Edit:

After a few more hours of game play, and ignoring my original disappointment, I actually started to really enjoy this game, so have changed my thumbs down to a thumbs up. I still recommend waiting till this is on sale before buying it. Once you've got it, take it for what it is, a budget title following the story of Rambo in his first three movies. I'd l actually like to see a sequel released covering the fourth and final film (though it is rumoured that Stallone may do a fifth film - even tohugh he's approaching 70 he's still looking amazing).


Original review with some changes in the first day of release:

Hmmm! I was really looking forwards to playing this game ever since I saw it was coming to Steam several weeks ago. The intro movie in the Steam shop window gives you the impression that it's an open world game, or at least with some freedom of movement; but, in reality you don't even get to move Rambo yourself, basically, this is a rail shooter. All you do is shoot and occasionally duck behind cover. (later in the game you have to select from the usual WASD keys to activate actions such as knifing one of the police officers that were searching for you in First Blood part 1. If you get the timing spot on, you'll just disable them and get good points that help you to level up and unlock perks. If you press the key too early you kill the officer and get fewer points, if you press the key too late you get shot in the head and have to restart from a checkpoint. Your movements are controlled automatically; and, after watching the German videos by KeysJore on you tube, it looks like all of the game is like this. You can see the first intro’ game HERE.

There's no health packs and the only way to gain health is to go into wrath mode and kill enemies. The more you kill in wrath mode, the more health you regain. Trouble is (as far as I can see so far in the game), wrath mode initially only lasts for seconds, so, unless you are lightning fast, it's hard to get a kill during this time, even though the enemy are firing at you in slow-mo. Thankfully, as you earn perks you can increase the length of time wrath mode remains. There are loads of perks such as no QTE fails, earn 5% health for every head shot, reloading behind cover gives you 20% more ammo, kills during wrath mode earn 25% more health, moving in and out of cover 50% faster, reloading faster, deal more damage, as well as loads more and some of which are upgradeable. and for achievement hunters there's a generous number of achievements to be earned.

Whenever you level up (by scoring points) you earn skill points. these can be spent on various skills such as Toughness (harder to kill0, improvements in different types of weapons for example, light and heavy weapons a swell a sspecial equipment and of course wrath. there are five upgrades for each skill. with respect to wrath, each upgrade adds a new wrath bar to your HUD. The first upgrade effectively doubles your wrath bar.

On my first try I didn't even get past the first stage, but, once I'd realized how to gain a 200% mag fill it made it easier to avoid getting shot as often, and once I'd earned my first perk, I spent it on the wrath perk, which enables you to recharge your health when you make a kill in wrath mode.

As Rambo is one of my old favourites, I'll probably continue with the game, but I am very disappointed in this offering. It reminds me of my disappointment with one of the Medal of Honor games I got for free when I bought the Wii several years ago for family gatherings. It plays very similar with respect to no movement control. It's like someone else has played the game through and recorded all the movements necessary.

My advice is wait till it’s on sale before you spend your hard earned cash.



Edit:

With respect to recovering health, I think the trick (after studying the videos a little more), is to concentrate on killing one enemy at a time; for each kill you get about 20% of your health back, so you can afford to lose a little health from other enemy fire while aiming at one of them. As you progress you unlock perks that can extend the wrath mode, which then becomes a little easier and more useful to use. Wrath mode is activated by filling a kill bar.

The game covers the first three films in the franchise i.e. Rambo First Blood (1982), Rambo First Blood II (1985) and Rambo III (1988), pity they didn't add the latest movie released back in 2008 20 years after the last one.

second edit:

Thanks to Bridget Fisher, I finally read the instructions (instead of jumping in blindly the first time around) and found I actually enjoyed the game more than previously despite it being a rail shooter. I'd ignored the instructions for getting a 200% mag fill, which in this game makes a big difference with respect to losing health. I do think it's a little too expensive, especially here in the UK. If you get a friend in the US to gift it to you, you can save a further £5.


