Run Like Hell (video game)

Gameplay

The gameplay in Run Like Hell is most similar to that of the later titles in the Resident Evil series, with the player controlling a character from a third-person perspective. Enemies can be locked onto when firing and while reloading weapons is still required, most of the weapons have infinite ammo. The game also features a number of chase sequences, in which the player must flee from an invincible foe while dodging the obstacles in their path both with the analog stick and the face buttons. In these sections the player must use the analog stick to move around obstructions like crates and boxes and through narrow pathways. If a gap or low clearance is ahead, the game will prompt the player to push a specific face button to jump or duck. If the player takes too long to navigate the sequence, the enemy will catch the player and they will have to replay the sequence.

Plot

Mining surveyor and former war hero Nicholas Conner (voiced by Lance Henriksen), returns to his space station known as the Forsetti Station to find it overrun by a hostile, previously unknown alien species known simply as The Race. Most of the crew members are dead, Nick's fiancee is trapped on the far side of the base, and he soon discovers that the entire station is slowly degenerating into an alien hive. Using his war experience and a large arsenal of weapons, Nick must fight through a group of hostile enemies to locate survivors on the station who can help him find Samantha.

Characters

Development

According to Brian Freyermuth, the lead designer of Run Like Hell, the production did not go smoothly. During its five-year run, the team went through two executive producers, three producers, three lead programmers and two lead artists. They started out with the idea of a Resident Evil in space, but this was changed abruptly by upper management from survival horror to an action game. The aliens were weakened and made more numerous. In the end the game was scrapped by management again and restarted ten months before the release date. Thus, the game's actual programming was done in the space of ten months even though the game was in development for five years, which is one of the reasons that the story and characters seem fleshed out whereas the game play seems rushed and incomplete. The game was also meant to be a trilogy, as is obvious by the cliffhanger ending.

Reception

Run Like Hell received "mixed" reviews on both platforms according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

The Village Voice gave the Xbox version a score of seven out of ten and said, "It's one thing to watch your favorite stars provide product placement in Hollywood blockbusters, quite another to force the BAWLS into your mouth as a condition of advancing through the game." The Cincinnati Enquirer gave the PS2 version three-and-a-half stars out of five and said that it "delivers a good twist on the "Resident Evil"-style game play by adding more action and speed, a decent script and memorable characters. Entertainment Weekly, however, gave the same version a C and said, "If only the designers had spent as much time on the gameplay as they did on rendering the abundant female anatomy." In Japan, where the PS2 version was released on September 2, 2004, Famitsu gave it a score of all four sevens, for a total of 28 out of 40.

In 2009, GamesRadar included it among the games "with untapped franchise potential", commenting: "After five years of development, redevelopment and bureaucratic nonsense, what was supposed to be a survival-horror game was beaten into a shoddy action game with a cliffhanger ending but no chance of sequels. It’s too bad - with the right people, this unfulfilled series could be revived and done right."