Shellshock 2 experiments with drug lore of 'Nam, just in time for holidaze

by James Ransom-Wiley { Sep 30th 2008 at 3:10PM }

Shellshock 2: Blood Trails is Rebellion's sequel to the Killzone gang's Shellshock: Nam '67 (shucks, we must've missed that one). This second tour of doodie, brought to you by Eidos, is presented with this thumb-tingling pitch: "a brutal and twisted psychological first person shooter, coming to disturb your Christmas." (We prefer our holidays quite undisturbed, thank you.)

What we're dealing with appears to be a rehash of Jacob's Ladder, replacing the film's "The Ladder" drug (loosely based on BZ) with "Whiteknight" ("an enemy that ultimately has no side") -- oh, and scantly clad babe-soldiers. Or is that just one of the frightening hallucinations...? Dah-dah-dumb.

Gallery: Shellshock 2: Blood Trails

Tags: blood-trails, eidos, nam, rebellion, shellshock, shellshock-2

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dirty @ Sep 30th 2008 3:22PM

I didnt realize the first was developed by Guerrilla. This makes me feel even worse about Killzone 2. Their average score on Metacritic is 68.3, which isnt too bad, but I wouldn't exactly let them handle a AAA system selling type game.

Also I am all for more scantly clad babe soldiers.

ThePunisher @ Sep 30th 2008 3:37PM

The original Shellshock was crap.

mezzanine @ Sep 30th 2008 3:46PM

We don't have enough games set in Nam and we don't have enough games with drugs. But I thought Jacob's Ladder was already a game called SILENT HILL

StrangeBum @ Sep 30th 2008 3:51PM

With such an interesting war as Vietnam, one would imagine that their might be one game worthwhile based on it. But no, all we have so far is WWII and Modern War games.

I always thought that the Vietnam War was the most interesting as far as the way we had to battle against the VC. I won't be keeping my hopes up for this one, but maybe one day someone will use some of the great source material we have and make a damn good 'nam game already.

Jakka(A tribute to whose who fought and failed during the Epic Flamewar of L.A. Noir and MR.ESC) @ Sep 30th 2008 4:58PM

The reason why there a so few Vietnam games is because Yanks don't want to play a game about a war they've lost, same way Holocaust and WW2 are a sort of a taboo in Germany. Call me an anti-American Crumpet Eater but I'm pretty sure that patriotism IS an important factor considering that some Americans still believe they've won the war in both Vietnam and Iraq.

Bass Masterson @ Sep 30th 2008 5:17PM

Um, no. Vietnam games, Vietnam comic books, Vietnam movies, and Vietnam TV shows have all had great success in the US.

The reason you don't see more of them is because it's an ethical dilemma. It's easier to justify going out and gunning down Nazis, but if you release a game where you have to kill Vietnamese you have outrage. You saw something similar to this with the announcement of the new Call of Duty, where it was called 'racist' that you would play a game in which you have to kill Japanese (this is largely because decades of left-wing self-hating ideology has somehow warped history into a situation where we are supposedly the bad guys, and the Japanese the inoffensive good guys).

You can't even put Resident Evil in Africa without someone bitching about racism. It's PC nonsense, not American jingoism, that is the problem; funny thing is that it's generally PC nonsense and left-wing stupidity that's the problem. Kind of like the financial crisis we're in now. Thanks, Democrats!

StrangeBum @ Sep 30th 2008 5:17PM

Hahaha

Yeah, I believe you, I have had the same thoughts about it myself. It's really a shame though considering that it was a pretty amazing war.

Personally, I realize that we lost, and maybe that's part of the appeal for a really good game to come from it. As a country, we can't always be the heroes we make ourselves out to be and the Vietnam War (and current) are both reminders of that thought.

But go ahead and let them be scared to make more, history isn't going to change simply because we try to hide the facts.

&rew @ Sep 30th 2008 4:03PM

Excuse me but shellshock is no longer the official term, now I believe it is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, do your homework Joystiq.

Che @ Sep 30th 2008 4:11PM

Shellshock is still the official term for PTSD that is caused as a direct result of active participation in war.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be onset by almost anything. It can be as simple as a pet dying to being involved in a train crash, or witnessing a murder.

Yourself @ Sep 30th 2008 4:54PM

Yes, the term "Shellshocked" only applies to anthropomorphic sword-wielding turtles.

Alisha Karabinus @ Sep 30th 2008 4:58PM

Are you sure you don't mean, "Do your homework, game companies who are naming things? Oh, and while you're at it, always make sure you use the ABSOLUTE PROPER TERM, because, y'know, to hell with any sort of creative license. Also, make everything totally realistic. We want to hump our packs in war games and sit around waiting for hours and hours for anything to happen."

If you were being sarcastic, well, hey.