1UP writes: "'I would like to apologize up front about any troubles we run into during the presentation,' says Martin Filipp in the charmingly off-kilter phrasing of a non-native English speaker. Red-bearded and ponytailed, he stands at the front of a stage in a biker bar, obviously out of place, addressing an audience of heavy drinking bikers in tight leather pants and heavy drinking games reporters in sloppy promo sweatshirts. Game developers have a habit of apologizing for the roughness of their early demos. They often give the impression of being forced against their will to show unfinished work, compromised by the necessities of marketing. In the case of Filipp, I keep imagining someone standing behind him in the shadows holding his children at gunpoint. "You obviously saw that we have visual issues still. All of the facial animations are still missing. The eye work is still missing. The hair still needs to be done..." He struggles to convey the unseen details of his team's creative vision as the demo runs headlong into embarrassment. I can't help feeling sorry for the guy."
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".
