Is the video game industry on the verge of closure, being the entertainment industry’s underdog? Well, Ride To Hell: Retribution certainly affirms those suspicions and analogies. God have mercy on Deep Silver’s soul. This “game” is horrendous. It is what Atari 2600’s Pac- Man was to the present day video game generation.
Unintentionally satirical, this sausage-fest, misogynistic, generalization of “video game” (inaptly named) is abysmal. And here’s why.
Story (loosely named)
The plot circles around Jake Conway, a muscle-bound, shaggy and scruffy haired war veteran on a one way road to revenge after a rag-tag group of bikers murders his younger brother. On paper, the story’s linearity and simplicity may be appropriate.
Silly me, the story was depicted through awkward cutscenes, sometimes devoid of any filler music in the background to create a war-torn atmosphere.
Voice acting is laugh out loud hilarious, with infinitesimally little effort put into the voice acting. It’s as if Tommy Wiseau from the “comedic” film The Room voice acted every character.
Gameplay (are we done yet?)
Conceptually speaking, Deep Silver yearned to produce this game in 2009. Ride To Hell was supposed to be monumental in size and scope. Promising an open world to traverse in post-Vietnam America sounded ambitious and if designed correctly, could lead to universal acclaim, putting them up there with the likes of Ken Levine.
Now, the product differs significantly from that vision. Being a blatant copy-cat of similar cover shooters, it fails to actually emulate the same experience. Destroyed cover does nothing. AI is jittery and the opposite of callous when it comes to fire fights. Recoil lacks the punch and impact as 5 shots to chest isn’t enough to take down an enemy. Headshots are encouraged. Quicktime events are stiff and uncontrollable. It clearly lacks fluidity.
Character models are recycled and reused countless of times, with innocous minute tweaks on each character, pretentiously creating an unreal and vague environment with psuedo “attention to detail.” God, is Deep Silver ever so perfidious. Sex a plentiful, Deep Silver crafts a primitive, stereotypical sexual innuendo fest that is borderline sexist, giving feminists an excuse to attack the game industry, again. Sex even gives you upgrades when you save a “damsel in distress.” Immediacy was apparently needed, with subsequent sex scenes on the spot, even if it’s in an area laden with bloodied bodies. Wow. I’ll let you guys make the jokes.
Soundtrack
Thankfully, the music redeems itself. To an extent. Loud, soulful rock and roll tunes enables the game to try to create a coherent post-war America. But the tunes are repetitive, quickly dulling down the experience.
In Conclusion
This titular game is a ginormous deviation from what we refer to as a “good video game.” Thanks to the futility of Deep Silver’s ways, their conceptual ideas fall flat with this jarring mess of a game. Their plans for a franchise are imminently bleak. The offensive nature is sure to stir up some controversy. Let this be a lesson to budding or virgin developers that just entered the industry, “ignorance is bliss.” I give this jaw-droppingly bad game a 2/10.
