Redneck Rampage

Moby ID: 936

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Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 76% (based on 24 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 77 ratings with 6 reviews)

Hilbilly-themed FPS, with unique written all over it

The Good
After Duke Nukem 3D was released to rave reviews, it was likely that other games were attempting to immediate its success, using the same engine that gave users a chance to interact with the environment, as well as boating other features. Xatrix Entertainment was one of the companies that produced a Build game, and I haven't heard of them before they released this game. The company previously worked on Cyberia and its sequel. But seeing how first-person shooters were becoming popular, Xatrix decided to jump ship.

The result was Redneck Rampage, a first-person shooter set in the fictional town of Hickston, Arkansas. Players control a hilbilly named Leonard, who, along with his brother Bubba, has to search for their kidnapped prized pig Bessie, who is held captive by aliens. This involves going around a series of locales that make up almost every level of the game killing everybody that stands in your way, and collecting up to three keys that are needed to progress to the level's exit.

The game offers some unique features not found in previous FPSes, such as the excellent music that comes on the CD. This blends well with the gameplay and, since the game changes songs mid-level, it doesn't get boring quickly. Also, instead of health packs, you get items such as beer, pork rinds, and moonshine. The best thing about these is that all of these have a side effect, you can either burp or fart (making it impossible to sneak up on enemies), or walk around erratically. Another unique feature is that they are no exit doors; most of the levels involve you finding your brother and hitting him with your crowbar, and killing him with weapons instead makes the level unwinnable.

The art style is also unique. The different locales include barnyards, a trailer park, chicken processing plant, bowling alley, and a drive-in movie theater. I can only remember these, but there are other ones. What I like about these locales is that there are a good source of exploration. You search every nook and cranny for the items that you need. However, one thing that I enjoyed most is the interactivity. You can shove animals out of the way, and even jump on them, to get to areas not accessible on foot. There are pigs, chickens, and cows. Shooting most of them will not do anything, but shooting the pigs causes them to take revenge.

As I said, there are different enemies you have to kill, and all these enemies have different taunts depending on which one you come across. Some will say “git off our land” while others will say something like “charge ye”. There are also some female vixens who are quite sexy but have the ability to cloak, and some gremlins that throw feces at you (I'm not kidding).

Each one of these enemies sprout some bad language if the Cuss Pack is installed, and I believe that this is a precursor to Kingpin: Life of Crime, another Xatrix game that contains bad language. There are a variety of weapons you can use against the enemies, and some of them are quite creative, such as the crossbow which is only effective against those mecha-aliens you may come across.

The Bad
Although creative, some of the weapons are useless. For example, the pistol that you start off with has a poor firing range compared to the one in Duke Nukem 3D, and the dogs in the game take about eight shots to kill with the shotgun. Also, as someone pointed out earlier, the humorous lines get tedious after a while. It was OK the first couple of ties, but after that...

The Bottom Line
Redneck Rampage is one of those games that cashes in on the success of Duke3D. The game is great. For me, walking around and exploring each locale thoroughly was a good thing, so is gunning down anyone who stands in the way. The level of interactivity is great, and the soundtrack really blends well with the gameplay. I believe that the game got a great reception, so it's no surprise that Xatrix went ahead and released two expansion packs for it – with even more locales and fighting. So if you want to play a FPS that shares the same quality with Duke3D, then I suggest you get this one.

DOS · by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚ą (43092) · 2015

GET THIS GAME!!! You WON'T be sorry!

The Good
Everything! The levels were designed very intelligently. On one level where there was a house that had burned and was partially destroyed you could almost smell the fire. This was one of the best of all the games made with the Build engine. Xatrix programmed in some very nice features to the engine. Most of the levels for this game are realistic, real world style levels, nice outdoor areas, factories, car wreckers, trailer park etc....the asylum and old haunted house were two of the more creepy levels that really set the mood with the excellent sound effects. The game has CD music, not midi's really well done. The entire game is a satire about rednecks down south with lots of humour. This is one of those game I couldn't stop playing until I was finished it, I went on to buy the entire series of Redneck Rampage games and loved every one of them, well worth buying and the multiplayer is even more fun! Of course, to end each level you have to whack Bubba on the head with a crowbar, too funny and very original. Then there is the junkyard dog... the pitbul that attacks you on some levels, this thing made me jump, it never fails to scare me when it suddenly comes out of nowhere, all the levels are a joy to explore with little details that really set it apart from other games. The textures are superb! When this game came out it had the best textures of ANY game out there, even better than Quake 2 in my opinion and it is still better than most, if the game were done today with opengl it would be the best. The only game that had levels and textures at least as good was Kingpin, made by the same company, so no surprise there. I just can't say enough good about this game and could go on and on and on... it is now the end of 2002 and I still play it head to head against my wife and friends. It definately does not deserve the low rating it got. I honestly think it deserves at least a 4.5 or better (a 5 in my opinion).

