Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard

Overview

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard introduced a new IP from publisher D3, developed by Vicious Cycle. The game's story was written by Dave Ellis (who won a Writer's Guild of America award for his work on the Dead Head Fred story).

Story

The game tells the tale of a 80's and 90's videogame hero known as Matt Hazard (who mainly consists of a parody of Duke Nukem ) who starred in titles like A Fistful of Hazard, Matt and Dexter in Murder Force, and You Only Live 1,317 Times. After his wild success, Matt Hazard eventually falls out of favour with gamers (this story segment seems to be referencing the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise) and has to resort to starring in terrible games like a kart racer and eventually a piñata game.

After several years of sitting around gaining weight and feeling sorry for himself, Matt receives an offer from his former publisher Marathon Megasoft to attempt a comeback in the video game industry. Matt, eager for another chance, quickly agrees, but soon learns that he has been tricked by some old enemies who just want to finish him off for good. When you have a last name like Hazard, you usually do not take getting stabbed in the back easy, so Matt sets off on a tongue-in-cheek quest for revenge that will parody popular gaming culture from the last several years.

Gameplay

The actual gameplay of Eat Lead is a third person shooter with a cover mechanic. What sets the game apart from the market's standard third person shooter is the fact that levels are constantly changing. Something keeps tinkering with the code of the game which brings pieces of Matt Hazard's gaming past back to haunt him mid-level. You may suddenly change from being in a back alley to being in an Old West town with cowboys and Indians having a stand-off. Halfway through that encounter, zombies, mafia henchmen, or any other kind of cliche gaming enemy imaginable has a chance of appearing and twisting the world in a whole new way.

Besides Dave Ellis, Vicious Cycle has recruited several other well respected names for this game. Will Arnett of Arrested Development and 30 Rock fame is the voice of Matt Hazard and Neil Patrick Harris of How I Met Your Mother and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is the voice of the executive of Marathon Megasoft, Wallace "Wally" Wellesley. As a teaser for the game, D3 has released two screenshots of the games Matt Hazard was said to star in. The first, titled The Adventures of Matt in Hazard Land, is a 1983 arcade shooter in the vein of Contra. The second, titled Conflict of the Deities, is a SNES and Genesis era game in which Matt has traveled back in time to battle beasts of ancient Greek mythology.

External Links

• Official Site
  
• Viral Marketing Site