Rat Hunter is such a horrible, aweful FPS game, that the hilarity from it will actually make you appreciate the laughter it induces and make you enjoy it.

The BAD:

Boring level design

Unvaried enemies

Simple graphics

Some of the weapons are greatly under-powered

A few bugs, like at the "club" level it's possible to "glitch" the game causing following level's enemies not to attack you, you have to trigger something at the club level.

Also, the driving level is extremely buggy, if you quicksave/reload, it should fix it.

The GOOD:

Horrible voice-acting, the worst ever so aweful it is hilarious to listen to

"Monkey? FRITT MONKEY?!" "Dammit I want my five millions!"

Atrocious dialogue wrapped around a zany, cliche story

Great physics, you can literally pick up a book or a paper cup and throw it at an enemy and severaly bloody or even "gib" them (turning a giant fat guy into a tiny gib lol), whereas shooting them will take a full clip of ammo lol

Game is a bit bloody but not that much, enemies "disintegrate" in some sort of Quake III style when they die. Inexplicably too.

The "rats" are actually strange alien bug/crab creatures

Enemies shout insane lines all the time, even if you are just eavesdropping on them, and all seem to be voiced by the same ONE GUY (there appears to be one lady going female voices though) doing all the voices. It's hilarious to hear him do a deep, angry voice, then go to some high pitched, british voice saying the EXACT same dialogue (like it's being shuffled randomly).

The driving level was a surprise, but it was funny because sometimes when you start the level, your buggy might be missing a tire. This has a direct impact on the physics, where the buggy really does handle as if it is missing a tire.

Note: when I went to start the game, it appeared to be "stuck" at the loading screen at 25%. IT WAS NOT STUCK, instead, if you keep waiting, you will hear dialogue start (no cutscenes, just dialogue which is how it is supposed to be), and then the rest of the game will load. This is how they intended it.

There are so many aweful things in this game to list, but it turns out to be fun to jump in and enjoy. Plus, you can edit with Notepad game files extremely easily, so you can make the weapons stronger (they are very underpowered) or make your character run faster, etc.

I've never had so much fun playing such a horrible game. Whether the developers made some many things bad intentionally, I don't know. The game is quite stable (no CTDs on my end) and everything works.

I don't think the developer is around anymore which if that's true, that's a shame because I would love to see a sequel to this. :)

The level design is confusing, It's just open corridors and rooms. The game uses physics allows you to pick objects and carry it around or throw it, the feature is confusing to use.

The English translation was done poorly it was confusing understanding what the character

was talking about. Their were times when their were no enemies in the entire level.

this game is a classic of absurdist humor: everything about it is twisted and/or executed terribly, all the way from the developers' mindset to the absolutely terrible writing and the terrible translation thereof, from the worst voice acting in history to the astoundingly bland level design.

to quote the devs, "It does not push the envelope or bring something fresh to the genre, since we feel that there is little place for innovation in today's action games market." and "We decided to make this game when it became clear that unsophisticated, but fun first-person shooters are going the way of dodo for some unknown reason. The seemingly multifaceted genre of first-person shooters lacks simplicity we loved in the 90s."

basically this is a game that feels that, for example, call of duty is over-complex, while doom, with its mazelike maps and tons of cleverly hidden secrets, is an ideal of simplicity. the game tries to be doom but ends up being a mediocre fps set in a set of linear corridors filled with a narrow variety of enemies.

the best/worst part of the game, however, is the voice acting. the second level opens with a slobbery russian man on your radio saying, "HOW DO YOU LIKE OUR BASEMENT, NINJA-TURTLE?", and later in the same level, the protagonist expresses his frustration (in his constant monotone) by exclaiming, "WHAT A CRAP!"

the plot is entirely incomprehensible and it'd be impossible to know anything about it without reading online descriptions of it.

further, health packs in the game take the form of sets of pills which can be eaten at will. the pills are called "RUM" and their invention is apparently a major plot point. reading external descriptions of the game, however, one discovers that RUM is a sort of amphetamine.

basically, in the world of rat hunter, you have to constantly eat speed to stay alive. every time you take some pills, a meter fills above your health bar. when it is full, you enter a bizarre hypersaturated black-and-white version of the world where you can rip enemies apart with your bare hands, at the cost of not being able to end the mode at will or use ranged weapons. it is a very, very weird mechanic that is never actually explained and doesn't actually make sense.

i give this game four stars- not because it is actually a 4-star quality game, but rather based on the level of enjoyment i derived from how absolutely terrible everything about the game is.

dear god, what the hell. this game is terrible. holy crap. I mean, like, just... what!?

even the developers description of the game is stupid, look at this

"It does not push the envelope or bring something fresh to the genre, since we feel that there is little place for innovation in today's action games market"

it like saying "hi we made this crap, we know its crap. it supposed to be crap. you arnt supposed to have fun because we didnt try. by the way, its crap"

it later goes on to say that they wanted to make an polished game filled with original ideas. that is an outright lie.

i just dont know what to say. it just, so, bad. dont get it. dont think about getting it. dont put any money into these developers hands. they dont deserve it. and you dont deserve to subject yourself to their pretentious excrement.

