Now Playing: Hatred

Hatred is an indie twin-stick shooter in which you play ‘Not Important’, a man on a ‘genocide crusade’. There are seven levels and the game can be completed relatively quickly (2-3 hours) if you ignore additional objectives and play on the easiest setting. However, this short length and lack of content is reflected in the budget friendly release price.

This also isn’t a game that really needs to be any longer. At its core, Hatred is a somewhat repetitive and simplistic shooter. It’s not The Witcher 3 – a game you’ll sit and play for a dozen hours at a time. It has more in common with arcade style titles designed for short, burst style play. As you progress through the game on one of its three difficulty settings – Easy, Hard and Extreme – you’ll unlock each level which you can then replay straight from the main menu.

There’s very little in the way of story or cut-scenes to skip (though you can do so if you wish). Even the ‘tutorial’ is kept short and sharp before throwing you straight into the action. Fortunately, Hatred does offer a solid degree of replay value as each level serves as something of a mini-sandbox, and your experience will be slightly different each time you play. The difficulty modes also offer some replay by providing a decent challenge, particularly in the last few levels.

Because though the shooting mechanics of Hatred may be rather simplistic, there is more strategy involved than you might expect. Using the sprint and dodge abilities to retreat and avoid fire is a vital part of play, as is crouching to take cover behind objects. The game often throws significant numbers of opponents at you and it’s easy to be surrounded and overwhelmed very quickly. 

Playing on Hard, I found that retreat was always a sensible option. You do have to play smart if you want to survive. And most importantly, you must use the environment to your advantage. Many buildings contain explosive materials which you can lure groups of enemies towards before triggering a chain explosion. You can also use doorways and corridors to create bottlenecks in which you can funnel your opponents in order to limit and better manage their numbers.

Ammo conservation is another important part of the strategy. It’s often wise to avoid shooting civilians unless you need to complete a particular objective, and even then, it’s actually more efficient to use your overpowered, door smashing jump kick – efficient and a little hilarious. Health regeneration must also be considered. You can only regain health by executing wounded opponents, but doing so can leave you vulnerable.

Planning how to approach each level can also be important – knowing where ammo, guns or amour are located and being ready to tackle the inevitable wave of tougher enemies in the form of SWAT or the Army. There’s an interesting checkpoint system whereby every ‘side’ objective you complete unlocks a new (single use) respawn point. This is something of a risk/reward system. By attacking each of these objective locations you’ll attract the attention of a lot of police, so it’s best to try to clear them as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to unlock the respawn point and then flee before more enemies arrive.

Once you’ve spent each respawn point you’ll have to restart the entire level, another mechanic that makes Hatred feel more like an arcade style title – the only thing that’s really missing is a score or time attack style option for each of the levels. In terms of weapon and enemy variety, you get a solid, if limited selection. Thanks to some great animations, guns feel satisfying to use and have a nice ‘punch’ to them, as you riddle your opponents with bullets or blast holes through walls. The real highlight, however, is the fantastic flame-thrower!

You also have three grenade types (and enemies will use grenades too, so be warned) including a flash-bang, which has the very nice touch of subduing all of the sound in the game when one goes off near you. It’s a neat little detail, and there are many neat little details spread throughout Hatred if you care to look – radio chatter from police, TV images, billboard signs etc.

The police and the army aren’t the only threat you’ll face though, as some civilians carry guns and will even stop and pick up dropped weapons to fight you. But mostly, civilians exist to top up your health and, aside from certain objectives to ‘kill X amount’, you’ll mostly ignore them. I mentioned how it’s important to play in an ‘efficient’ manner, and that’s also true of the health replenishing execution scenes.

It would have been very easy for the developers to make these scenes drawn out and gruesome – not so different to a Mortal Kombat fatality – but they sensibly kept them short and to the point. Hatred is quite a fast paced game, and anything that takes you out of the action for a moment can be a bit irritating. Thankfully, the scenes don’t always trigger when you execute, and there’s even the option to disable them entirely, which you may want to do as they can get a bit repetitive over time.

