Have you ever played a game that most people seem to dislike, but you love and you have no idea why others do not? That is the relationship I have with 2010’s Splatterhouse! This is a reboot of the Splatterhouse series and it is one of my favorite horror games of all time. Today, I want to talk a little bit about the game and hopefully get some of you to give it a second chance.
I was already a fan of the series, I played it in the arcade many times and I loved Splatterhouse 2 on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, although I never did play the third game until many years later. Anyway, when I heard that Namco was rebooting the series, I was all in on it. I followed the development of it very closely and I pre-ordered the Xbox 360 version of the game (it was also available on PC and PlayStation 3) as soon as I could. The game came out and I beat it that first weekend and I loved it!
The best thing that Splatterhouse 2010 has going for it is the story. I would say that it is like a horror love story. Jennifer is going to interview the brilliant, but creepy as hell DR. West in his mansion and he takes her boyfriend Rick with her. Turns out it was all a trick as DR. West wants to use Jennifer to bring his dead wife back to life! DR. West is one very bad guy that works with all kinds of evil stuff and in his abduction of Jennifer, Rick ends up fatally wounded by one of his evil creatures! That is until the Terror Mask makes itself known and it “rebuilds” Rick into this hulking beast so that he can get Jennifer back and stop DR. West’s evil plan.
It is honestly fantastic stuff and the way the lore is expanded by finding journals/recordings of Dr. West as well as very revealing photos of Jennifer we get to see both sides of this story. It is brought to life with some great voice acting and I was completely invested from the start. The only thing that sucks is that it ends on a cliffhanger and as the game underperformed, it never got a sequel! I have played through the game multiple times and the story always grabs me. I love the way that the Terror Mask is an actual character and the banter between it and Rick is a lot of fun, even if the “tude” is a bit forced.
The gameplay of Splatterhouse 2010 I think feels like a natural evolution of the 16-bit games. They were shallow beat-em-ups and people loved them for it, this is the same so I have no idea why it was hated on for being a 3D version of the originals! It is very much a hack and slash style of beat-em-up with buckets and buckets of blood. This is one of the goriest games I have ever played and it can become even gorier with the new moves, upgrades, and weapons that Rick can unleash. I think that it plays well and there is a bit of exploration as well. The only thing I do not like is when on a couple of occasions, the game shifts to a 2D perspective. I get that this is a throwback to the original 2 games, but the platforming is very clunky here, still, it is not horrible and it in no way made it worth all the negative reviews the game got!
Splatterhouse 2010 is one of those games that I will always defend. I think if you enjoyed the style over substance that the original games had, you will enjoy this. Plus, it tells an awesome horror love story that I think would have made for a great movie. Be sure to let me know if you have played this and what your thoughts on it are. It is also worth noting that this does have the original three Splatterhouse games as a bonus.