Game Review: Eat Lead The Return of Matt Hazard

Billy O'Keefe - Mclatchy -Tribune News Service

"Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard"

For: Playstation 3 and Xbox 360

ESRB Rating: Teen (language, mild suggestive themes, violence)

At first glance, it's hard not to love "Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard."

Unfortunately, once you dig in, trying not to hate it is similarly difficult.

"Lead's" concept is ingenious: You star as washed-up action game star Matt Hazard, who is mounting a comeback after a torrent of (fictional) spin-offs and sequels destroyed his marketability. Your comeback meets resistance from inside the game, though, and from there, "Lead" (which employs the voice talents of Will Arnett and Neil Patrick Harris) takes the game-within-a-game idea to new heights in its bid to spoof 20 years of gaming norms and warts.

While "Lead" positions itself as a cover-based third-person shooter in the "Gears of War" vein, the setup allows it to stretch that concept however it likes. You might, for instance, fight cowboys and Russian soldiers simultaneously. Some of them might turn into zombies after you kill them. Fortunately, a bizarre range of weapons, from deadly water guns to plasma pistols, ensures you'll be able to dispatch the undead in short order.

During these moments, "Lead" is harmless fun. The game's controls lack a level of polish found in top-tier shooters, but they work, and the ability to bounce from cover to cover with a single button press is pretty clever (as Matt himself points out).

Problem is, many of these shootouts last entirely too long. "Lead" hides its repetition early on by introducing strange new enemy juxtapositions every so often, but by the end of the game, you're seeing wave upon wave of the same crowd coming at you. Enemy A.I. isn't particularly sharp, and blasting through these waves becomes an exercise in monotony after a while.

Unfortunately, "Lead" suffers more when it tries to get fancy. A pair of sequences in which you're bouncing through cover to avoid sniper fire are surprisingly fun, but the fun stops cold during a few of the game's boss fights, which are funny in concept but aggravating in practice. "Lead" commits a serious cover shooter cardinal sin by spawning enemies out of nowhere behind you, and this problem becomes a deal-breaking liability during boss fights in which one mistake can get you killed instantly. It's hard to keep laughing when a game punishes you with cheap deaths, and "Lead" is home to some of the cheapest deaths you'll see all year.

"Lead" goes out on a positive note with a cool final boss fight and a fun end twist, but the overall game outstays its welcome so profoundly that completing it brings relief more than satisfaction. That, along with the lack of any kind of multiplayer option, makes this a better rental than purchase if you're curious about its finer points.

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