Overall I've changed my opinion of this game after playing it for three hours. Now I give it a thumbs up. :)

Edit: After a few more hours of game play, and ignoring my original disappointment, I actually started to really enjoy this game, so have changed my thumbs down to a thumbs up. I still recommend waiting till this is on sale before buying it. Once you've got it, take it for what it is, a budget title following the story of Rambo in his first three movies. I'd l actually like to see a sequel released covering the fourth and final film (though it is rumoured that Stallone may do a fifth film - even tohugh he's approaching 70 he's still looking amazing). Original review with some changes in the first day of release: Hmmm! I was really looking forwards to playing this game ever since I saw it was coming to Steam several weeks ago. The intro movie in the Steam shop window gives you the impression that it's an open world game, or at least with some freedom of movement; but, in reality you don't even get to move Rambo yourself, basically, this is a rail shooter. All you do is shoot and occasionally duck behind cover. (later in the game you have to select from the usual WASD keys to activate actions such as knifing one of the police officers that were searching for you in First Blood part 1. If you get the timing spot on, you'll just disable them and get good points that help you to level up and unlock perks. If you press the key too early you kill the officer and get fewer points, if you press the key too late you get shot in the head and have to restart from a checkpoint. Your movements are controlled automatically; and, after watching the German videos by KeysJore on you tube, it looks like all of the game is like this. You can see the first intro’ game [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc5JezSLvlo][b]HERE[/b][/url]. There's no health packs and the only way to gain health is to go into wrath mode and kill enemies. The more you kill in wrath mode, the more health you regain. Trouble is (as far as I can see so far in the game), wrath mode initially only lasts for seconds, so, unless you are lightning fast, it's hard to get a kill during this time, even though the enemy are firing at you in slow-mo. Thankfully, as you earn perks you can increase the length of time wrath mode remains. There are loads of perks such as no QTE fails, earn 5% health for every head shot, reloading behind cover gives you 20% more ammo, kills during wrath mode earn 25% more health, moving in and out of cover 50% faster, reloading faster, deal more damage, as well as loads more and some of which are upgradeable. and for achievement hunters there's a generous number of achievements to be earned. Whenever you level up (by scoring points) you earn skill points. these can be spent on various skills such as Toughness (harder to kill0, improvements in different types of weapons for example, light and heavy weapons a swell a sspecial equipment and of course wrath. there are five upgrades for each skill. with respect to wrath, each upgrade adds a new wrath bar to your HUD. The first upgrade effectively doubles your wrath bar. On my first try I didn't even get past the first stage, but, once I'd realized how to gain a 200% mag fill it made it easier to avoid getting shot as often, and once I'd earned my first perk, I spent it on the wrath perk, which enables you to recharge your health when you make a kill in wrath mode. As Rambo is one of my old favourites, I'll probably continue with the game, but I am very disappointed in this offering. It reminds me of my disappointment with one of the Medal of Honor games I got for free when I bought the Wii several years ago for family gatherings. It plays very similar with respect to no movement control. It's like someone else has played the game through and recorded all the movements necessary. My advice is wait till it’s on sale before you spend your hard earned cash. Edit: With respect to recovering health, I think the trick (after studying the videos a little more), is to concentrate on killing one enemy at a time; for each kill you get about 20% of your health back, so you can afford to lose a little health from other enemy fire while aiming at one of them. As you progress you unlock perks that can extend the wrath mode, which then becomes a little easier and more useful to use. Wrath mode is activated by filling a kill bar. The game covers the first three films in the franchise i.e. Rambo First Blood (1982), Rambo First Blood II (1985) and Rambo III (1988), pity they didn't add the latest movie released back in 2008 20 years after the last one. second edit: Thanks to Bridget Fisher, I finally read the instructions (instead of jumping in blindly the first time around) and found I actually enjoyed the game more than previously despite it being a rail shooter. I'd ignored the instructions for getting a 200% mag fill, which in this game makes a big difference with respect to losing health. I do think it's a little too expensive, especially here in the UK. If you get a friend in the US to gift it to you, you can save a further £5. Overall I've changed my opinion of this game after playing it for three hours. Now I give it a thumbs up. :)