Gunman Chronicles Review

Phew... All done! That was rather quick! It took me about 12-15h of gameplay to finish Gunman Chronicles. Not bad for a mod, but considering this is a retail game, I'm left wondering if this experience is worth the $30 you might churn out for it. For all you lazy bastards that just don't bother to give our banners a daily workout, Gunman Chronicles is a single player Half Life mod-turned retail (the same as that other MP mod - cough, what's its name), which has been signed and approved by the Valve bunch, and shipped as a retail stand alone game. Trouble is brewing in this sleepy western spiral of the galaxy. It's been five years since the infestation of the alien Xenomes started - five years since The General, leader of the Gunmen, fell in battle leaving you to take command. Now, a mysterious presence has tinkered with the DNA of these Xenomes, making them bigger and stronger than before, and the scourge is spreading once again. As leader of the Gunman (Southern Grays in Space?? Bizarre f---ing concept!), the only law in this area of the galaxy, you must set things right. Find the source of this hostile invasion, and clear these alien scum from the rim or the galaxy!

The notorious general.

Moving the crates.

It's a good thing Sierra decided to price Gunman about $15 bucks less than the other, 'proper' retail games, because that's exactly what this one's worth. Don't get me wrong though, it's still a fun game to play. But there's no question that the single player FPS games have advanced a lot from the 'small critter attacking in thousands' and 'jumping on top of crates' worn out concepts that have been around ever since somebody said: "hey, why don't we make a game in which you can shoot bugs and weird frog-like things from a first person perspective? You know, use kick ass guns that could blow out a tank to kill the little buggers and stuff."

Gunman Chronicles doesn't progress much from this rudimentary concept - you'll still get to kill an ENORMOUS amount of small Xenomes (read: scorpions, similar bugs, and alien frogs) jump a LOT of crates, and smash a LOT of wire and metal to get to that air duct or the crouch-happy corridor -- the usual FPS stuff. The puzzles and level design are pretty much the same way. In all fairness, Gunman features some amazingly vibrant graphics, and in that sense, there's nothing wrong with the levels. Quite the contrary; this is one of the best graphics I've seen in a HL mod so far - the settings are imaginative, grandiose and 'autumn in North Michigan' colorful. For those of you who like spectacular sci-fi environments and like to travel different places with the 'PC spacelines,' the world of Gunman is definitely worth a shot. The game features more outdoor maps than in HL. The maps are packed with beautifully drawn 2D backgrounds and poly-mountains, rocks, etc. Damn, I must say I still find Half Life engine kinda sexy. It's like when you're looking at a photo of Sophia Loren when she was around 45 years old. Mature, but still sexy enough to give ya that tingling sensation when you look at her curves.

The problem with the levels is that they are lacking essential gameplay dynamics and inventiveness. Many of the scripted sequences definitely remind me of Half Life. Yep! It's a mod, I realize that. But why did they have to "borrow" several scenes from the original game? Like when you're introduced to the M.U.L.E for the first time (I'll talk about that a bit later). Well, well...a conveniently scripted helicopter to test out the M.U.L.E. (essentially a rocket launcher). Sounds familiar, doesn't it Halfelifers? The lack of gameplay dynamics is apparent from the highly linear way in which the levels were designed. Experienced FPS players will read most of the maps like an open book, meaning you'll know right away where you need to go, what you need to do, and what you just can't do on a map. Going through levels in Gunman is a simple process of elimination: see rock, see 2D textures behind it; eliminate the possibility of jumping on that rock to get to the next loading screen. The biggest trouble I had puzzle and map-wise in the game was actually spotting the narrow passage on the bigger maps. Once you figure that out, there's no stopping you 'till you reach your goal. Of course, the other thing that damn-nearly killed my desire to play the game is the abnormal quantity of small Xenomes. It's just er, hair-pulling frustrating when those little, and may I add extremely fast (how shall I describe them) frog-like Xenomes that look a lot like Giger's 'Alien' start jumping on your face, like them little crabs in Half Life. A few times in this game I really wished I had some pesticide, or some biochemical gas with which I could contaminate the whole damn moon and just fly away for a few Pina Coladas on a tropical planet somewhere in the Gunman galaxy. Easy puzzles, straightforward maps with a lot of crates, and small critters don't really rank high in my book.

Hey, but wait! I played the game all the way through, didn't I!? There are some features in this game that keep you going despite the clichéd concepts. I've already mentioned one - the extremely appealing graphics, and the level design (in terms of how everything looks). The other one has to do with the spectacular boss creatures, some of which are downright gigantic! Never have I seen creatures in a computer game so huge in comparison to the player's character. Some of the level bosses are a real tribute to this mod adding some much needed uniqueness to the overall design. The bosses are very high in polys and really give you that Hollywood WOW! Godzilla felling when you first see them. There's even one scene in the game, which reminds me of that legendary King-Kong vs. the large reptile, or was it a lizard scene in the classic B&W King Kong flick -- I cried my ass off when they killed the big ape. Yeah, shut up! Like you've never cried over a tragic movie ending...