Ricochet. The Half-Life mod that nobody knows about (or has tried to erase from their memory). It makes me sad to think that this game has disgraced the likes of Half-Life for eight years now. I was sitting here, thinking about what I was going to say in this review, when I realized that this game is so bad, I'm not sure I can put it into legible words, but I'll give it a try.
Now, I've never seen the movie Tron, but I'm pretty sure that Ricochet was inspired by it. The neon graphics look similar, and I think that there were some throwing discs in the movie.
I'll admit, I haven't played very much of Ricochet, but there isn't really much to do. It's kind of a one-trick-pony. You go into a game (if you can find one. The most servers I've ever seen open at one time was 11, and at 10:30 P.M. CST, there was only 10 servers, and only one of them had any players, and even THEN, there were only two players and they were both assholes.), and you go from platform to platform throwing discs, trying to knock people off the platforms and down into the abyss, where they die and you get a point. There are a few problems with this. First, you can't jump. You just have to run onto little arrows on the platforms which flings you across to another platform. Second, your discs are your only weapon, and you can't aim them up or down. That's right, you can only throw your discs parallel to the ground (more on that in a minute). Third, you can only have 3 discs at a time, and even though they replenish, they don't do so nearly fast enough. When you have 3 discs saved, you can right-click to throw out a Decapitator disc, which is just what it sounds like, but even that is boring.
Now, back to the aiming. There are several levels of platforms which you can get to by going to the right jumps. Separating those platforms are bars that you cannot shoot through. They just bounce off (hence, the title of the game). Since you can't aim up or down, you can only shoot someone when you're on the same platform as them, or when you're in the air. The problem with that is, when you get shot by a normal disc, it doesn't kill you, it just pushes you a little, meaning if you get shot in the air, you'll probably end up missing your jump completely, and then fall to your death. Another problem is that this is one of those games where you can't walk through other players, so if two people are jumping at one another, they bump into each other and fall, killing both. It's also hard to hit people unless they're right in front of you, because your discs move extremely slow.
There are a few power-ups, although they're all things you've seen in plenty of other games, like Multi-Shot, Power Shot, and one that just freezes you, leaving you defenseless.
The graphics are really, really bad, even for the year 2000. They're boring, lifeless, and I think that Half-Life looked better, despite being two years older. Actually, I took a screenshot (click to enlarge (that's what she said)).When I decided I wanted to review a bad game, I think I did good in choosing Ricochet. This is a game that should never have seen the light of day, much less the $5 that Steam wants you to pay. There is not an ounce of fun in this game, and I really tried hard to like it, but I just couldn't. As a reviewer, and as a person who doesn't generally wish the worst on people, this is a form of torture that I couldn't wish upon my worst enemy, much less recommend it to anyone I care about. If you already have this game, you have my condolences. 1 out of 5.
EDIT: I forgot I took this video earlier today, when there were about 10 people on.
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