt carts) and beating a level without using a continue. It's challenging but far from impossible.

Eat Lead 2... er, Blood Bath is one hell of an improvement on the original game. The gameplay translates much better to a sidescroller, and it's a blast to blow though. If the coop was online and the price was 5$ less, (800 points = ) I'd say you should buy it ASAP, but as it stands, only true hazard and sidescroller fans should get it now, everyone else... buy it anyway but if you are patient wait for a discount.

When I first played "Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard", I fell in love with the main character and all the witty jokes that came with him. This past Wednesday, I heard that "Matt Hazard: Blood, Bath, and Beyond" had released on Xbox Live arcade, and was all but happy about buying it, but it's clear now, that I had wasted my money.

Graphics: The graphics of Matt Hazard: BBB are excellent. They seem very comparable to those of Shadow Complex. There's not much to say about it, except that everything looks as it's supposed to.

Storyline: Had you played Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, you will easily recognize the nemesis from that game is your enemy in this game. Basically the storyline goes like this. He is running all through game "servers" trying to go some place where he may delete the past you, which would cause the future you to not exist....a tad funny, but all in all cheesy.

Gameplay: I'm going to put this as bluntly as possible. The gameplay in Matt Hazard: BBB is TERRIBLE. They offer three difficulty settings that spam over 8 levels. That's not so bad for an arcade game, but the problem here, is that the easiest difficulty isn't even EASY....it's harder than anything. "Wussy" difficulty as it is called, can be compared with that of Call of Duty's Hardened difficulty....Yep, it's just that hard

The main problem of the gameplay, is that enemies take WAY too many shots to die. The weapon you start with is so underpowered that it takes 3-4 shots to kill even the weakest enemies. Even the melee attack is stronger than the gun itself, but getting in too close gets you hurt.

There is so much absolute chaos going on at one time, that it's hard to even focus on the "bullets" and things that are coming toward you.

Worst of all, they punish you for dying. It's nearly impossible NOT to die in this game, with all the crap they do to make you die. Like balancing you on a small platform over water that will kill you and make you fight 5 different enemies trying to shoot you.

Oh, I forgot to mention this, enemies are in the background of levels too, just like in Shadow Complex. But at least in Shadow Complex, there wasn't 12 enemies in what little area.

Controls: The controls are garbage. So basically you use the left stick to move, [A] to jump, [X] to shoot/melee, [Y] to turn on Hazard Time, [LB] and [RB] to "manually aim". [LT] to aim in the background, and finally [RT] to throw grenades. What the game is missing is some sort of AUTO aim instead of manual aim. The manual aim feature is so sensitive that it's nearly impossible to get the guy up on the platform as quickly as possible without getting shot elsewhere.

The worst part of the controls is the lunar lander thing you have to fly on the last level. I swear to god, the controls for that are right out of a Nintendo game. They are SO sensitive, it's almost impossible to even complete it. Basically, I hit [A] for the throttle, and tapped the D-pad right, and the *** damn thing went flying off screen. Oh, and guess what, the idiot developers punish YOU if you go off screen, because it's totally our fault that the controls for their xbox 360 game are so broken.

Multiplayer: There is only co-op, but you need a second controller to play it. There is NO ONLINE CO-OP. Yep, that's right, so you better have a friend willing to come over and play this crap with you, otherwise you'll have a hard time trying to get it with just using a second controller and playing on your first controller.

Achievements: The achievements are garbage as well. "Complete this level without using a continue." Yeah, that actually IS an achievement, because it's almost impossible not to die. "Complete this boss without losing a life". Possible, but almost impossible, since the boss has way too many attacks. To see a list of the achievements, you can go here: https://www.trueachievements.com/Matt-Hazard-BBB-xbox-3....htm.

Final Thought This game is only getting two stars for a slim reason. The fact that it makes fun of other games, but even that is starting to fade.

What made "Eat Lead" one great game to play, is all the jokes and mischief that poked fun at other video games, and the voice actors witty tone. In Matt Hazard: BBB, almost ALL of that is missing. Voice actors have been replaced by text, there are only a few things said throughout gameplay, and the only real humor, is that made up by you, when you realize what game is being poked fun at.

This game is not that bad but not worth fifteen dollars.

Summary: You play as self aware video game badass Matt Hazzard on another adventure this time as a side scroller you will have to go through eight levels to fight off the evil mad russian guy! There is no voice dialouge on the "cutscenes" which is just a black screen and some text dialog between Matt nd his programmer quentin. You fight everything from Army men, to men in space, to Candian monties and even get ready for it... Pirates and Skeletons.

Graphics: Very nice actually it was done very well to me it looks just as good as shadow complex explosion are done very well and even the water looks good. There is one level called "Oh Canada" the rooftop part of the game will remind you of Mirrors Edge the visuals are fantastic but there is no cut scense like I had mentioned before.

Sound: Not much to sound standard gun shot, and grenade sounds. The whole "Its Hazzard time!" and "Its ragdoll time!" and other various sounds will grow old on your fast there funny at first but then you wish he would shut up!

Controls: Pretty solid actually the free aim mode is kind of hard to get the hang of its just as smooth as shadow complex (I know I refer to this a lot but its just like the game) I dont like how "X" is to shoot the gun and RT to throw grenades but you get use to it pretty quick.

Replay Value: There really is not much if you ask me its only eight levels and they are pretty short and expect to die a lot. There is one mission were you control a lunar lander and it gets pretty aggravating those controls are hard to grasp, You will end up playing through this game a few times because of the game disks you have to collect and the Plinko chips.

Diffuculty: Its pretty tough even on the "wussy" setting your going to die a lot. When you do your other playthroughs it will get a bit easiers. The other two settings "Darn thats hard" Is pretty tough and "FTS" to me is like doing vetern on Call of duty four.

Achievements: They are pretty tought to get you might get a easy 100 but the full two hundred is gonna be pretty tough. Some achievements like the "Houston we have perfection" it will take a lot of time to get. And completing the game in co-op you have to do that with a friend or a second controller.

Overall: Honestly wait until its a deal of the week. Its a very short game or 1200MS points it really is not worth. Especially with the lack of online co-op. If you have the points to spare go for it.

Hope you like it.