MAGAZINE: 	Electronic Gaming Monthly
PUBLISHER:	Ziff-Davis Media
DATE:		May 2000
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Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage

Publisher:  | Eidos
Developer:  | Yuke's
Players:    | 1
Genre:      | Action/Adventure
% Done:     | 100%
Release:    | March 2000
Also On:    | None
Web Adress: | www.eidos.com
The Good:   | It's the bloodiest game ever created.
The Bad:    | Hack n' slash can get old.
The Ugly:   | "Puck" the fairy's voice.
   Based on a long-running manga series (Kentaro Miura's "Berserk"), Guts'
Rage centers around the adventures of a man named Gatsu (Guts is his
nickname), who, conspicuously, walks everywhere with a gargantuan sword
strapped to his back.

   Think Final Fight meets D&D, 3D-style, and you might accidentally conjure
up images of Eidos's latest acquisition, Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage.
Cutting to the chase, Berserk is hi-octane, if repetitive entertainment.  It
offers possibly the most insane amount of sword swinging this side of Soul
Calibur on any home console to date.  Sword of the Berserk, when released in
Japan, produced fountains and geysers of blood everywhere Guts swung his
sword.  Apparently Eidos and Yukes (Evil Zone, WWF Smackdown! and Soukaigi)
thought that too much was still not enough.  The American version of Berserk
will feature even more of the red stuff, for no other reason than to make the
game more O.T.T.

  Beyond the regular staple of hacking and slashing your way through the
game, Guts also has a small cache of other weapons and attacks at his
disposal.  Along with his fists and slide-kicks, he has a miniature
rapid-fire crossbow, a powerful gun-shot (limited ammo though), grenades, 
throwing  knives, and health recovery potions.  Fortunately, for as many 
weapons as he has, there is an equal and greater number of monsters he must
use them on.  Bearing a tattoo on his neck that bleeds whenever any monsters 
in hiding lurk nearby, Guts finds himself in a beginning-to-end slash-fest
that climaxes with him flying into a berserker's rage every so often.
Giving the game and manga its namesake, when Guts suffers too much damage, the
screen flashes red and he becomes virtually unstoppable.  He moves nearly
twice as fast and anything that gets in his way will find itself in numerous
pieces within a matter of seconds.

   Fans of Soul Reaver will be glad to know that the excellent voice-over
team responsible for that game has returned to polish on Yuke's all-action
adventure game.  SotB also features some of the best sound-effects you've
ever heard.  By the time you read this, Eidos may already have Berserk on the
shelves.  Whenever it does come out, you may want to give this one a close
look.


[SIDEBAR] WHACKY!

Prize Box

   Carried over unscathed from the Japanese version of Berserk, the Prize Box|
is Yuke's little way of giving back to the community.  Loaded with all manner
of Easter Eggs, beating the game on three different difficulty levels opens
up a passel of goodies for diligent gamers.  A world history diary is 
available from the outset to provide valuable information.  Other treats
include a movie theater, an art gallery, a level select and a bizarre version
of whack-a-mole.  Whack-a-mole seems to be popular these days, having also
made an appearance in Sonic Adventure.  If anything, the DC seems to be 
cornering the market on W-A-M games faster than anyone.