'Blazing Squad
Last updated: 16/11/2006 - 15:56
You chance to play demon detective has arrived with Constantine - based on the new Warner Bros. feature of the same name. Hell is a city...
Constantine
Based on the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer comic books and graphic novels, the supernatural thriller Constantine tells the story of John Constantine – played by Keanu Reeves – (The Matrix trilogy, Point Break, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Johnny Mnemonic etc…), a man who has literally been to hell and back. When he teams up with sceptical policewoman Angela Dodson - played in the film by Rachel Weisz – (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, Land Girls) to solve the mysterious suicide of her twin sister, their investigation takes them through the world of demons and angels that exists just beneath the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles.
Likenesses
Keanu Reeves, Tilda Swinton, Gavin Rossdale and Max Baker have had their likeness digitally recreated – in a similar way, and with similar success to the way the TV cast of Buffy The Vampire Slayer made their gaming appearance in the Buffy game (Chaos Bleeds.
Inspired by the DC Hellblazer universe as much as by the film - and with all the supernatural thrills of both to choose from, this explosive action and horror game allows players to assume the title role of the film's protagonist John Constantine – and quite literally takes you to Hell and back! You are cast as irreverent mystic detective John Constantine and must embark on an investigation in a world of demons and angels that exists just beneath the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles. Caught up in a series of catastrophic events, it is imperative that you seek out and destroy pure evil - before peace on Earth is destroyed forever.
The video game version closely follows the script of the movie, allowing gamers to play as the movies’ anti-hero exorcist in third-person mode. The storyline moves between the planes of contemporary Earth and a parallel ‘Hell L.A.’, introducing terrifying enemies from the movie as well as new enemies created for the game along the way. Caught in a catastrophic series of otherworldly events, the two become inextricably involved and seek to find their own peace at whatever cost. Beginning to sound more than a little like the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series spin-off Angel there...
Players will encounter an arsenal of horrific artefacts including, some of which they may even get to use:
The Comics
The Hellblazer title, which was recently slightly re-branded as John Constantine: Hellblazer - in expectation of the feature film version - has been running continuously since 1989, on the Vertigo imprint. The comic book features a central character who – unlike the character played as a generic moody American by Keanu Reeves in the film – hails from the North-West of England - specifically Liverpool. The maverick, former punk (lead singer of the delightfully monikered Mucous Membrane, no less) hard-drinking chain-smoking mystic trouble shooter with a dodgy past and a far from certain future: John Constantine.
The character of John Constantine first appeared not in his own title, but in the pages of another DC book – the quite seminal Swamp Thing, back in 1985, during British writer Alan Moore’s (Watchman, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V For Vendetta etc...) groundbreaking tenure. It was in the pages of this genre-defying title that he would pop up again and again in the most bizarre circumstances - inevitably wearing a dirty old raincoat, chain smoking and uttering pithy one-liners while both helping and hindering that books’ central character.
DC Comics, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is the largest English-language publisher of comics in the world and home to such iconic characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Green Lantern and The Sandman. These DC super heroes and others have starred in comic books, movies, television series (both animated and live-action) and cyberspace, thrilling audiences of all ages for generations.
Constantine the game is being release for PlayStation2 and Xbox in conjunction with the films release. The film is out on DVD now, certificate 18.
John Constantine and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics. All images are TM & © DC Comics.