The first time I heard about Illbleed was in one of the last issues of the Official Dreamcast Magazine. The story really interested me because of my interest in survival horror at the time and the game looked to be different than a typical Resident Evil clone. I eventually bought the game soon after its release at a local EB Games. This was at a point in time when the Dreamcast section had shrunk to a couple of shelves and was hidden away in the corner, sad stuff. I can still remember the day when I walked into the store and the Dreamcast games were completely gone. 

Illbleed soon became one of the most memorable games to come out for the Sega Dreamcast for me. I beat it several times, playing with different characters and getting the different endings. The game does a great job of spoofing cheesy B horror movies and accomplishes being both clever and hilarious while also scary at times. The story centers on you playing Eriko Christy who must go through a horror theme park and rescue your friends who have disappeared. Each level is a different attraction based on a made up horror movie. The levels are diverse and clever and some examples are the Home Run of Death, where a father goes crazy after his baseball prodigy son dies and kills people with a blowtorch, and an amazing parody of Toy Story where you play a Woody-like character and go to Hell and back.



The game is consistently clever with its environments and levels and is a very refreshing take on the horror genre. The game is just full of little details that bring smiles to your face and give you that “I’ve got to show this to someone!” feeling. One of my favorite parts is when you’re going through a level totally involved in the setting and story and suddenly you see some theme park employees working on part of the attraction that is broken. Another is a boss that is a giant spoof of Sonic the Hedgehog and you have to destroy rings that come out of him until he doesn’t have any left. The game never takes itself too seriously and you can tell the developers had fun creating the game.

Now, the gameplay itself wasn’t that great to begin with and has aged even worse. While playing you have different senses that start going off when you’re near an enemy, an item, or a jump scene. Using a device called the Horror Monitor you use an Adrenaline Meter to mark off different objects around you so that when you go near the jump scene or enemy you don’t get scared. If you don’t mark the area the jump scene will raise your heartbeat and/or hurt you. If you lose too much health or your heartbeat gets too fast you die. It’s different than most games but also confusing and it wasn’t until my second play through that I really came to turns of it.



Also, when you encounter an enemy go into a battle scene in a tiny enclosed square and must either kill the enemies or sometimes there will be a helicopter pad that you can stand on and repeated press a button for a helicopter to take you out. Basically, the combat sucks. You repeatedly get hit and fall over and it’s never really fun. Only the boss encounters ever really provide any combat enjoyment and they can be frustrating too. But, hey, has survival horror ever had good combat?



I have to recommend this game to anyone who hasn’t had the chance to play it, especially anyone interested in horror games and b-movies. There are just so many great moments and little touches that make the lackluster gameplay worth it. What other game has you go to a wooden dummy factory and get turned into a wooden dummy for half the level? And, to get the “true” ending you have to play a second time not saving any of your friends causing you to lose a piece of clothing after each friend dies so you’re totally nude at the end. I really think the best way to play it is with a group of friends and just go through the entire game in one sitting (it’s not that long). It’s such a refreshing take on survival horror and games in general that it’s sad that a sequel was never made. The developers, Climax Games, did have one other game titled Blue Stinger, but it wasn’t near as good. Although, there is a little Easter Egg in Illbleed for all those Blue Stinger fans out there. Unfortunately, the game's creator, Shinya Nishigaki, died in 2004 from a heart attack and with him so did Crazy Games (Climax Games present name) but Illbleed lives on and is proof of his talent and creativity.