Run Like Hell

In the future, everyone wears matching jumpsuits, rooms must be lit only by indirect lighting, and bloodthirsty aliens go crazy for modern rock. Just ask Lance Hendriksen. He knows.

A game that attracted almost no attention on the PS2 last year, Run Like Hell has made a hasty reappearance on the Xbox, complete with new monsters, an extra sector or two, and a 40 percent price discount. Is it worth it? Perhaps?but only if you've never played a survival/horror game before in your life. A big ?if,? admittedly.

As rugged space captain Nick Connor (aptly voiced by Lance ?Mr. Mumbles? Hendriksen), you're charged with exploring an intricately designed space station overrun by fang-ridden aliens with a thing for dismemberment. Although the puzzley bits are mostly "borrowed" from Resident Evil, Connor's quest is far more action-oriented in its heart?your weapons mostly have infinite ammo, and each sector is crawling with dozens of aliens, leading to gun battles that would undoubtedly make Sigourney Weaver proud.

This would be well and good if Run Like Hell was smoothly executed. Regrettably it's not?the characters look nice enough, but the station itself is uniformly drab, making it easy to get lost. This situation isn't helped by a control system that seems designed to give you carpal-tunnel syndrome?the inventory menus use both triggers and both thumbsticks for no good reason, and the shoot-n-dodge battle system will cramp your index fingers after even short sessions.

Add to this a hackneyed story and a goofy soundtrack that can't decide whether to copy Silent Hill or Rob Zombie, and you have a survival/horror game that's tolerably playable but hardly a must-own. It could've been a better game if Interplay took a few more months to polish it, but...well...it didn't. At least the price is appropriate.

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