When Hatred was announced via that grim and gory trailer in October last year, the game drummed up the sort of manufactured controversy that Grand Theft Auto would be proud of. With its Adults Only rating and some retailers convinced it’s too gratuitously violent to even sell, Hatred could be something great; eddy, controversial, poking at taboos – if it was any good. Hatred, the twin-sticked shooter that seems to have been made for controversy’s sake is out – and shock, horror and surprise – most people have realised that it’s a load of codswallop. Its central conceit, shooting and stabbing everything that moves isn’t enough to keep it being fun for more than fifteen minutes.
That controversy’s certainly worked. The game temporarily outsold The Witcher 3 and Grand Theft Auto V on Steam – so there’s certainly a great deal of interest in a game that has you snuffing out civilians with hate-fuelled contempt. Here’s what reviewers have to say:
Hatred is a good twin-stick shooter that manages to offer an interesting experience only through the actual theme. Besides that, however, it’s not something outstanding. Developer Destructive Creations could have transformed its targets into zombies or civilians and escape the controversy, but it stuck to its initial idea, and while it’s not executed all that well in terms of story, it deserves recognition.
That contrasts quite wildly with Gamespot’s 3/10 view:
But there’s an even greater irony at work here, in that having brutally killed thousands of innocents, survived police retaliation, and laid waste to everything good in the world, even while the Antagonist devours scenery behind the mic, you feel nothing. Hatred is too repetitive to be exciting, too dumb to be frightening, too basic for you to feel accomplished at its end, too dour to be violently cathartic, too self-serious to engender ironic amusement, and yet still too childish to matter.
It will be given more credit than it’s worth–all a game like this can do is provide meager table scraps to a ravenous desire already deeply embedded in pre-existing monsters, and that’s not a problem that treating Hatred as Videodrome made (new) flesh will cure. The fact that the final product fails even to be worth a primal psychotic scream of victory against society at large for the people it might encourage means it laughably fails even at being dangerous.
RPS’ John Walker has similar feelings:
Hatred fails in every way. It fails to be a fun, entertaining game. It fails to be a technically competent release. And most of all, it fails to be a controversial, shocking experience. It even fails at being bad in an interesting way. By the time you’re taking on levels requiring multiple stages, the thought of repeating the tedium all over again becomes untenable.
After a miserable few hours, I’ve not completed the game, so goodness knows, perhaps some incredibly shocking thing happens toward the end. But it seems unlikely, and getting there would be no fun for anyone. If you were looking to rubberneck at the engineered controversy, there’s little to care about. If you were planning to buy it to show those feminazi SJWs a thing or two, you’re going to get stuck with a shitty game-shaped hole in your wallet. It is, beyond all the hype, just a crappy game.
User reviews offer a similar dichotomy – swinging wildy in one extreme and its polar opposite, as they tend to do.
The most common complaint is that the game is just frightfully boring – and no amount of egregious, gratuitous violence can make up for that.
Last Updated: June 2, 2015
Ottokie
June 2, 2015 at 13:04
I may be in the minority saying this but “Hype” is poison for a game. Whenever a game becomes over hyped, thats when I tend to stay far away from it.
Pariah
June 2, 2015 at 13:07
Or you know, just ignore the hype – wait for reviews – make up your own mind. That’s how I’ve been doing it since before the internet. And it’s never failed me. Ok maybe once or twice, but dammit I love Bard’s Tale, even though it was a shit game.
Ottokie
June 2, 2015 at 13:09
Yea I’m holding back so much I’m playing Recettear and Akiba’s Trip at nights instead of new shiny games xD
miza
June 3, 2015 at 14:42
Never woulda guessed.
kuuu(UMAR)rrrr
June 2, 2015 at 13:16
Problem lies with the gamer though. If a company falsely advertises a game to generate hype on false pretenses the yeah, it’s the company’s fault, but the gamer should know better on how to manage their own expectations better than anyone and surely better than any company out there. Nothing wrong with being excited, but be sensible about it all.
Captain JJ the_scarrrr
June 2, 2015 at 13:42
Only you can over-hype yourself though.
Ottokie
June 2, 2015 at 13:44
In the end I’m still my own worst enemy xD
Captain JJ the_scarrrr
June 2, 2015 at 13:46
This is very true.
konfab
June 2, 2015 at 15:53
*cough* Witcher 3 *cough*
Blood Emperor Trevor
June 2, 2015 at 13:08
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Pretty graphics, shallow game play. It’s practically a standard AAA game.
I watched Jim Sterling’s Squirty Play video, and yes, it looked boring as hell. There’s literally nothing to it. I’d rather play Alien/Zombie Shooter – at least there you can upgrade your characters & weapons.
Pariah
June 2, 2015 at 13:11
So – rather buy Aliens: Colonial Marines?
Greylingad[CNFRMD]
June 2, 2015 at 13:12
And it will be a marvel compared to this…
Blood Emperor Trevor
June 2, 2015 at 13:14
Why? I already own the Alien & Zombie Shooter games.