Old school shooter. Nothing flashy, no awesome levels or maps. Basic run and gun with a lot of cheesiness put in it, whether intentional or not. Read the other reviews about that, they are right on the nose. I like it though. Nothing exceptional, but not a bad way to kill a few minutes of running around and shooting stuff for the price.

Rat Hunter is by no means a bad game, it just keeps mixed company. From so-bad-it's-good voice acting reminiscent of B-movies, to mediocre graphics that go over the board from the Doom 1 alphas to Chaser to Gore: Ultimate Soldier, to a shockingly terrible storyline, to some amazing gameplay flourishes on a stable-if-painfully-basic foundation -- this game is a hodge-podge of horribly mismatched portions cobbled into an unclassifiable whole.

The prior-mentioned physics engine is great, especially given how it manages to have WEIGHT to objects, something even games praised for physics like Half Life 2 haven't managed. The unexpected gameplay utility is the meat of the physics though. Barricades aren't out of the question if you're good at what you're doing. Squashing enemies feels right. Throwing things around is fun and useful, and it compliments the dully basic core gameplay wonderfully.

Also, there's some really odd segments of horror interspersed. The first time one occurred, I was honestly freaked out. If the voice acting and animation had been better, with moodier lighting, this could have been a very simplistic but effective horror game. I imagine it was actually a wonderful game in the original Russian Language version, in fact. As is, it's got some genuinely frightening moments mixed into a big vat of unintentionally comical shooter.

Now, when it comes down to it, is this game worth it?

Depends on the price and if you don't mind dealing with some rather glaring messups for the sake of a bland shooter game with some interesting goodies hidden inside. For me, it most certainly was worth it at its price point, and I wouldn't have been too disappointed had I paid full price for it even. I highly recommend it for those who might enjoy it despite its flaws, and hope value-seekers aren't too averse to looking into it at a cheap price.

Rat Hunter is one of these Games I love GamersGate for.

I never saw this on any other similar Site and even the Internet itself is VERY scarce about it.

Rat Hunter is crude game, not very polished, and animation scripting is sometime really off. Like bugs floating up the stairs because the are to big to fit between the railings. And mostly too much `have seen that already` scenarios. And levels are not that creative either.

The big BUT however is: this game is totally hilariously funny in itīs own way. The voice acting is so over the top it, you cannot help but love it. The Story is whack like a Tex Avery Movie, while the gameplay is still as solid and fast paced as can be expected.

As mentioned before, interacting with the environment aka throwing objects around is an INTEGRAL part of the game machanics and open up new ways to take down you opponents.

And DO get Also get his Tweak Patch by hydra9. The game will be so much better. If you are into Painkiller or Doom-style gameplay and donīt mind the $10, Iīd say itīs worth your time.

Hydra9 does a great job of reviewing this game! The game looks good, especially if you max out all the settings in the configuration file. It is (mostly) stable and bug free (except for the vehicle bug). As you might expect the ending is a let-down. The final boss-fight is poorly designed. The last few levels revert to a boring corridor crawl. The crazy dialogue is entertaining. How can you not enjoy a game whose bad guy is named "Fritt Monkey"? The game features still art "flashbacks" that seem to belong to a different game. A fun and disposable shooter which could have been much better, but is still fun!

It's not a bad idea to design a fast-paced, Doom-style shooter (It worked brilliantly for Painkiller) but Rat Hunter doesn't quite hit the mark. The level design is pretty bland. There are no setpieces and no secret areas - It's just sparsely decorated corridors and rooms. The engine is fast and seems capable but the level architecture is very simple.

The one thing that makes Rat Hunter special (though it's hardly a unique feature) is its use of physics. Specifically, the game allows you to pick up almost any object (even heavy crates) and carry it around or throw it.

It took me a while to realize how integral this was to the gameplay, but once I mapped 'pick stuff up' to the right mouse button, things changed. I started using it all the time, and consequently, started having a lot more fun.

When I got into the flow of the game, it was great. Pick up a crate and hold it in front of you as a bullet shield. Grab an explosive barrel and toss it into a group of enemies, then shoot it to blow them all up.

The game is definitely fun, but it took me about half of its 20 levels before I started to 'get' it.

Even then, I had to make a few changes. Initially, my character's speed seemed a bit low, so I edited a file and sped him up. It was only a 20% increase but it made a big improvement (You can download my tweaks patch if you like). Also, while there's nothing technically bad about the game's metal soundtrack, it lacks variety and I got sick of it, so I ended up replacing the OGG files with some from the Quake II soundtrack - This improved the atmosphere no end, and seemed to fit the game much better.

A few more points:

* The English translation is really poor and the voice acting is unintentionally hilarious. The story is almost nonsensical and your arch nemesis is called Fritt Monkey. Yes... Fritt Monkey.

* There are a couple of AI bugs. If you start the driving level and see cars driving away from you instead of attacking, just quicksave and reload.

* Strangely, almost all the screenshots on the internet are taken from the first two levels of the game. For a bit more variety, check the screenshots I posted on MobyGames).

* Rat Hunter is my first purchase from GamersGate and I'm really pleased that it has no DRM! There is a Starforce 'protect.dll,' but it is never used by the game.

To sum up: Rat Hunter is an average shooter. There are many better FPSs, but there are also a lot worse. It kept me entertained and when I was running around like a lunatic, blasting enemies with my shotgun and throwing office chairs at people, it really started to shine.