The first and last positive thing I'll say about Rambo III is that it's not as bad as the movie. Okay, I'm being unfair. There are a couple of moments that coalescence into something that can be seen as amusing or perhaps even thrilling. More often than not however, this Run & Gun just can't seem to connect the dots. It's got the ideas and mechanics. All of the pieces are in play, but what's here isn't enough to make me feel whole.
Basically, you're John Rambo on a mission in Afghanistan to rescue Colonel Trautman from the Soviet Army. There are six missions. In three of them, you rush from one end of a level to the other. In the other three, you have to find X or destroy Y. Four missions end with a boss battle. Anyone who lived through the 1980s saw these man vs helicopter and/or tank battles advertised in gaming magazines. Sex appeal sells games, and there's nothing sexier than shooting arrows at heavily armored vehicles.
Most of this game's appeal is I presume tied to its scoring system. Clearing missions as fast as possible will result in additional bonus points, usually far more than if someone just a found a corner to stand in, so they could gun down respawning soldiers for however long they felt like holding the fire button. Extra points are also awarded for knifing someone. Continuous stabbings increase the rewards, but only as long as you can keep your man from taking one in the chest... or leg. Yeah, this is one of those shooters with a hurtbox that's too large. Dodging a bullet often means running well out of its way. It gets... kind of inconvenient, which is not a word that should be associated with a death-defying act, but here we are.
The straightforward missions tend to be the highlight. Running through battlefields, (clumsily) navigating a sea of bullets, laying waste to whatever gets in my way. It's during these occasions that the dots connect and I start having a good time. There is a genuine sense of enjoyment that can only come from leaving a time bomb that erases half-a-dozen pursuers in a single blast while gunning down another half-a-dozen foolish to enough to get in the way of a machine gun with unlimited ammo. Shooting works really well thanks to Rambo having two different firing modes. While running, his shots are direct, good for taking out what's directly in front of him. Standing still causes bullets to fan out, eliminating crowds with ease.
However, this is one of those games where players aren't supposed to have it easy. A kill doesn't mean anything unless it's earned. That mean closing in on someone and ending their days on this planet with the knife. If you've ever played Shock Troopers, then you know just how satisfying it can be to look a terrorist in the eyes as their life slips away... Actually, let me rephrase that. You know just how satisfying it can be to receive a prize for stabbing someone, stopping their heart with a single punch, etc. It's the risk and the reward. Almost all of the power-ups in Rambo III are tied to knife kills. If you're running out of explosive arrows or bombs, then you're not playing risky enough.
I don't have a problem with this system. It works fantastically in the aforementioned Neo Geo shooter. Here though? Ehm... this is the part where I get confused. Extra lives aren't earned through score. Instead, they're obtained by completing missions without dying... or as a rare drop from a knife kill. So, why would I take risks for a potential reward when I could avoid them entirely for a guaranteed reward? Actually, let's take scoring out of the equation and look at the act itself. Using the knife just isn't as fun as it should be, and that's entirely because the window of opportunity is too small.
Barring any sort of variables, the instant an enemy appears onscreen, Rambo has a couple of seconds to run up and stab them. If they remain unstabbed, then the enemy will stop for a very brief half-second. It's like being spotted in a Metal Gear game, minus the exclamation point. After that half-second, the enemy will resume moving, only this time they'll also be firing bullets towards the nearest guy with no shirt. At this point, they might as well be immune to knives, because nobody is touching them without eating a bullet.
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| If your first knife-attack misses, don't even bother attempting a second. |
I believe that at least as far as video games are concerned, the knife should always be in play. This game might allow players to use melee whenever they please, but not only do the risks outweigh the rewards, but it's just not feasible on a fundamental level. Rambo III really would've benefitted from some modernized touches, like giving its protagonist a smaller hurtbox. I'd also suggest a bullet-canceling mechanic where a soldier's bullets are erased if they're stabbed. You know how revenge bullets in Batsugun* are canceled when you're close enough to an enemy as it's exploding? Something like that.
Also, while I did just spend quite some time discussing a small part of the game, it's the most interesting part by far. Take the melee mechanics away and you're left with a tolerable yet bland shoot-fest that has mundane level-design. The most replay-value anyone is going to get out of it is memorizing the locations of X & Y for the three missions that require them. Every other attempt to break up the monotony just doesn't seem to work. I can't even appreciate the harder difficulty settings because they overtune the boss's rate of fire. Meh.
*Batsugun Special Version if my memory is correct.
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