H.E.D.Z. (Head Extreme Destruction Zone) (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.2 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Stephen Poole
• Reviewed on: 02/10/1999
• Updated on: 05/01/2000
• Released on: 10/31/1998
• Originally published on GameSpot: H.E.D.Z. (Head Extreme Destruction Zone) (PC) Review

It sounds like a type of candy or cereal aimed at '70s acid casualties, but H.E.D.Z. is actually a very innovative third-person arcade shooter that takes the concepts of enemies and weapon power-ups and turns them on their heads (sorry, I just had to say that). But H.E.D.Z.'s inspired design doesn't always translate into inspiring gameplay, and while it's frequently funny, it's not very fun once the novelty wears off.

H.E.D.Z. is an acronym for Head Extreme Destruction Zone, a series of arenas where aliens engage in the seemingly brutal sport of head-hunting. But they're not taking the heads of their prey and putting them on display; instead, they've figured out how to acquire the powers of their victims through "brain to brain contact." The heads wind up in a trophy case, all right, but only so they can be pulled out and worn whenever the aliens like.

Playing as an alien, you start each of the cartoonlike levels with five heads in your head case; at any time you can switch to any of these and use its special weapons and powers. Kill a fellow H.E.D.Z. combatant, and you can grab his head and store it in a backpack - provided he doesn't pick it up first, of course, and he can always do the same to you. Only five heads can be active at a time, but as long as you've got enough money (it's lying all over the place) you can swap heads from the head case and backpack; if you're out of cash, then you can only use the ones in the head case.

There are 225 heads in all, so it's easy to imagine some very cool puzzles requiring you to use the right combination of heads in the right sequence. Just discovering the various types of heads is pretty fun for a while. Each makes a cool signature sound when you activate it - choose the German soldier and he says "Jawohl!"; Napoleon's head plays a snippet of "Le Marseillaise"; the gangster says "Capice?"; Elvis is accompanied by a little boogie-woogie piano; and so forth - and of course you need to figure out what they do and when you should use them. And the background rock and pop soundtrack contains some of the best and most varied music I've heard in a game, running the gamut from droning Link Wray anthems to a 1960s rave-up that'll have more than one person thinking of the Velvet Underground.

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