Hatred

Hatred isn't fun, interesting, or titillating enough to command your time or attention.

There have been more shocking and provocative things portrayed in the biggest blockbuster games than you'll see and do in Hatred. Maybe that's the point. Maybe this is all a garbled commentary on how normalised extreme violence has become in gaming. If so, it'll take something better than this tedious, glitchy shooter to ram the point home.

With bad A.I., design issues, and repetitive combat, what there is to enjoy in Hatred quickly fades to black.

Hatred delivers fairly solid twin-stick shooting mechanics. However, it becomes incredibly boring, repetitive, and frustrating over time

At its worst, it's the gaming equivalent of a drunkard shouting abuse from a park bench. At its best … well, the drunkard has leapt up and now he's wielding a plastic knife. Rage against political correctness if you like, but don't support this tired game as part of your ideology – there are so many better uses of your spare time.

Hatred fails in every way. It fails to be a fun, entertaining game. It fails to be a technically competent release. And most of all, it fails to be a controversial, shocking experience.

There's nothing really special about Hatred. It's a twin-stick shooter. It has guns in it. It has objectives. Most of the time those objectives involve acting like a menace to society or blowing stuff up. It doesn't have anything new to bring to the table, or anything interesting to say about the genre. You can go back to yelling at it now if you want.

An emptyl, sense-dulling twin-stick shooter that is as monotonous as its black-and-white color palette.

Hatred is a game that basks in controversy for the sake of controversy, while doing nothing to keep the curious interested in seeing it through.

With boring gameplay and twitchy controls, an impressive art style and much-publicized controversy cannot hide the tedious shooter underneath 'Hatred's veneer.