I didn't play the original 1990s arcade game Splatterhouse. I told Crecente last week that the new one I played at E3 felt like a more violent God of War. Be careful, he warned me.
That analogy might upset fans of the classic Splatterhouse.
OK, but can I say the game was gory?
More gory than God of War!
Or, come on, at least more gross?
The new Splatterhouse puts you in control of Rick Taylor, a poor guy who is losing control inside the haunted mansion of a mysterious Dr. West. Rick had accompanied his girlfriend there. She wanted to interview the Dr. But she's gone missing and Rick has a mask on his face that is turning him into a deranged berzerker.
I thought of God of War because the new Splatterhouse is a 3D game viewed from developer-mandated camera angles. And because it is very violent. Rick is a brawler, capable of using light and heavy attacks to pound pints of blood from monstrous enemies, sometimes rip their arms off, sometimes pick up saws and slice them.
The more blood that Rick spills, the more powerful he becomes. As I fiddled with the game, easily smashing through rooms full of slow, shambling gross enemies, I was able to activate a super-charged Berzerker Mode for a briefly invincible rush.
This is the kind of game that mixes action with puzzles. Puzzles that involve such actions as grabbing a living but defeated enemy monster and slamming him bottom-first onto a chair — a chair that has a big spike in the middle of the seat. Do that four times to proceed.
If this is your kind of game — graphically rich with ooze and buckets of blood, played for hyper-violent laughs — then look for it around Halloween on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Bloodiest game of E3, I think.