A game that doesn't do justice to the name American McGee.
The game begins with a plane crash over the highways close to L.A. Nothing biggie, right? It just so happens that the plane was carrying deadly chemicals that turns people into zombies! And who is here to save the world from this terrorist treat? B.J? Sarge? The nameless guy from Quake? No! Of course it's Anthony, the foul-mouthed bum! Armed with pipes and fire hydrants, his mission is to save people and find out what the heck is going on.
Too bad it's gonna take him a hard time to do so. Bad Day L.A plays horribly, with terrible controls, awful hit-detection and just no-sense play mechanics. Sure, no-sense works fine for games of this nature, but when you're lost in the middle of a level with no clue what to do, with the game telling you to ask for directions (?!), you know something's wrong.
What might attract people to this game without a second look are the screenshots that show the game's art. This art is a little reminiscent to Herge's Tin Tin. A little. When moving, this is a whole different story. The game runs choppily and the graphics suffer from serious clipping and defects all-around.
When a great creative mind like McGee's tells us he's making a game based on the neurotic and paranoid delusions about terrorism and the unbased fear of the general public, one could think something really different would come out of this. Unfortunately such isn't the case with B.D.L.A. The game is just a missed mark, an experience that will frustrate whoever happens to install this on his/her PC or plop the disc in a Xbox.
Obscenities aside, looking past all the layers of bad execution, someone might give the game credit for trying, but on the other hand, looking at the developer's portfolio of creations, the scale tips and stumbles to one side. The bad side.
A long review isn't even needed for a game like this, the little that is written in one sentence is enough to sum up the end result about this game: stay away from it.
Thanks for reading!