Viper's Creed - Episode 4

It would probably be a little harsh to say that episode four of Viper's Creed continues the series' downward spiral after that rip-roaring opening, and this episode was a little better than its third instalment. Barely.

While the Blademen are fighting their usual enemies down on the highways, a whole new scenario is being played out on a passing metro train, as a nine year-old girl gets kidnapped on a school trip (how anyone can manage to get a kid into a suitcase is beyond me, but that's exactly what happens here. No, I don't know how she managed to breathe either).


Upon returning to base after their mission, the gang learn that the enemy (who we still seem to know so little about - Perhaps it's better if I just don't care?) has deployed some "sticky" bombs during the fight, designed to detonate hours later after a vehicle has returned to base. Rather than attaching to any of the Blademen's vehicles, these bombs have instead attached to other passing cars, leaving them with a race against time to find and disarm the three explosives that are unaccounted for. Surprisingly, and despite the promise of a reward, Norma shows no interest in taking past in the mission...

Surprising, that is, until we discover that Marie, the kidnapped girl, is Norma's daughter, as is revealed after her attempt to have her returned in exchange for a hefty sum of money is ruined by a passing Haruki. So, the rest of the episode turns into a "hunt for the bomb/missing girl before it blows up" story, from which point on the rest probably writes itself.

The word "generic" probably doesn't even begin to sum up this kind of storyline, and that coupled with some gaping plot holes (how did these not particularly mobile bombs attach to cars nowhere near the action for starters?) made for a suitably average episode, while the attempt to pull at the viewer's emotional heartstrings with a story of war, adoption and Norma wanting the best for her child was pretty laughable - Either that or I'm a cold-hearted bastard, I'm not sure which. Either way, that early adrenaline rush that accompanied the opening episode of Viper's Creed has now well and truly disappeared, and in the cold light of day this is shaping up to be an irritatingly average series.