Mechanically, the violence on display is rather tame compared to other titles. Hatred certainly doesn’t glorify it, or justify it in any manner. It’s handled in a very cold, efficient and detached style. I’ve seen some criticism of Hatred for lacking a ‘statement’ or a ‘meaning’ to its violence, but Hatred isn’t attempting to make any kind of statement and frankly, no game should be expected to.

With regards to story, Hatred is so over the top and silly that you really can’t take it seriously. ‘Not Important’ growls cheesy one-liners, cut-scenes are hilariously bad – in particular the ending, which really should win an award. I honestly can’t remember the last time a game made me laugh so much. It plays everything pretty much completely straight, which might confuse people looking for more of a nudge/wink at the camera style experience. Hatred is very much self-aware of how ridiculous it is in terms of character/story and it absolutely revels in it.

Graphically, Hatred employs a stylish black/white colour clash of flashing lights and neon signs. There’s a slight grain across the picture giving the feeling of CCTV footage. As an aesthetic choice I like it, although at times, during the fast paced action, it can be hard to spot your targets if they’re bunched up against a dark background (although there is a key to highlight objects and enemies so it’s not a major issue). The levels have a fantastic degree of destructibility allowing you to blast (or drive!) through walls, setting off explosions that completely demolish structures. It’s a lot of fun.

In terms of sound and music, Hatred is also quite impressive. It would have been easy to drown out each level in thumping music but instead, the developers took a different approach. The soundtrack is wonderfully subdued, throbbing away in the background, creating a great sense of tension and unease. It ramps up where appropriate, but never detracts or more importantly distracts from the action.

 

Now I’ve talked a lot about the positives of the game, let’s look at some of the negatives. First up is performance. I’m running the game on High rather than Ultra and getting a solid, if not particularly impressive 30-45 FPS. Playable, but I’d expect better so I hope this gets patched. I’ve not seen too many bugs, although there are times when your character can get ‘stuck’ on scenery, and one time a vehicle I was driving flipped over for no apparent reason. Vehicle controls are also pretty awkward, but thankfully you won’t spend much time in them. 

Although I liked the respawn system it can sometimes drop you back into an area surrounded by cops resulting in an almost instant and unfair death. Some enemies, such as the army guys, can also shoot from just beyond your maximum vision range, which feels a little cheap. AI can also be a bit wonky at times – it’s possible to ‘line’ enemies up in a bottleneck and get them to shoot one another.

My main issue with Hatred is really just how limited it is. Although I enjoyed it and will likely play it again a few more times, it really needed more in terms of modes, weapons and enemy variety. Like I said, some kind of score or time attack system, or perhaps an ‘endless survival’ style mode. I believe mod tools are planned, so perhaps we’ll see something along those lines in the future, if not from potential DLC, then from a fan creation.

And, uh, honestly, I can’t really find many other negatives. As a budget indie title, Hatred delivers exactly what it promises – a short, challenging, if somewhat repetitive, twin-stick shooter. If that’s all you’re expecting, then you won’t be disappointed. The gameplay mechanics are solid and there’s a limited but fair degree of replay value. The destruction physics are great and the graphics, though a matter of subjective taste, fit the tone of the game perfectly. Thanks to an element of strategy, it’s not entirely mindless, although ‘tasteless’ is another matter. Hatred certainly won’t be a game for everyone, but it’s not trying to be.

Hatred is the sort of game I’ll keep installed and play on occasion for some senseless, violent action. It’s a game to take a break with from more ‘serious’ titles. It doesn’t try to be something it’s not, nor does it pretend to be. There’s no pretension here – what you see is what you get. There’s not much more to it, or for me to really say. Though a limited experience, Hatred is solid, enjoyable, harmless fun. Oh, and did I mention the flame-thrower?

6/10