Game waste of time

Courtesy of Interplay Productions Even a crossbow firing a chicken full of dynamite can't save "Rampage."

It may come as shock. After shelling out $49.95 and returning home ready to install the video game sequel "Redneck Rampage Rides Again," the install window appears with an admittedly hilarious "Yeehaw."

Then you click on the "Install" button, and the computer says it doesn't have 220 mb available on the hard drive.

Now, many people probably do have the nearly quarter gig of hard drive space available on their systems, but there's no reason that much space should be used unless perhaps you're making your own PC game. Moreover, RRRA doesn't give you a lot of bang for the bits or the bucks it uses up.

In this video game sequel, you're Leonard, a lanky, farting, beer-guzzling resident of Hickston, Ark., who has just joyridden with his brother, Bubba, on a UFO and crash-landed in the desert, right near Area 69.

REVIEW
	Redneck Rampage 2 stars Interplay CD-ROM for Win 95, Win 98

The goal is to find Bubba (who you smack in the head with a crowbar to finish each level) and get back to Hickston. On the way, you fight ATF agents, cheerleader clones, some antisocial rednecks and various aliens trying to take over Earth. At your disposal is .454 handgun, a sling blade, a crowbar and whatever else you can find, such as dynamite, an alien arm gun or a chicken crossbow - a crossbow that fires a chicken with dynamite shoved up its tuckus (in polite redneck vernacular).

This all sounds fun, but the game doesn't really present any of these things in a comical light. The Jack o'lopes (based on the old redneck novelty of an antlered rabbit head placed on the wall to amuse the kin) are chewing on you by the time you realize the joke, and all the characters look a trifle more pitiable than laughable in the game.

Moreover, the game play is not all that great. Like Doom, Quake or Goldeneye, you play in the first person, but unlike those great games, there's no hand on the trigger, nor is there any reloading or cocking of the gun.

The playing controls are also like Doom or Quake, but the aiming is inexplicably awkward, and while Leonard can jump, anything that stands up to his chest is effectively a wall. This leads to the cheap programming trick of creating a seemingly vast landscape to walk around in, but restricting the player to the proscribed paths.

Having never played the original, one hopes that "Redneck Rampage Rides Again" exceeds its predecessor in only one thing: the hard drive space.

07-06-98