March 3rd, 2009

Shellshock 2: Blood Trails PC

A few weeks ago, I managed to find a very interesting Oliver Stone DVD set on eBay, only that I wasn't exactly on a movie purchasing spree at that time, and when I tried to find it a few days later, it was gone. Yes, I am crazy about war movies, especially when we're talking about more than just war, and today, we're going to check a PC game that made me think about a few movies made by this great director named Oliver Sone. The name of the game - Shellshock 2: Blood Trails.

Because I don't want you to find yourselves in a dark room like the one pictured above(a scene from the early beginning of the game), I think a few words about the first Shellshock game need to be spoken. Why? When I bump into a game that should be related to another, and I know I may not be able to play the sequel/prequel/other games in the series, I think at least some basic info about those could help.

The funny part is that, this time, we only have the name connecting Shellshock: Nam '67 and Shellshock 2: Blood Trails, because there's no epic trail leading from the first one to the second, or the other way around. Oh, yeah, both games have the story set in the Vietnam War period, and all action takes place in the same area as that war. Apart from that, there could also be the fact that both games failed to live up to the marketing hype around them - or at least the first one, since the second is still too fresh, and we can't claim anything just yet.

Now that we know what we shouldn't know about the first game("just another war game"), let's take a look at Shellshock 2: Blood Trails, shall we?

Story

Basically, we have our hero thrown into the horrors of the Vietnam War for the first time, in a quest to find his brother. So far, nothing special, only that his brother is somehow changed. In fact, he's almost a zombie, and that's the main catch of the whole story - you're going to fight through hordes of zombies, except the Vietcong troops, to find your brother. Think about Left 4 Dead in a jungle, with less zombies, just as few weapons as L4D, and a less dull story.

Now, that doesn't mean the story is good, but I was happy to finish the game before dying of boredom. The end was extremely lame, but that's not the point, anyway. Here's a very quick walkthrough...

You're Nate Walker, sent to some border base to meet your zombified brother, Cal, and as soon as you meet him, the Vietcong troops jump into the story, allowing Cal to escape. Once you start chasing him, you'll go through the entire Vietnam mumbo-jumbo - jungle scenery with some traps and land mines as bonus, some urban combat here and there, a haunted mansion, the most ugly dead chick I ever saw in a game, some caves... nothing to really make me go "WOW," although Shellshock 2 has its moments. Oh, yeah, there's also a very silly ending, but I don't want to ruin your experience!

If I had to rate this story... well, I'll do it in the end, because I think now the time has come to tell you a few things about the gameplay.

Gameplay

As you probably know already, I am not one of those who can drink a beer, chew some pizza, and get 90% headshots at the same time. I am just playing shooters from time to time, and when I do, I always choose average difficulty, when there are three options available, as it happens in Shellshock 2. OK, so I managed to finish the game on "Average" difficulty. What about it?

You don't have to be careful about reloading your weapon all the time, because somewhere after the first part of the game, you'll end up checking the controls for melee attack(that's what I did, after playing for about an hour, haha!).

Once you are happy with the default key bindings("F" for melee is pretty well chosen), just be sure to have a shotgun/assault rifle at hand, and crack some zombie skulls, as long as you're not attacked by an entire horde of them. That's a very smart move, especially since I found myself very low on ammo a few times.

In Shellshock 2, close quarters combat is pretty stupid, if you ask me - pressing the directional keys(A-W-S-D, but since these are directional keys in most shooters...) in the right order can't be fun, but maybe others enjoy it. After all, it was there in Turok, why not do it once again? Well, Turok was a much better game, that's why, and cutting some dinosaurs was always fun. Having to press 12-15 keys to kill a zombie wasn't.

Anyway, most of the time you'll be running around, shooting zombies, so close quarters combat can't get too annoying...or too fun, depends on how you take it. For me, these close encounters were a nice jump out of the routine, but nothing out of ordinary. Just think about the slow-motion kills in Fallout 3, and then look at Shellshock 2. Not quite close, don't you think?

Sound & Graphics

I don't hate Shellshock 2 at all. In fact, its sound and graphics made me want to endure it all. Don't get me wrong - the graphics are a few years behind most shooters we're seeing these days, but it's all about the mood here, and I must confess there are a few gory stops in Shellshock 2 worth checking out.

When talking about system requirements, the fact that this game uses the CS: Source engine should be enough to give you an idea about the topic. I played the game with everything pushed to the max on my computer - AMD X2 4000+@2.4GHz processor, 2 GB of DDR2 memory, 256 MB DDR3 X1950 Pro video card, so virtually any gaming computer built in the last 4-5 years should run this game well, as long as you're not using a 24" display and full HD resolution...

Conclusions

Shellshock 2: Blood Trails left me with a bitter taste in the mouth. It could have been better. The story, the plot, the linear level design, and the dirty language... I know war games/movies are supposed to have tough language, that's normal, but seeing the "F word" used 3 times in the description of a level makes me wonder about a lot of things.

I love Minesweeper, and Shellshock 2 is better than it. That's a fact. Now, let's get a bit more serious and see some ratings, shall we?

Story: 5/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 5/10
Originality: 4/10
Tilt Factor: 5/10
Overall: 6/10

All right, so what else should I say about Shellshock 2: Blood Trails? Not much... only that I wasn't quite shocked, but if you're really longing for a shooter and you played all Call of Duty games already, as well as the other competent games in the category released lately, you should give this one a try. After all, it's not THAT BAD, you know...