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Old
west action in outerspace?
Review by Dave "Marauder" Kratky, Jan 4/2000.
Woot! It's Half Life, take 2! (Well, kinda.) Allrighty! Finally a decent game other than Counter-Strike based on the Half Life engine! In Gunman Chronicals you have your typical bad guys out to destroy the universe. Your entire command has been erradicated and someone is unleashing a plague of genetically modified horors upon an unsuspecting world.. er... galaxy. Needless to say, you are of course the only survivor and must kick some ass to gave the universe. The first thing you will notice is how much this game resembles the original Half Life. It feels the same, plays the same. Hell, there's even a spiffy little train ride at the front just like the original. (Note to YOU: Save just after this part. Nothing sucks more than seeing it 10x) You get attacked by Helicopters on cliff sides, just like the original. It play like a mod, but I've never seen a mod this big before. Levels are massive, as in the original, with minimal load time per new level. The intro movie is very well done, although as usual the voice acting is just lame. Game developers REALLY need to start hiring some people who actually know what they're doing to play the parts. In game voice acting is decent, nothing spectacular. There are 4 different worlds for you to fight your way through ranging from desolate, old west style wastelands to the ruins of a high tech moon that's been taken over by an insane computer quite reminicent of Shodan from System Shock I & II. There are some cool plot twists and turns as well.
One of the coolest toys in this game is the tank. Later in the game you end up running through canyons with a frickin' tank blowing the hell out of anything and everone who gets in your way. Machine guns, main gun and missiles. The only issue I had with this part of the game is that, while it's cool, you run the tank down a few canyons then have to go figure out how to remove an obstacle in your way. Run tank a little further. Repeat over and over. Gets pretty dull. I get my ass in a tank I want to just kill EVERYTHING that moves. If it doesn't move I want to blow it up. I really don't want puzzles and thinking getting in the way of blasting the hell out of a level. Interestingly enough, when you start the game... You are the CO. You figure they'd give you some decent guns right? Nah! They give you a knife. Yes, that's right. A damned knife. Grrrrrrrrr.
Speaking of big guns, (We weren't, but it's a good lead in) lets talk about the weapons. Hmmmmmmm..... These guys have gone way beyond secondary fire here. The guns are pretty much programable, some more than others. Your basic pistol has 4 different modes. Burst: Allows you to fire three very accurate rapid fire shots, then pauses to recharge, not as powerfull as the other modes. Charged: Fires a powerfull but slow traveling burst of energy, takes time to reload. Rapid: Full auto. Inacurate but deadly barage of energy projectiles. Sniper: Super accurate sniper option (You find the kit in game) zoom in and.... Blamo! Headshot. :) Hand grenades can be set to explode on impact, timed or tripwired. They can also be set to explode on contact or to spew out a series of projectiles that then detonate. The shotgun can be customised for number of shells fired per shot and amount of spread. As a nice touch, the more shells per shot, the more recoil the weapon has when fired. Being able to set your weapons up for each encouter it pretty cool, and allows you to customize your attacks depending on exactly what you are facing at the moment. On the other hand it can be a huge pain in the ass to try and play with your bloody guns during a fight. Good points and bad points. I honestly found that I'd leave my guns in one fire mode just because it was simpler.
The final analysis Excellent
game. Some very, very tense moments that made me damned near jump
right out of my chair. Excellent enemies, though their AI seems rather
stupid. (Then again, I'm on "Easy" :) Weapons models are
very cool, with mutliple fire modes. Eventually however, just like
in Half Life, the game designers just seemed to have lost intrest
in it and wanted to get it done. The puzzles get dull and repetative
after awhile. Overall the game is decent, but not all that much better
than the original Half Life. It plays more like an extensive mod than
an actual stand alone game. Worth the money? I don't think I'd really
pay full price again for this one. It's worth playing, but wait a
bit untill the price drops.
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