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Redneck Rampage
by Al Giovetti
Price: $49
Release: April 28, 1997
Genre: Doom Clone Action Adventure
Art:
Music: Mojo Nixon, Beat Farmers, and The Reverend Horton Heat
Programmer:
Producer: Drew Markham
Interplay Producer: Bill Dugan Developer: Xatrix Entertainment
Phone: 800-468-3772
Web site: http://www.interplay.com
Publisher: Interplay
Requirements: Pentium, 100 MHz, 16 MB RAM, 2X CD ROM drive, 80 MB hard disk space, 256-color SVGA, 100% SoundBlaster compatible

History: Duke Nukem is one of the best selling games of all time and the game is based upon Apogee's game engine. The engine seems overdone and there appears to be not an ounce of creativity that could be squeezed out of the old washed out shell. Then along comes Redneck Rampage and it is a whole new ball game. redneckbros.jpg - 26.1 K

One would have thought that the true polygon based games like Quake and Unreal would have precluded anyone from using the older "2 - 1/2" dimension extrusion engine technology that made Duke Nukem popular. The designers of this game claim, "that if you are worrying about the game engine, we have not done our job correctly."

Company line: Leonard and Bubba gotta get back Bessie, their prize-winnin' pig who's been abducted by aliens in Redneck Rampage, a ruckus-raisin' riot of a first person 3D shooter set in the fictional town of Hickston, Arkansas.

Armed with up to nine impractical and occasionally illegal weapons ranging from a crowbar to an alien arm gun (to pull the trigger, yank on the tendon), blast your way with the boys through country bars and trailer parks. The aliens have been busy conducting experiments, cloning local folks like Hickston's resident drunkard, Billy Ray.

Now these ornery alien enemies lurk behind every outhouse and jukebox, scratching themselves and waitin' to whoop yer butt. If you thought navigating through a melted-down Los Angeles or sneaking around ogres' castles was tough, then just try your hand a-whompin' and a-stompin' the good ol' boys at Stanky's Bar & Grill. You'll find there's nothin' more terrifyin' than the deep chuckle of an inbred harelip stalking you in the backwoods, with nobody to hear your teeth chattering but the fifty chickens milling around underfoot.

Fourteen different levels and multiple locations provide fast action fighting, with power-ups of pork rinds, whiskey, and beer aplenty. The rustic, quirky charm of the deep, DEEP South comes to life in hilarious detail in Redneck Rampage with rich SVGA graphics and guarandamnteed authentic redneck dialogue. A real kick-ass soundtrack features Mojo Nixon (UFO's, Big Rigs and Bar-B-Que), Beat Farmers (Baby's Liquored Up), and special tunes from The Reverend Horton Heat.

Characterizations: There is a bunch of weird hostile alien enemies incarnated as local folks, including "ass face," Billy Ray Jeter, Skinny Old Coot, the mechanized Joseph Beaudrey, Sheriff Hobbes, and the Turd Minions. The new adversaries have improved AI and they can hear you moving around and respond without a line of sight. The monsters also have line of sight and for those people who love to hide behind doors, these aliens and rednecks have now been taught to open them. Turd minions are made of manure, but they explode satsfactorily. Also in the later parts of the game some unique aliens are found including Alien Hulk Guards, Alien Vixens, and the Alien Queen or final boss of the game. Alien Vixens resemble Pamela Anderson with bra mounted guns.

Plot: This time you are in the backwoods land of livestock and pickup trucks fighting shotgun toating overall clad and bearded rednecks who are really aliens. The designers of this game intend to capitalize on the humor seen in redneck situations made popular by certain comedians. Question: How do you know you are in Redneck Rampage? Answer: The only curtains to be found are in the pickup trucks. redneck3.jpg - 43.7 K

Game play: Not only will the shotgun be the weapon of choice for the redneck baddies but this will also be your primary weapon when moving through this land. What other activities are there besides turning the local good old boys into stakes and chops. The designers promise a full complement of chickens and cows. "You will even be able to go cow tipping."

Powerups in the land of the boonies will be in the form of bottles of cheap moonshine, beer and pork rhinds. When you pick up the moonshine, you will be able to drink it to improve your health. Other fun things to do will include playing the juke box, breaking windows, and jumping around on creaky floors.

Weapons: There are nine impractical and illegal but definitely different weapons, including dynamite sticks, a special power saw , a crow bar, double-barrel shotguns, bear traps, a ripsaw gun, and an alien arm gun that is just a little weird. The saw throws blades so that it can make cold cuts from afar or close up. The alien arm gun is just that, a gun with the alien arm attached which fires by giving the arm a case of tendonitis.

Levels: The game is composed of fourteen large levels that have multiple floors per level, where you can see out of the window of one level called the mortuary and see multiple levels. There will also be bridges, that you can walk on, over, and underneith. The fourteen levels set in and around Hickston, including the suburb of Taylor Town, the mortuary, the junkyard, the local insane asylum, and a smelting plant.

Each level will have carefully crafted cracker box houses, and other locations, Stanky's Bar & 'ill; the Eden Court trailer park which isunder perpetual barrage by tornadoes; alien inhabited but until lately abandoned uranium mines; Grimley's Mortuary; J. Cluck's Poultry Processing Plant and home of the cream-filled chicken eclair and the local sewage treatment facility complete with local raw sewage in various stages of treatment.

Graphics: Graphics resolution will range from 640 x 480 pixels to 1280 x 1024 pixels, which should require a Pentium Pro 200 MHz to run. The game will have higher resolutions and textures than any other game in this genre, if you have the horsepower to run them.

Animation: The characters only take up 180 x 110 pixels each, but they were animated with from 180 to 200 frames of animation to make them look and move realistically. Many of the animations were created by using motion capture technology on live actors.

Voice actors: Appropriate red neck actors were dug up from films like Deliverance and Saturday Night Live to portray their roles in life with the correct Hee Haws and Gee Gaws. Actually, Burton Gilliam, an accomplished actor who has appeared in 28 films, including Back to the Future III, Blazing Saddles, Fletch, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and others. Burton has also appeared on hundreds of television shows.

Burton does not take credit for the script, but does admit it took 50 hours to record it. He says that Drew Markham is from Louisiana and he kknows every country cliche' in the world. Burton says he tried to come up with a few Drew didn't know but he was wrong. Drew tells a different story about how he was Burton's biggest fan. Drew would not comment on the script, mumbling something about it "twern't nuttin" or something.

Music score: "An ass-kickin' soundtrack with songs from Mojo Nixon, Beat Farmers, and The Reverend Horton Heat."

Sound effects:

Utilities:

Multiplayer: The game is expected to have multiplayer options similar to other three dimensinal Quake and Doom clones.

Cheats, Hints, and Walkthroughs: Redneck Rampage Cheats

Future: We sure hope you all come back real soon now.

Journalists: Dave calls the crew of the game "berzerker backwoods bumpkins, " which is barely better bravado for this journalist. Check out the blatent plug to Johnny Wilson of Computer Gaming World fame on page 10 of the "manual."

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References:
Andrew Sanchez, Boot, volume 1, issue 7, March, 1997, pg. 65.
Dave Salvator, Computer Gaming World, issue 152, March, 1997, pg. 42 - 43.
Revis Jode Bauman, Computer Games, issue 76, March, 1997, pg. 32.
James Glave, GameSpot Review, 74%.

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