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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: Unknown Game 2509
Mayhem is back, and though it might sound a bit of a cliche, it's better than ever. For those that didn't play the first game (and why not?), the basic idea is this: You're dropped in to a platform game arena with an ever-increasing number of weaponless bunnies, and have to use a variety of weapons to blast them to pieces in increasingly gory ways. There have been some refinements since the original, though. This time, there are only five weapons, but they have two firing modes. The initial controls make the implementation of this quite awkward - they are on Ctrl and Z. You get used to it, though. Effectively, this means you have ten different firing modes with which to dispose of the bunnies - most of the weapons from the first game have survived, with a few add-ons. Two of the most notable are the immensely good-looking but glitchy two-way fire for the Uzis, and the grenade/rocket launcher, which is pinched right out of Unreal Tournament but it works well. Happily, the Screamer is still there, which plays the Sonic Ring sound at enemies, and this causes their heads to melt and their brains to explode, much like what would happen if you were exposed to the hideous dance remixes of Jun Senoue's great Sonic soundtrack for more than five minutes. Gameplay has been changed to be more 'tactical' in a way - you now earn money for killing, which can be spent at the weapons vending machines. Previously, they just dropped out of the 'portals' at you, and now you really have to worry about running out of ammo - particularly as you now only have five sets of it. In fact, the most obvious change is in the graphics. Gone are the South Park style visuals, to be replaced with more realistically proportioned (but still cartoony) graphics. The bunnies now look quite threatening rather than cute. This is a welcome change, but it might not be for the better - the cartooniness of the original created a sense of irony, which is lost when you're blowing dark, evil, vampiric rabbits to pieces rather than fluffy cute creatures. Of course, on the plus side it's more politically correct. The music is mostly (if not all) taken straight out of Doom, with MIDIs in there such as Dead Simple - an appropriate game to take music from, but the author has tended to choose the darker, heavier Doom musics rather than the more upbeat ones which in my opinion would fit the game even more - the classic Hangar and That Level at the Start of Episode 2 That I Can't Remember The Name Of spring to mind (or not, as in the case of the second one). As before, completing certain score quotas unlock secrets about the game, such as High Jumping and a totally unnecessary Blood Mode, along with a few extras. This time around there's also a Time Attack mode, which is pretty much the same as the normal game except you have a time limit (which can be boosted by collecting money). It's nice to have another mode, but it's a little too similar to the standard one. There are a couple of secret levels, but unfortunately a bug in the menu means that you can't get to one of them. Which brings me to the problem of how to score it. It isn't a vast improvement over the original, but as the original was such obscenely good fun anyway, does it really matter? The use of unlockables adds a huge amount of time to the simple idea of it, even more than the extra modes. It's just a game to vent your frustrations on, and you need that once in a while. I know I do.
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