We can say that rarely has a game been so controversial. Wanton ultra-violence, a boycott by some publications, and even a removal from the Steam store — before an express return ordered by boss Gabe Newell — gave the Poles of Destructive Creations unexpected media exposure. And the first thing you have to recognize is that the game does not cut corners. After a minimalist tutorial that teaches you the basics, and a speech delivered by our character on his disgust for the human race, we find ourselves outside, Kalashnikov in hand to massacre passers-by. In short, no metaphysical questions and a sketch of a scenario as a context, apparently the genocidal psychopaths do not ask themselves many questions. Once outside, we understand that Hatred works quite simply via a scoring system. First of all, you will have to kill enough civilians in a given area, before facing the forces of order, knowing that as usual, the more the levels pass, the more complicated the task is. In the first levels, the population will flee you in terror, and the few agents of the constabulary will not cause you any problems. In the later levels, SWAT and the military will come in serious trouble for you, while the scared sheep that acted as civilians are pushed into cojones, picking up any weapon lying around to come and kill you. In short, no surprise at this level.
THE ULTIMATE HATE
Technically, Hatred displays some notable arguments. First of all, it plays like a twin stick shooter in isometric view, with a rather good maneuverability which does not have to be ashamed of the productions of the 80s. Graphically, the result is rather clean with very textures and flames. pretty, all bathed in an artistic direction that smells of Sin City influences with its dark universe punctuated with colorful touches such as blood, flames, or certain elements of the decor. Moreover, one of the great strengths of the title is to offer an environment that is almost entirely destructible. Therefore, each grenade can potentially open gaps for you to escape the forces of order, knowing that the opposite is just as true. In terms of gameplay, Hatred delights in an assumed but effective classicism. We therefore find movement, jumping, cover, a life bar as well as three slots for weapons. On this point, Hatred is also well equipped since you can use a whole arsenal to slaughter your neighbor, flamethrowers and bazookas included!
To avoid this, it will often be necessary to recover life by going to execute the dying targets, which triggers the famous shocking cutscenes visible in the trailers. A feature that was quite cool at the start but quickly boring once the animations were done...
In fact, the major difficulty in Hatred is to manage to survive the missions of the second half of the game, which become really very hard. The main difficulty is life management. Indeed, our guy is unfortunately not a superman and a few well-placed bullets will take him from life to death before his work is accomplished. To avoid this, it will often be necessary to recover life by going to execute the dying targets, which triggers the famous shocking cutscenes visible in the trailers. A feature that was quite cool at the start but quickly tired once the animations are done, especially since you're going to have a hard time running it since you have to kill 4 people to regain your full life bar. Moreover, we would have liked a slightly faster system because if the enemies can no longer inflict damage on you during these interludes, the game is not on hold, and it is not uncommon for the IA takes the opportunity to surround you before reopening fire once the skit is over. Consequence: a remake of the end of Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid guaranteed every time.
FALSELY SCANDALOUS?
The difficulty is also one of the first surprises of the title of Destructive Creations. Indeed, the last levels are extremely difficult due to the excessive number of armed enemies and the game's progression system which is very punitive. Basically, on each zone, you must start by killing a given number of civilians, often by clearing two or three objective zones. Once the objectives have been cleared, it is then necessary to kill a certain number of soldiers or members of the SWAT, before being able to finally rally the exit point. Except that if you die, you will have to start the level again, whether you died after two minutes or whether you took a final bullet three meters from the end of the level. Glow of permissiveness: if you ever manage to clear the objective areas, you will sometimes get a continue which will make you respawn in another corner of the map. Since your dead body quota is the only frame, the levels are therefore open and vast, except the camera doesn't follow! Indeed, this one offers a single angle of view which is not optimal all the time, which contributes to the difficulty of aiming. Finally, the chosen frame squeezes your character very closely, which considerably limits the field of vision, even when using the long-range aiming which increases the latter a little.
Except that if you die, you will have to start the level again, whether you died after two minutes or whether you took a final bullet three meters from the end of the level.
The result ? We spend our time receiving bullets from enemies that are not about to appear in our field of vision, which forces us to fire blindly based on the radar to determine the direction of the enemy. In short, a real ordeal that requires running most of the time, except that our favorite brute refuses to open fire while sprinting. Fortunately, you can count on the AI to help you, because if the latter is quite effective most of the time, it shows quite impressive moments of distraction. Thus, in tracking and tactical positioning, the NPCs will show dexterity, but in the assault phase, we quickly become disillusioned. We were thus able to get out of a bad situation by taking refuge in a house whose entrance is set on fire, which does not slow down the ardor of the AI which therefore throws itself into the fire to reach you. A good way to get around the second major difficulty of the title: the lack of ammunition. Indeed, the civilians you have to slaughter are 98% unarmed, so you will have to rely on the corpses of law enforcement to fill your inventory, provided you have enough bullets left to defend your life first. against the cops. The game is also extremely repetitive since the objectives and the actions to be carried out are the same all the time. We will notice a touch of variety with certain passages where you will have to drive (with difficulty) a light armored vehicle surmounted by a .50 machine gun. Without really flavor, these passages offer such a difficult difficulty, that it will often be necessary to clear the ground by advancing step by step, and by spraying the buildings with bullets without any other alternative.
