“To return childhood not-re-al-but! And that's the point, ”some people say. Of course, it is still impossible to turn back the clock, but we can feel like a seven-year-old toddler for at least 30 minutes.

Remember how it ached in your heart when you walked past a colorful showcase on which soldiers, cars and boxes with designers lay in a heap, but, hastily getting rid of intoxicating thoughts, again rushed to "adult" business. Wait a minute. Is it possible in the age of computer technology to calm down in yourself, with the help of a mouse and keyboard, childhood that has played at an inopportune moment? Until recently, the developers indulged the "children's" gaming community with pass-through games from the LEGO line, above the "three" that they received only for Easter or Christmas. In 2006, the situation changed dramatically, and a previously unknown domestic company “Multisoft ", rolled out a wonderful product, into which she skillfully mixed" three genre whales ": shooter, action and… puzzle!

Game name REFUZEcomes from the English word "refuse", which means "reject". This simple word was stamped by a machine on boxes with toys, which were considered a marriage, first of all, for the abnormal location of the musculoskeletal limbs. Instead of a leg - a penknife, and the body replaces a compass. However, the defective toys, a little later, getting out of the cardboard houses, considered this act immoral and decided to declare war on the bright world, which had treated them so maliciously. The first goal, the capture of the base, was successfully overcome. The only thing left to do was to establish an uninterrupted release of their own kind of freaks. Everything would have gone smoothly, if not for three gallant soldiers - or rather two gallant and one brave - stood in the way of the Refusers. The war for the country house has begun!

After the introduction, some of them could turn sour mine, blue nose and green chin: “Another, 144785 shooter about Good and Evil, and even for children of younger preschool age. Enough! I'm tired of it! " I hasten to assure you that Miss Originality has left its marks on literally every detail of the game.

Despite the fact that the objectives of the mission, which in fact there are only two: "kill them all" and "explore the territory", change in a circle to the bitter end, boredom presses only towards the end of the game, when the final is "just about". This was achieved thanks to cleverly arranged and original riddles, whether it be the selection of a password for the combination lock or the activation of the mechanism for folding the stairs. These "puzzles" do not bother everyone just because there are ... few of them! Indeed, either the developers could not come up with "what is more preposterous", or they decided that it was already in full - you will break off. I mean, you will blow your brains over the solution.

The design of the locations where I will plan cunning maneuvers and desperate attacks is striking, in a pleasant sense of the word. Such an attitude to detail deserves at least applause and tossing caps in the air! Each room is stuffed not only with the appropriate attributes, but also with wonderful devices of the Refusers, assembled from the materials on the ground. Exciting trips through pipes, through broken bookcases, through a refrigerator with a TV, finally! This, I assure you, leaves some kind of incomprehensible, sweet feeling caused by a sharp change in size. In real life, you were about eighty meters long and could calmly kick a stool or throw a book with poems of an unnamed poet to hell, and now you have to use the "cat" to get to the desk.

Crumple beds and trample the ground in flower pots, as well as (between times) destroy the stronghold of defective freaks - all these are tasks for the next 15 missions, which are, first of all, before you, reader, and, of course, before your charges. Let's get to know them better, since it's easy to remember the three plastic characters. The squad leader is a "red-cap" goldfinch named Scout. Endowed with special climbing equipment, with which he can easily get into hard-to-reach places in rooms. Add to this a crossbow, which shoots accurately and without corrections for such "stupid" laws as gravity and friction, and as a result we get ... imbalance, gentlemen! Having a sufficient number of cartridges available, you can easily and carefree run the entire game with this particular soldier. I hope you are not going to do that?..

The Sturmovik is the second in a row and in importance. In the hands of a machine gun with an underbarrel grenade launcher, on the face - a complete rejection from this world (only a thread of saliva in the corner of the mouth is missing), in the body - an irrepressible desire to "shmalnu well!" Most often it is used as cannon fodder and head-to-head in the case.

Sniper girl turned out to be the weakest character. Behind only a rifle with a telescopic sight, but what a! Perfectly blows firewood to Refusers, forcing them to fire in a fit on the sides, and also easily knocks weapons out of enemy paws.

Apart from the lack of balance in REFUZEAI is also completely absent. No matter how much we wish it, no matter how the stars are located in the sky on a full moon - you will not see interesting shootouts like your ears. There are two stages of one misfortune, the name of which is "beating of babies": either we, or us. It so happens that you sneak up on an adversary for the most part, you already breathe in your heels, and he portrays the all-powerful defender of the base. And it happens the other way around, just stick your nose out from behind the cube, and the mortarmen will lead such a shelling at you that you have time to collect your hands and feet on the windowsill and grease with glue.

This sin is compensated for easily and simply: sometimes there are too many enemies! I don’t argue, it’s funny to sit on the closet and calmly "quilting" the Refusers from the rifle, but, my dears, we are not playing in the shooting gallery! And tactics from such acts does not smell even a kilometer away.

We meet the game on "dress" with a double impression. It is understandable, no one expected revelations from Multisoft in the field of shaders and anti-aliasing, but in places the hack, expressed by a small number of items, sticks out. Of course, I don't force anyone to make two completely different staplers - most likely, no one will pay attention to them. But I will never believe in my life that art botanists live in the house. All the shelves are littered with encyclopedias about lions and sculptures, and in the nursery, the kid organized an underground base for replicating pirated discs, wrote everything down, but forgot to replace the CD-R labels with bright games.

But in general, the artists have something to praise for, because the house appears to us as if it were real: the shades were very well chosen and the engine resources were used up. In some places, primitive shadows or lighting can be discouraged, but after you look at the minimum system requirements - a stone from your shoulders and heart, and you even want to jump for happiness, only constant gaps in the code interfere. Programmers meticulously catch little glitches, not forgetting to upload fresh patches along the way. By the way, forget everything that you studied in the first and second grade. From now on, the number 1.331 is less than 1.002. Such is the arithmetic!

The "symphonies" presented in the project do not take the soul in any way, and the endless "pew-pew", "tra-ta-ta" and the like evoke nostalgia for such beautiful and immortal games as Contra.

Final comments:

After the disastrous Corsairs and Lada Racing Club , REFUZE looks as fresh as a tumbleweed next to a rose (I hope it's clear who is who?). It's a shame only for the stinginess of thought: from such an original setting it was possible to squeeze many times more. According to the established stupid tradition, the fate of the game is controlled not by the developer, but by the publisher and time.

Gameplay: An original mix of children's fantasy and adult problem solving, tempered by a few gaps. The motto of the game is as follows: minimum tactics, maximum shooting.

Graphics: Juicy and bright colors, coupled with authentic, but too rustic models of the surrounding world-house and wooden animation have earned a solid "three".

Sound: A couple of soundtracks with an unobtrusive melody and toy shots of "pew-pew" and "bang-bang" fell into place. However, admirers of the "beautiful" use Refuze only in conjunction with Winamp.

For how long ?: Despite the presence of alternative paths during the passage, not everyone wants to replay the old tale, primarily because of the lack of variety.