In fact, Hatred fails to give an entertaining enough gameplay experience to forgive the lack of depth on display. Unfortunately, the game offers none of the subtlety or meaning required to pull off any kind of lasting impression. It gives the title a grimy, gritty feel, similar to the seminal Belgian mockumentary Man Bites Dog. Neon signs, vicious explosions, and morbid patches of blood stand out against the black-and-white world, and the blue and red of police lights flickers ever-present. Indeed, Hatred's graphics are far and away the most impressive aspect of the title. The fire itself is also visually appealing, with patches of color bursting from Hatred's normally monotone art style akin to the Platinum Games-developed MadWorld. Players will find themselves able to crash through scenery using the (admittedly touchy) driving controls, whilst grenade and molotov cocktail use will also cause damage to the surroundings. Overall, however, the game's destruction mechanics are fairly impressive. 'The Crusader', as the player-character is dubbed, may blow a hole in the wall of a building, but his feet may apparently get stuck on some of the rubble left behind. The player's movement can sometimes be hindered through barely visible in-game objects, which is often debris remaining from the game's destructive environments. The title has more problems than this fundamental flaw, however, as Hatred suffers from the occasional frustrating bug. This decision is perhaps due to how awkward the gameplay feels when there is no danger to counteract or 'enemy' to overcome, as the homicidal aspect of Hatred straddles an awful middle ground between being incredibly disturbing and outright boring. Indeed, the last two levels of the game - taking place on a military base and in a nuclear power plant respectively - revolve almost entirely around shooting armed combatants, with a few NPCs unable to fight back thrown into the mix. At its core, Hatred turns into the most bog-standard of all video game types: a man with a gun fights other men with guns, resulting in blood and explosions. Although levels will often start with an arbitrary quota of innocent people to butcher, this will inevitably alert an armed response. These objectives eventually boil down down to having to kill NPCs, whether directly targeting unarmed civilians or fighting squads of police or military personnel.įor all the discussion of Hatred as a murder simulator, players may be surprised to find how much play time is given to fighting armed enemies. Players shoot through stages including a moving train, an area of downtown NYC, and (obviously) a sewer system, and are given a number of objectives to complete. What's more, Hatred offers little more beyond an extended Kill Frenzy from the original, top-down Grand Theft Auto titles. The title plays like a twin-stick shooter, but with awkward, twitchy controls that are bound to frustrate. Unfortunately, those looking solely for thrilling video game are going to find Hatred is quite empty. The question is, however, whether the title itself offers anything to gamers outside of the backlash and counter-backlash of its provocative pre-release.ĭestructive Creations has always maintained that Hatred is a game removed from art, offering up a chaotic gameplay experience without any subtext or theme. The title may have been refused release on Good Old Games, but Hatred has already grown fat off backers and initial sales. It's said that no publicity is bad publicity, and Hatred has certainly found a home through its promise of brutal violence and an anti-art, anti-politics sentiment. Eventually, the title saw a return to the distribution service, after Gabe Newell brought Hatred back to Steam.
Valve pulled the game from the Steam Greenlight process whilst the title was riding high in the Greenlight rankings, prompting advocates to claim that developer Destructive Creations was being stifled by outside influences.
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Since then, Hatred has been perpetually on the merry-go-round of the censorship versus free speech debate. After all, its initial release trailer was criticized for offering little more than a massacre simulator, prompting Epic Games to ask for the Unreal logo to be removed from promotional material. The game was born out of notoriety, finding an audience through the extreme backlash to its content. When Hatred made its first public appearance, it became immediately clear that the title was going to become a serious talking point in the video game sphere. Much-publicized controversy and an impressive art style cannot hide the tedious shooter underneath Hatred's veneer.
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