
2005 · Artech Digital Entertainment · Action · Shooter
Raze's Hell
Xbox exclusive
Raze's Hell is an action-shooter with a lot of black comedy. The story revolves around Raze, an ugly monster determined to stop the invasion of his ugly world by cute little creatures. Don't let the Kewletts impose their makeovers on Raze's hideous people. Help him fight back and restore the world to its natural, ugly state. Full Xbox Live support Dolby Digital 5.1 sound support
- Released
- 21 April 2005
- Platforms
- XboxXbox 360
- Genres
- ActionShooterThird-person shooter
- Developers
- Artech Digital Entertainment
- Publishers
- Majesco Entertainment
- Modes
- MultiplayerSingle-player
- Perspective
- Third person
- Themes
- ActionStealthComedy
- Age ratings
- ESRB M
About
Raze's Hell is an action game developed by Artech Studios, and published by Majesco for the Xbox console in 2005. It was made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace in 2008.
Keywords
- bloody
- magic
- minigames
- action-adventure
- online
- dark humor
- anti-hero
- games on demand
- alien languages
Media
The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Gameplay
The player character, Raze, has attacks consisting of using his wrist blade and rolling. When an enemy Kewlett is killed, it splatters on the screen or bursts into bloody chunks. Raze can suck up the Kewlett chunks to restore his health and can use stealth mode. Raze also sucks up insects called Squibs, which serve as ammunition.
The Kewletts want to exterminate the Squibs. Different types of Squibs have varying effects, such as: Raze can breathe fire by sucking in flames, much as he does to the Squibs. Red crystals are scattered about the levels that explode when attacked.
Story
For centuries, the Kewletts, a cute and happy race, lived an idyllic existence inside the hallowed walls of Kewtopia. They never went outside the gates of their city because they had everything they needed inside: a wonderful princess, perfect weather, wealth, and privilege. The Kewletts parody different types of cute creatures found in media. Before the events in the game, the Kewletts lived isolated from the rest of their world. Their first attempt at diplomacy with the creatures of the hinterlands was brief and failed.
Afterwards, their Princess decided to launch "Operation Fresh Hope" to "cutetify" all of the "monsters" outside of Kewtopia. The true nature behind "Operation Fresh Hope", unknown to most Kewletts, is the retrieval of three ancient artifacts that the Princess desires due to her being a Huggly. Because the Kewletts are intensely nationalistic – a worldview constantly reinforced through propaganda broadcasts on the "QTV" news network, segments of which are seen between the game's levels – they support the idea of expanding the Kewlett empire throughout the war and the "cleansing" of the hinterlands of monsters. Their belligerent, racist worldview is in sharp contrast to their cute, gentle appearance, and serves as a satire of imperialism and colonialism, with the Kewletts utterly convinced of their moral superiority.
Development
Producer Rick Banks said the idea for the game came after focus groups had a positive reception to hidden features Artech added to children interactive products, "such as setting cute characters on fire", and made the developers decide to make a game where one would "kill and maim the commercially created cute", with the starting point being that those creatures would be cold-blooded killers. The game spent over three years in development, starting as a test bed for an in-house engine, picked up by a publisher that wound up encountered financial difficulties, and after months stalled being ultimately picked up by Majesco. Audio designer Mike Keogh had his first opportunity to do sound and music for a video game, which featured vocals by his future wife, and over 6,000 lines of Kewlett dialogue, mostly performed by Keogh himself, who also wrote them with the help of his high school improv friends.
Reception
Raze's Hell received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.
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Collections3 collections
Platform libraries
- Xbox gamesGames
- Xbox System Link games
- Xbox games compatible with Xbox 360List of compatible Xbox games
Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.

