Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid

Anaconda: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid is the game of the movie, sequel to the nail-bitingly unnerving Anaconda! The game was produced and released as freeware as a kind of teaser ahead of the movie release: why not play your way through the story, before you go and see the actors doing it better, harder, for longer and with great, scary special effects?!

The movie watches the antics of five people sent by a pharmaceutical company to find a rare 'blood orchid' that is reputed to have great anti-aging powers. The five convince their guide to take a shorter, but more dangerous route to find the flower on an island in Borneo, only to have an immense anaconda appear from nowhere and swallow one of their party whole. The snake's size and strength is dismissed as an aberration, being the largest snake that any of them have ever seen. The rest survive and try to find another way to the orchid, only to find more and more of the immense and powerful anacondas all over the island. To their horror they realise that the snakes have been ingesting the blood orchid as part of their life cycle, hence their seeming super powers. The group become divided between longing for the multi-billion dollar plant and getting back to safety and they split up, racing against each other, the anacondas and time to be the first to reach the orchids. The movie did reasonably well at the box office, but was slated by the critics.

In the game there are five characters, with the player as the team leader. The player must lead his or her team safely through the island environment, avoiding dangers, pitfalls and anacondas, in equal measure.

Sadly the movie was not as good as the fairly awful original movie, and the game has made even less impact. The graphics are so-so, and the premise is uninspiring. It is a game that is okay to play, but it has no hook to engage players. It is unlikely to be anyone's favourite game.

Pros

• None really

Cons

• None really