Half-Life: The shorter, and less fun version
Written: Mar 24 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: It has a some of what made Half-Life fun.
Cons: Too short, not worth $40. Some parts feel like Half-Life that looks worse.
The Bottom Line: Don't get this game, unless it is on sale for less than $20. They tried making Half-Life again and failed.
|
|
|
| ravinglunatic's Full Review: Gunman Chronicles for Windows |
Gunman Chronicles was originally a mod for the game Half-Life that I had been really looking forward to. Promises of drivable vehicles, multiple planets, and customizable weapons really got me excited about it. I was a little disappointed when they announced it would become commercial, but I was still optimistic and thought maybe they could make it better. After getting this for Christmas, all of my hopes were dashed. Gunman is nowhere near as good as the original Half-Life, and that came out about three years ago.
Story Line
Like what is expected, the story line is not very good. You play Major Archer, who is a military hero. Years ago, you landed on a planet, where the commander was eaten alive by some giant plant, and your character ordered a retreat. The general actually survived, and now wants revenge on you. You go back to the same planet for some reason, where you are attacked by some of the generals men, and his xenomes that he created. Xenomes are (usually) small creatures that are never really very hard to fight. Then there are droids that attack you and the xenomes. Hmmm...two types of enemies that fight each other and you, sound familiar? Well, later you team up with a powerful droid that helps you win. You defeat the general. Yawn.
Graphics
The graphics have not changed since Half-Life, and in many cases, they actually look much worse. Half-Life's graphics were not outstanding, but they were good. They should have either improved the graphics, or not gone commercial with this game. There is nothing too terribly wrong, but it should have been better for a $40 game.
Sound
The sound was actually much worse than the original, which had great use of sound. The voice acting in this game was terrible, and they really should have done much better. If they got some decent recording, they could have made the game much better, but with the sound like this, it was better just to play with no sound at all.
Gameplay
The gameplay was not challenging at all, and I could easily run past enemies instead of fighting them. You never really have to kill that much, and ammo is never a problem. The toughest puzzles don't really require much thinking, but you just have to shoot something to help you get to a new area. There is never really anything remotely interesting, and the scripted sequences aren't anywhere near as effective as the ones used in Half-Life. I noticed once that there was an area that had some ammo so I jumped down into it, and there was no way out. I've heard of several other people having this problem, and it should have been fixed before this game was released. This game lasted about 5-8 hours of casual play, and definitely wasn't worth the money.
Weapons
The "customizablity" of the weapons let you adjust the fire rate and so forth. I usually just kept it on max and didn't mess with it, because it is too annoying changing it during a fight. It doesn't really add anything new. (Side note: if you put the amount of shells fired at a time to the max on the shotgun, you can propel yourself into the air. This can be used to slow yourself down if you fall a long way.) The weapons are fairly pathetic, and I ended up using the pistol throughout most of the game.
The "drivable vehicles" consist of a tank. Which is indestructible, and never runs out of ammunition. What is the point of that? It is not a challenge to be invincible. Also, you have to get new gas for the tank occasionally, which could have been good, if used right, but you can easily get another tank, so it was a fairly pointless quest.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ravinglunatic
|
|
Location: Naperville, IL, USA
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 10 members
About Me:
"...and if I go insane, please don't put your wires in my brain" -Pink Floyd
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.