Captain JJ the_scarrrr
June 2, 2015 at 13:47
Rather burn the money
Hammersteyn
June 2, 2015 at 13:16
Same here and after watching Jims video I’ve seen all I needed to see.
Captain JJ the_scarrrr
June 2, 2015 at 13:46
So much win.
Greylingad[CNFRMD]
June 2, 2015 at 13:11
What a surprise, I’m genuinely surprised that given the boring nature of the game(I’m excluding all forms of controversy) people actually wrote reviews for it… I could sum it up, boring, flat and generally stupid… There we go, now, I’m still busy with the Witcher 3…
Hammersteyn
June 2, 2015 at 13:17
LOL and this is outselling GTAV and Witcher 3 on Steam???
Greylingad[CNFRMD]
June 2, 2015 at 13:19
I think simply because of curiosity, Can you name a developer that’s going to feel the hate in a few days/hours time? I can…
Hammersteyn
June 2, 2015 at 13:21
Which one?
Greylingad[CNFRMD]
June 2, 2015 at 13:24
Something with a D…
Hammersteyn
June 2, 2015 at 13:35
Oh, them.
Blood Emperor Trevor
June 2, 2015 at 13:23
Read the Steam reviews. They make me giggle. The ones that say it’s bad concentrate on how the game plays, the ones that say it’s good basically talk about the pre-release controversy. Called it.
Goal9
June 2, 2015 at 13:35
And you know what? That’s perfectly fine. Regardless whether the game turned out good or not; the reaction the game got was over dramatic and incredibly PC. Intentional or not; controversy should not stop developers creating what they want to create as long as it doesn’t amount to a hate crime.
I also hope reviewers aren’t basing their reviews around the controversy alone the same way some reviewers score a game based on how it projects woman (like Polygon); because that would be wholly unfair to developers in general.
Captain JJ the_scarrrr
June 2, 2015 at 13:41
Controversy and hype is pretty much what everything is rated on these days.
I miss the good old days.
CuddlesaurusRex
June 2, 2015 at 13:42
And here I held onto a tiny sliver of hope that this was going to be in the same vein as Sin city… So much of fail.
Captain JJ the_scarrrr
June 2, 2015 at 13:48
The developers got what they wanted out of it.
Controversy that lead to sales.
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
June 2, 2015 at 13:59
I’m keen to see what the fuss is all about – currently downloading the game on my laptop, and tonight I’ll check it out.
SargonTheBatpandaOfTI5
June 2, 2015 at 14:04
Did you buy it?!
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
June 2, 2015 at 14:10
Of course! 😀 Will I regret it? Maybe… But then to be honest, I’ve paid for some terrible games in the past – sigh!
I’ll check it out, and give you an honest appraisal.
RinceTheElfRoot
June 2, 2015 at 14:01
HEHEHE SO it got a lot of… HATRED?!
Captain JJ the_scarrrr
June 2, 2015 at 14:02
Stahp
RinceTheElfRoot
June 2, 2015 at 14:07
Here all week! I do it for @disqus_DoEH3TsffU:disqus otherwise he doesn’t get to post unimpressed pictures 😉
Blood Emperor Trevor
June 2, 2015 at 14:08
Yes. If it wasn’t for you, I’d never get the chance. 😉
RinceTheElfRoot
June 2, 2015 at 14:10
MY WORK IS DONE!
Captain JJ the_scarrrr
June 2, 2015 at 14:10
Nothing impresses him. At least you get a reaction. ;P
RinceTheElfRoot
June 2, 2015 at 14:11
And that is why I will continue forever!
Blood Emperor Trevor
June 2, 2015 at 14:02
…
SargonTheBatpandaOfTI5
June 2, 2015 at 14:03
… (0)(0) …
RinceTheElfRoot
June 2, 2015 at 14:07
No one gets you!
SargonTheBatpandaOfTI5
June 2, 2015 at 14:03
We’ve gone so deep I can only see the absence of colour now!
RinceTheElfRoot
June 2, 2015 at 14:07
HAHAHAHA
Blood Emperor Trevor
June 2, 2015 at 14:09
He’s using a sepia filter.
Rock789
June 2, 2015 at 15:02
CORNER!!
Matthew Holliday
June 2, 2015 at 14:06
controversy and hype dont make games good, but they do generate sales.
people will buy bad games just to see what the fuss is all about.
coip
June 2, 2015 at 16:01
Not only will they buy it based on hype, they’ll continue to play it for months even though it sucks just because of the hype (case in point: Destiny).
axii OVG
June 2, 2015 at 14:25
Some people just need to let off some STEAM
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
June 2, 2015 at 14:30
It’s all about ethics in potato journalism.
konfab
June 2, 2015 at 15:52
Well the developers probably made more money than any SJW femnazi game developers have, from a business perspective it is a good game.
Besides the poor SJW need an ammunition resupply, after FIFA took away one of their main supply lines.