Since the beginning of my gamming life, I’ve been a fan of unnecessary violence in video games. If it’s a free for all kill fest you better believe I have both played and loved it. This week, I was excited to find a game on Xbox Live Arcade that seemed to be right up my alley, a game rightfully titled Unnecessary Violence. Despite my high hopes, however, this game has yet to successfully satisfy my blood lust with its repetitive scenery and lack of learning curve.
As you drive along the enclosed highway (sorry, no exit ramps so once you’re in it, you’re in it), your only goal is to destroy your target, and everything else in your way if you want. Unnecessary Violence can, in fact, be filled with unnecessary violence. The game even starts you off with a number of top notch weapon choices (no upgrading here folks) right from the starting line, so you can begin annihilating from the get go. Though you only have once target at a time, you do have the option to blow up any other car on the road if you feel like it, leaving a mass of fiery explosion in your path.
This sounds fun at first, especially as someone who has spent a lot of time blowing things up in video games (thanks Vice City) but it gets boring quickly. Unnecessary Violence doesn’t seem to get any harder as you blast your way down the highway, leaving you with the same challenge over and over. Your target will always use the same maneuvers to try and escape while the other cars on the road will continue on their path without giving your tricked out car a second thought (even if your continuously running into them).
Along with the repetitive game play, Unnecessary Violence takes place along the same massive strip of freeway that is unchanging, even the cars around you don’t vary from about three slightly different models. After playing the first two minutes of your mission and having blown up at least one vehicle, you’ve pretty much seen everything the environment has to offer. The graphics themselves have an unpolished feel to them which can be hard to overlook in a game with such a simple concept. This does feel a bit like an older racing game which is enhanced by the sound track. It must be noted that the music is an enjoyable throwback to older racing games like Cruzin’ and even Mario Kart to some extent.
To its credit, the controls in Unnecessary Violence are easy enough and work well. It’s your basic right trigger accelerator with the left as the break and the left joystick for steering. For a cheap game, the car handles fairly simply and is easy to get good at, a contrast from some more expensive titles (I’m looking at you Crackdown) where the car is completely useless. That said, the car mechanics should be worked out with no surprise since it is the focus of the entire experience. A nice feature is the ease with which you can switch up your weapons, of which there are many. They make it simple by bringing up the selection circle with right joystick (very convenient since you’ll be doing it while driving down the freeway after your target). Unfortunately, this is the high point of Unnecessary Violence and the rest of the game play falls short.
Unnecessary Violence is, in the end, an unnecessary purchase. Don’t be fooled by the name as I was. Even if you love to get good and bloody in your video games, this one doesn’t bring enough to the table to engage anyone for more then about five minutes. There are so many ways to build a fun and entertaining buffet of violence (thanks again, Vice City and the entire Grand Theft Auto franchise), it’s disappointing to see something with such a lack of creativity behind it.
If you would like to try Unnecessary Violence for yourself, you can currently find it on Xbox Live Arcade for 80 Microsoft points.