Illbleed

Overview: Scare factor: 5 Fun factor: 6 Replay value: 7 Graphics: 8 Sound: 8 Overall: 6.5

Review:

Illbleed. Doesn't that name just grab at you? I quite like it myself, but the game that comes with it isn't as good as it's name, I have to say. I mean, I like it; I'll play it, but that's probably because I paid for it and it's for my Dreamcast. I don't think many others would take the time to play it though because of it's difficulty and the attention you have to pay to the different meters.

Illbleed is the title of an amusement park designed to scare people. The amusement park was designed so that you can die during your visit to the park. Would you risk it? The story starts you off as the main character, Eriko. Her friends were excited about the new amusement park, Illbleed as it opened up. Eriko doesn't care much for the scary though, because for some strange reason it turns out that her father has always been attracted to horror-related things and would have ideas about scaring people, which he would test on her as a young child. (What kind of parent would do that?) Anyway, her friends receive invitations to the park and they go without her. Her friends never come back after their visit to the park, so Eriko goes in to try to rescue them and that's where the gameplay starts up.

You start out with a set amount of money and you can go buy some items and there are some areas in the beginning of the game where you can test out different abilities and try to get used to the controls before you actually enter a level. Once you're done with all of that, you enter what looks like a movie theater and the first level of the game starts. The stories are sort of cheesy and, like everything else in the game, are not scary.

There are few good features in Illbleed among the sea of bad ones. Illbleed has awesome sound; I love the evil yet bubblegumish background music that they use in it. It's eerie and playful at the same time. Me and the music get along quite well.

The game also has good graphics, c'mon it's for DC! Of course it does... The graphics were well-put-together, especially the characters. Except for the fact that their mouths don't move when they talk. O.o;

It's when you start to talk about the gameplay and its difficulty that I may start to complain a little. That game, for me, is very difficult because you have to pay attention to 4 different basic sense meters that have to rely on to figure out where the "scares" are hiding. You also have to pay attention to how much adrenaline you have, how much you are bleeding, and how fast your heart is beating. You need adrenaline to predict when something will pop out and scare you. After you use the adrenaline, you can get it back if you correctly predict "scares" or if you use an adrenaline-recovering item (which are expensive and kind of rare). The only thing, though, is that they randomize when something will jump out, so you pretty much have to rely on your senses, and how strong they are, to figure out how close something is what it is that is going to scare you. It's really hard, I think, to figure out when something will pop out though because it can be pretty unpredictable at times. Also, if you are bleeding, the only ways to stop bleeding are to use some sort of item or to stop running, or else you could die. If you stop running, however, it cuts away at your time and you only have a certain amount of time to beat the levels. If your heartbeat gets too fast, you can also die. Your heartbeat goes up when something scares you and it slows down, again, if you stop moving or use an item. You also have to match certain requirements to get the prize money awarded for each level. And, since treatment and items can get pricey, you will need that extra money, believe that.

Another thing is that when stuff jumps out, it's not scary at all. Ok, so some green smoke floats out from somewhere, am I supposed to be scared now? It doesn't scare you though, it is how much it scares your player, because they're the ones that get the points reduced for being scared.

There is also fights in the game where you encounter certain monsters. You'll pick up different weapons during the game which you can use against the monsters. If your health gets down too low you can call a helicopter to rescue you, but for some reason that never works for me and I end up dying. Sometimes you have to fight more than one enemy and that can be pretty challenging.

Illbleed is an okay game that you can play if you like. You don't have to take my opinion, you know. It can be something to occupy time when you have nothing better to do. I think it could have been better done, because I actually like the general idea of the game. (If I didn't, would I have paid for it?) Perhaps, Capcom will pick this title up one day and decide to do a remake of it. Yes, let us pray for that day. Until then, I would recommend that you play Britney's Dance Beat before this game. (And, no, I'm not saying that to make fun of Britney Spears, that game rocks!)