Rambo The Video Game

Hello there, I'm Accel and this is my review on Rambo The Video Game. This is a Rambo game simulator developed by Teyon and published by Reef Entertainment. This game is released on 21 February 2014 on Microsoft Windows, PS3 and Xbox 360. Here the surprise,it was a bad game.

Game link: http://www.rambothevideogame.com/
Steam link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/274130/ (If you're that hardcore)



Rambo: The Video Game is one of those first-person, rail-shooting, points-accumulating games and is based on, you guessed it, the Rambo series of movies. As mentioned above, it’s only based on the first three: First Blood (1982), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), and Rambo III (1988) - there is no sign of the poorly received 2008 endeavour, which is almost definitely a good thing. So, essentially what we have is a game based on a film franchise over a quarter of a century old, depicted by a genre of gaming which hasn’t been bettered since Time Crisis 2 found its way into video arcades back in 1998.

Your goal is simple: move the reticule across the screen until you’re over an enemy. On-rails shooters aren’t ever really more than passable without a light gun, and there are too many imperfections here to fully enjoy anything. Firstly, there’s a wonky sort of auto-aim that can instantly throw your aim off by an entire screen, and secondly there’s a weird speed compensation that means that you never quite get used to using your analogue stick. You end up not being able to move quickly, and having your shot second-guessed by the computer when you get there anyway.

This quickly becomes a big problem. One of the opening levels has you shooting cops, but you’re not supposed to actually kill them, as this makes you lose points. Instead, you shoot the weapon or arms and disarm them. Problematically, there’s almost no control over where you can aim, and not very much in the way of differentiation between shooting in the legs and shooting in the head; you have to hit the scalp for it to count as a headshot. It’s a major issue, but one that the developers didn’t seem to mind too much, as it built two or three early levels around this mechanic.

Rambo is no looker, but the PC build managed to shatter our low expectations by being visually acceptable for a low-budget title at maximum settings. It's clear that optimisation was left to the very last minute, since gameplay is vastly superior to every trailer I've seen, especially in terms of texture quality. Gameplay is also infinitely more handsome than the cutscenes, which as mentioned, were clearly recorded from the shonkiest of early production builds at the lowest possible bitrate. I can't speak for the quality of the PS3 and Xbox 360 ports, and the enemy hordes ought to have more than two faces between them, yet I was pleasantly surprised by the PC version without being blown away.

QTEs present yet another issue. Unless played on the easiest setting, the game’s QTEs are at times unrelenting and often so clunky that button mashing trumps finesse. In an almost premonitory move, the game itself provides an unlockable skill which renders the player invincible to QTEs - the only downside being that in turn they are provided with less skill points used to unlock other perks. Certain missions attempt to utilize QTEs in stealth mode as Rambo stalks enemies armed with just a blade, however, again, the game-on-rails infliction dilutes any sort of atmosphere or tension.

If nothing else convinces you not to buy this game, this should be the last straw: sometimes you’ll shoot something and it’ll go straight through the enemy. In the final mission, you’re given a grenade launcher, and a decent amount of the time there’ll be an explosion miles behind whatever you’re aiming at. This probably contributes towards the huge difficulty spike in the last few stages.I played on the medium setting, but with only five lives allowed and uneven checkpointing, I found it next to impossible to actually clear the last level.

Thankfully, it wouldn’t have stayed impossible, as there’s a levelling and perk system that allows you to upgrade and boost attributes. Extra health and damage makes things easier, and allows you to replay for as long as you need to. This is all good and well, but it seems to have affected the actual difficulty. The balance is off if you need to level in a very specific way.

Much like the movies, Rambo: The Video Game may not be taking itself entirely seriously throughout its two to three hour duration, but nonetheless it is hard not get frustrated at its lack of depth in so many areas. A co-op mode can be activated if you have access to a PC-friendly Xbox controller, however even this mode feels like it’s been done better elsewhere in the past - not least in SNK’s 1986 Rambo-a-like, Ikari Warriors.

I’d love to think that there was somebody out there that was desperate to play an on-rails version of the first three Rambo films, and that there’s a reason for this game to exist. Sadly, I suspect that that may just be wishful thinking. It’s more likely, then, that the developers thought that a popular name and a cheap budget would turn a profit – and with a boxed product and the promise of DLC on the way.I would give this game a score 3 out of 10. So what about you, did you have the balls to play this game. Share on the comment section below.