The Bad
...thinking....thinking.... can't really think of anything I didn't like, about the only thing that I would have liked to see improved was maybe the character animation, but given the age of this game and the technology at the time, this is normal and doesn't really bother me, but I had to put something here I guess.

The Bottom Line
Fun game set in realistic, real world locations, complete with torn wallpaper, old mattresses (with springs sticking out in some cases) etc.... you're a redneck from the southern USA lacking a little in the brains department fighting your way through various communities, factories, barns, forests etc... etc... against aliens, chickens, pigs... you name it in an effort to find your retarded brother who is always getting lost somewhere. You drink whisky, cow pies, beer and Goo Goo clusters for health, moonshine to give you a boost, then there's the home made vacume cleaner diving helmet... etc... etc... this is NOT like other game, TONS of humour. You won't find a multiplayer game that is more fun than this I don't think... this is one of those classics that you simply MUST play at least once in your life.

DOS · by Neil Roy (8) · 2002

Just an OK Shooter

The Good
OK, the premise of this game is funny. Growing up in the deep south, I could appreciate the redneck humor here. So the drinking and eating pork rinds for health was pretty funny (as was getting drunk).

The Bad
The humor wears off after a while. Once the game stopped being funny to me, I no longer found the desire to play it and haven't touched it since.

The Bottom Line
Ultimately this is a 1st-person shooter game with some redneck humor that gets old after a while.

DOS · by AstroNerdBoy (35) · 2002

A bit easy to play, but sheer eye candy all around

The Good
The graphics. The high resolution graphics are absolutely gorgeous, and the level design is outstanding. If you think this game looks horrible, get your eyes checked. Anybody with a eye for design will say this game looks good, even by modern standards. The humor is good too, and reflects the 'redneck' style theme of the game perfectly. If you thought this game wasn't PC enough, you should get hold of the Cuss Pack! You'll end up burning in hell for it!

The Bad
It's a little bit easy across the skill levels, but that's all good if you're into repetition and like shooting things over and over. The game is a bit buggy as well, especially when exiting and quicksaving. The CD music's not the best either. I was expecting 'Beverly Hillbillies' style bluegrass music, but instead you get ear-bleeding ballads from the likes of Mojo Nixon and The Reverend Horton Heat. It's also somewhat frustrating that the source code hasn't been made open source, like Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior, as it would really benefit from a Windows compatible port.

The Bottom Line
An essential game in the collection of any FPS fanatic. The Hi-res textures and level design is a treat for fans of eye candy, and the un-PC humor is a defining characteristic of this game, especially with the 'Cuss Pack' add-on. Well worth getting hold of, a true classic.

DOS · by Dave Billing (24) · 2009

A FPS with a dark sense of humor

The Good
It made fun of all the southern redneck stereotypes. Somebody on the game design team must have lived in the south...

It was fun listening to the bad guys (aliens), saying "git off my land", before they started shooting at you. Then there was the pickup truck, constantly running over the chickens. Chickens running loose everywhere, in fact. And barefoot dudes shooting at you.

Drinking cheap-ass whiskey, beer, and moon pies for power-ups. Pretty creative! It was always funny to smack the dude with the crowbar to end a level

The Bad
I didn't get too far into the game because the secrets were difficult to figure out. I never went back to redneck rampage because better FPS games arrived with superior graphics and fewer secrets.

The Bottom Line
A funny FPS based on southern stereotypes. About what one would expect from a Build-engine based game (for other stereotype Build-engine games, see Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem 3D)

DOS · by ex_navynuke! (42) · 2005

Crap.

The Good
Nothing. Nothing at all. It's got Duke's engine, and that's a bad thing to begin with, what with Quake, which already existed, and Quake 2 coming that very year.

The Bad
Completely horrible engine -- looks worse than it does in Duke and terribly slow. Bad graphics, worse sound effects and apparent lack of music don't add much to the already pointless no-fun gameplay.

And the redneck theme isn't very funny, unless your American (and that's arguable as well).

The Bottom Line
A horrible game. Get it just to see how bad it really is, then throw it away.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2000

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Tim Janssen, Wizo, jean-louis, Apogee IV, Scaryfun, Patrick Bregger, Havoc Crow, COBRA-COBRETTI, garkham, firefang9212, Utritum, Dae, Jeanne, Cavalary, Alsy, SlyDante, Big John WV.