Run Like Hell slipped under the radar last year when it was released for the Playstation 2 just before the holiday crunch.  Billed as part action/adventure and part survival/horror, RLH didn’t enjoy much success critically and posted lackluster sales when it hit the shelves last September.  Interplay still forged on and decided to release RLH for the Microsoft Xbox with a new level, downloadable content via Xbox Live, and the better looks and sound that the superior Xbox processor offers.

RLH’s plot, one of the stronger points of the game, tells the story of Captain Nick Conner, a decorated war hero riding out the end of his career overseeing a science lab in the depths of space.  Upon returning to the space station after a routine mission to gather soil samples from asteroids, Nick and co-pilot Amanda Bethune lose communication with the space station, find blood spilled in the ship bay, and watch disturbing video of slaughtered space station inhabitants.  Bad turns to worse in what follows, one of the better video game cutscenes in recent memory (I won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say something does a little ‘Chomp Chomp’).  It’s time for Nick to literally Run Like Hell, find a way to defeat the aliens, and save any survivors on the space station, especially his fiancée. 

Run Like Hell accurately draws several comparisons to John Carpenter’s The Thing and James Cameron’s Aliens, not only for their dark sci-fi content and xenophobic subject material, but also for its cinematic style.  RLH does an excellent job of moving the game along as though it were featured in the local Cineplex.  With voice talent from Lance Henriksen (Aliens, Near Dark, and Red Faction II) and Michael Ironside (Scanners and Sam Fischer of Splinter Cell), cutscenes that emphasize character development, and a constantly evolving storyline, RLH plays like an interactive movie. 

This makes or breaks the game depending on gamer’s playing style.  RLH is constantly broken up by inconsistencies in gameplay and lengthy cutscenes.  Although they are fairly well done, the cutscenes will frustrate action-oriented gamers by breaking up their alien-slaughtering flow.  Other players may get deeply involved in the rich story and play on just to figure what the H is going on.  Run Like Hell suffers from video game schizophrenia: is it a horror survival title or is it an action adventure?  Is it an interactive movie or a video game?  No amount of lithium can straighten this title out, and that may (pardon the pun) alienate many gamers from this otherwise average title. 

The action portion of RLH is the weakest link in the game.  Fighting aliens rapidly becomes repetitive, and the only X-factor is how many aliens you fight at once and how much room you have to maneuver around.  A simple targeting system (hold down the R trigger) auto-targets aliens eliminating the need for aiming, so just sit back and unleash your fury.  Aliens often magically drop from the ceiling, and turning them into mincemeat is merely a matter of how fast one can press a button.  Besides kicking the aliens down when they get too close and an assortment of weapons (shotguns, grenade launchers, and alien weapons), there’s little to do other than shoot like hell.  It’s a simple case of shoot or be lunch. 

When not shooting aliens or sitting through cutscenes, Nick Conner is either searching for an item to advance (a crowbar to get pry open a door for example) or solving puzzles and playing mini-games to get out of a jam.  These situations aren’t foreign to other successful games, but when combined with the tedious gunfighting, the tasks become mundane.  The mini-games are no more difficult than anything you’ll find in Mario Party, but they are at times entertaining visually.  One of the first games you’ll encounter is a simple exercise in jumping or ducking at the right time with a hulking mass of alien in hot pursuit.   Miss time a jump and the alien lurches closer, eventually beating Nick into the ground with his fists.  Other mini-games include simple button mashing exercises and timely button pushing to get out of predicaments.  If only life were that easy.

One traditionally great thing about alien games is seeing hordes of new life forms and blowing them to unrecognizable pieces.  For whatever reason, RLH only gives virtual space soldiers a whopping total of three aliens to send to the alien afterlife.  Scouts look like the egg-laying trilobites that attach to human faces in the Alien series, Cutters, the bulk of the alien army, look like the fully-grown aliens from the Alien series, and Brutes are huge muscle heads who smash first and ask questions later.  The aliens show little sign of intelligence, and have only their claws as weapons.  Thankfully humans are smarter, and the near-indestructible Brutes can be dispatched by solving simple puzzles or piloting service robots to do the dirty work. 

The graphics of RLH will leave pickier gamers with a lot to desire.  The overall atmosphere of the game is incredibly dark.  Too dark.  Some of the areas of the space station are almost pitch black, rendering navigating small rooms a huge chore.  The darkness troubles gameplay as nearly every corner of every room needs to be scoured for access codes, weapons and medkits, and doors to other rooms.  Many of the characters in the game, particularly the aliens, could use a lot more animations to bring more life to their movements.  Cutscenes are divided between real in-game models and excellent full 3-D model cinematics.  There are some sloppy cuts in action, and it appears to be a result of a hurried push to get the game on shelves as soon as possible.

One of the highlights of the game is the well done audio.  The eerie score keeps pulses racing and the suspense thick.  Breaking Benjamin provides the industrial soundtrack for intense battle scenes, and the designers did an excellent job of mixing the soundtrack with the score to keep the sound fresh instead of repetitive.  The voice talent reads like a who’s who of Sci-Fi B-movies, and they do an excellent job voicing the characters.  The only glitch in the audio is a minor inconsistency in the volume levels. 

Run Like Hell will no doubt disappoint many gamers with its simple action and repetitive gameplay, but it’s hard to deny that RLH is the future of interactive entertainment, seamlessly combining cinematic presentation with interactive media.  Once the gameplay catches up with the presentation, this blend of movie and gaming should rule the industry. 

Run Like Hell is rated M for mature with elements of Blood and Gore, Violence, and Strong Language.  

Gameplay: 5.0

Gameplay makes or breaks a game, and unfortunately in this case breaks it.  Repetitive shooting and exploring gets old fast, and with only three different aliens to kill, it gets boring as well.

Graphics: 6.5

Pretty standard graphics are masked by a severe lack of brightness.  I realize that the darkness is supposed to add to the horror element of the game, but the low light levels are at times ridiculous.  On the other hand, many of the cutscenes are well done and look great, and most of the points in the score are on their account.

Sound: 8.5

When the action gets tiresome, it’s the sound that propels the gamer to play on.  Great spooky sci-fi score. 

Difficulty: Easy

Aside the occasional smashing from a near indestructible Brute, the only challenge in the game is finding time to play it.  There are more health packs in this game than any other.

Concept: 7.0

I absolutely love the idea of the game playing like an interactive movie.  I absolutely loathe the fact that I enjoyed watching the cutscenes more than actually playing the game.  Once they get it right, these fusions of film and game will be awesome.

Overall: 6.0

There is a lot to be desired in RLH, but there are several promising points in the game as well.  If you like your games with an involving storyline and easy, RLH will probably be right down your alley.  Other gamers will find a multitude of other Xbox titles to better occupy their time.