The world, games included, is seeing a huge shift in how we view things, which undoubtedly is a great thing. Diversity is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, and we are actively trying to fight stereotypes which have been engrained within our society for millennia. Having said that, videos games at their core, are indeed a form of entertainment. They should be fun to play and allow us to peer into worlds unbeknownst to us here on earth. Sure, some titles make us think, while others are seen as just pure entertainment value. So, in a world that is so intently attempting to right the wrongs of the past, what happens when a title spits in its face, and then proceeds to laugh at it? In the simplest terms, you get Destructive Creations PC title, Hatred. For all the mud that gets slung at video games for being “murder simulators,†well that’s actually exactly what Hatred aims to be.
Killing in games is nothing new, nor is it something that usually makes us gasp, but those titles almost always have some back story, flimsy as they may be. You’re a soldier or an assassin, so you are supposed to kill. Or you are simply role playing as a thug. Maybe even a bit of humor is spliced in to offset the mass killings. But what happens when you strip the soldier narrative, take out the humor of pissing on yourself to quell a fire and omit any form of even semi relatable narrative? In short, you have a very plodding, repetitive title.
Hatred, at its core, is an isometric title that has you killing anything and everything for the sole fact that you are the antagonist of the title. Your purpose is to kill, whether it be men or women, random citizens or police officers. For the length of the title, you simply kill, kill, kill. When rummaging through the monochromatic locales, with red spot color of course (for blood) paired with accents of colored explosions along with Red and Blue police sirens, you are tasked with killing X amount of people. Along the way though, you can murder those innocent souls at a funeral procession, or sometimes in the supermarket to earn another respawn point, which, admittedly, is actually a neat idea. Your arsenal consists of the ability to hold three weapons at a time and a handful of projectiles, in this case: grenades, molotovs and flashbangs. The killing is fun, but the wow factor dies off extremely early. The edginess rounds off dramatically after you’ve killed hundreds of innocent bystanders. The giddy smiles wash away as you begrudgingly execute someone solely because you were low on health, whereas previously it would elicit a chuckle.
Unlike some isometric shooters that are insanely hard or require a ton of trial and error with quick reload times, like the Hotline Miami titles, Hatred is a lot more straightforward. It’s not necessarily that difficult either, especially since by executing people you gain health, but there will definitely be times where you get stuck behind some obstruction in the environment and die when you were at the very end of a section. The world is “open,†but the title is a very straightforward affair; there’s no reason to diverge from the path.
It’s a shame that the mechanics don’t quite live up to the art style, as that is Hatred’s strength by a longshot. The monochromatic environments with red hues really beat you over the head that the antagonist is scum of the earth, in the best of ways of course. The destruction in the game is also superb. It’s quite a joy shooting a couple blatantly placed red explosive barrels and watching shingles and pieces of the adjoining house blow to pieces. The destruction is something that not many devs do, so it’s even more so a joy to watch here.