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"Hell" is set one hundred years into the future in Washington D.C., the place where earth meets hell. The Hand of God rules the United States headed by the Emperor Solene Solux, who has established a repressive government. Solux's party outlawed various things such as the exploration of cyberspace, robotics, new computer technologies and also books, alcohol and drugs, in other words, personal freedom.
Following this, a rebellious feeling emerged from the population and resulted in the creation of the Citizens Freedom Front led by former U.S. Senator Erin Burr. However, people are frightened of being condemned to hell and by the legions of demons that now plague the city streets.
In "Hell", you can play the game as either Rachel Braque or Gideon Eshanti. Both are agents of the Artificial Reality Containment (ARC), a subdivision of Hand's police. Your goal will be to discover why the Hand of God, especially Solene Solux, wants them killed.
"Hell" is a new game using high quality SVGA graphics with rendered backgrounds and amazing textures that are simply stunning. All the characters in the game, including yours, have been modeled in three dimensions with textures, except for top model Stephanie Seymour who benefits from video animations, the only way to represent her as an holographic vision in the game.
An amazing cast of actors were hired for this project featuring Dennis Hopper, Stephanie Seymour, Grace Jones and Geoffrey Holder. Hollywood's star Dennis Hopper plays the role of Mr. Beautiful, a demon summoned up directly from hell.
With a total of 104 voices, you can easily imagine how important the dialogues are in the game. When you talk to someone, not only do you get to hear the speech, but also a 3D animation of the character in a small window. The game can be run with speech only, speech and text, or text only.
Sometimes, you will have a choice of subjects when speaking with somebody, but most of the time it is automatic leaving you with no other choice than to listen carefully. This does not give much freedom to the player and it is one of the greatest criticisms I have about this game. Things are a bit too linear for me.
For example, if you wish to travel, you will have to use the metro map and click on the metro station you want to stop at. However, you will be able to access it only if it is flashing when pointing at it with the mouse. This means that new locations will become available to you as you progress in the game.
Many times you will have puzzles to solve which will sometimes be quite evident, but most others will require some thought to get through them. One interesting option that the game features is the replay option. When you select it, you can search by locations, and then by characters to replay all the dialogues between you and the character. It comes in quite handy if you have forgotten the essential elements of the plot.
Gametek UK Ltd.
GRAPHICS ------------------ 93% 5 Bath Road, Slough,
SOUND ------------------ 91% Berks SL1 3UA, England.
MUSIC ------------------ 91% Tel: +44-(0)753-553-445
GAMEPLAY ------------------ 88%
INTEREST ------------------ 86% Gametek Inc.
2999 Northeast 191st Street, Suite 500,
Aventura, FL 33180.
OVERALL ------------------ 89% Tel: 305-935-3995
