Review: Shellshock 2 Blood Trails

Shellshock 2 kind of crept up on us, huh? Frankly, if it weren't for this review copy landing through my letter box, I expect the game would have gone unnoticed for me. And ignorance is bliss, as they say.

To be honest, having now played Shellshock 2, its clandestine approach was probably the most appropriate sort; you can't tell someone you're about to punch them in the face before doing so because they'll simply avoid you – you need the element of surprise. And Shellshock 2: Blood Trail is most certainly a surprise.

Shock! Horror!

You take the role of a generic GI sent in to Vietnam to lend a helping hand. Upon arrival you learn the situation is more dire than originally thought when a virus starts mutating people in to zombies – one of which is your brother. So in an attempt to track him down and find out just what's been going on, you must drag yourself through a handful of ugly, rudimentary levels, shooting pretty much everything you come across.

It's difficult, though. Not just physically, with the slow and clunky aiming, but because the narrative has no drive or engaging elements to it. Shooting stuff in Vietnam is not an unfamiliar concept in games, and as cool as zombies are in absolutely any situation, they do little to amend the painfully rigid flow of events.

There is no ingenuity to the level structures; no flare or spark of innovation; you follow a linear route through bland environments, killing the handful of enemies you trigger at certain points before proceeding to the next equally humdrum environment and repeating the process. That is literally it.

If you thought the uninspired level design would be saved by some fancy graphical splendour, though, you'd be entirely wrong. The dull, blurry world textures are surpassed in offensiveness only by those of the rigid, puppet-like character models leading you through this strictly on-rails shooter. Each level is one lifeless set piece after another and, quite frankly, it worsens an already dubious combat experience.

Blood Trial

First and foremost, you can only pick up ammo and supplies by pressing triangle when prompted – a condemnable attribute from the onset, so when you've got 20 enemies surrounding you, painted in textures almost identical to the trees and huts around them, and you need to pick up a few rounds for your laughably feeble pistol, you might encounter some resistance.

It is only ever resistance, though, as a consequence of overbearing quantities, rather than actual competent A.I. No one runs from your grenades (and their underwhelming explosions), no one moves to flank you, no one even flinches when you shoot their buddy in the face. The game is bad enough to look at, but the reactions of the enemy – or lack thereof – destroys any opportunity for immersion altogether.

Dumbfounded QTEs sporadically litter your path, which usually involve avoiding booby-traps or fighting off a goon who's latched on to you. I found some of them to be unnecessarily difficult to win; demanding you to twist and turn your PS3 controller in unnatural and uncomfortable ways - the repetition of which made success harder than it should be. Copying the on-screen controller motion exactly frequently resulted in an unexplainable loss – the game is just difficult for no logical reason.

The only tolerable element is the sound. It's very much by-the-book and creates no memorable characters, but it's consistent and apt. Character voice-overs are strictly instructional, leaving no room for personalisation, but it gets you through the game as quickly as possible, which is good.

Sweet Release

Shellshock 2 is truly a bad game. It's short, it's ugly and it's uninspiring. Just what Rebellion was thinking before releasing this travesty is beyond me, because it doesn't have a leg to stand on in comparison to most PS2 FPSs, let alone anything the current-gen consoles have to offer. Leave this one alone.