Teamxbox: Fans of sandbox style games, tired of the countless Grand Theft Auto clones looking to score a piece of the open-world popularity pie, may want to check out Ride to Hell, developer Deep Silver's-comprised of former Rockstar Vienna employees-crack at the ambitious genre. Unlike other such titles, Ride to Hell doesn't immediately steal your attention because of its screen-filling explosions, violence-fueled rampages, or colorful cast of characters; oh sure, it's got all that, but what grabs you first is its setting, both in time and state of mind. The title tackles late 60's biker culture, back when it was all sex, drugs, and Easy Rider-it's no surprise Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild plays over the game's trailer.
Much of the reason Ride to Hell's style and story make such an impact is because they're the title's most prominent features at this point. The game's still got plenty of time on its development schedule (Deep Silver's aiming for a late 2009 release), and my hands-off demo only offered a brief glimpse of what's to come in terms of actual gameplay mechanics. What I have seen, though, has more than piqued my interest and invigorated my enthusiasm for a genre that's seen more me-too titles than original takes in the last few years. It's absolutely a testament to the game's ambition and fresh focus that it's gone from completely under my radar to the top of my must-play list in such a short time.
Jake Conway, fresh out of the army and a Vietnam vet, returns to his home town of Dead End to find his kid brother rocking their father’s biker gang vest and trying to be cool. It only takes about ten seconds for a rival gang, The Devil’s Hand, to take interest and cut him up. Cue a pathetic tale of revenge that is to scattered, pointless and thin the only analogy I can come up with is confetti.It’s like confetti.
There isn’t one main problem; the entire plot seems problematic. The characters are either so poorly written it’s impossible to care or they are just plain repulsive. Jake is a dumb brick shithouse with about as much personality as a doorstop. When you aggressively want your lead character to shut up every time he opens his mouth, there’s something wrong. Mack, the obligatory Krist Kristofferson-like older father figure, is equally boorish, grumbling through line after line of exposition.
Ride to Hell: Retribution appears on Xbox site with more info and pictures.
Player Attack: While we're not sure what's different about it, mysterious title Ride to Hell: Retribution has been re-classified in Australia, given a new codename: Cook's Mad Recipe. Whatever you want to call it, this upcoming, open-world story of a returning Vietnam veteran looks set to be Australia's first R-rated game featuring "high impact sexual references".
