Another game created using the GoldSrc engine. It seems like Half-Life… but it certainly isn’t.
This game was on my list for months. I kept telling myself “later,” and a few days ago I was hunting for something to play. I was torn between this, Kingpin: Life of Crime, and Requiem: Avenging Angel. I eventually ended up with Gunman Chronicles since I didn’t have time or brainpower at the moment; I wanted a short FPS that I can just blast through.
Funny enough, the game starts off almost precisely like Half-Life: you’re on a train – or tram… whatever it is – getting a feel for the controls and the environment. The first thing that hit me was how the graphics actually look worse than Half-Life, even though they use the same engine and I’m running both in 3DFX Glide.
I won’t go into plot details, just in case you want to play it or watch the video. What I can say is that it’s not the most gripping story out there. The enemy lineup is a mix of space dinosaurs, space cowboys, aliens, and robots. Most of them are ridiculous bullet sponges — you just stand there holding down the trigger until they eventually fall over. Guns have alternate modes, which sound cool at first, but once you realise they barely matter, the novelty fades. The basic pistol eventually gets a sniper attachment, and that was genuinely useful a couple of times.
Later on in the game, it throws a few puzzles at you. Some are obvious, some… not so much. The “not so much” ones get annoying fast.
All in all, though, this is a game worth giving a shot. It’s only roughly 3-4 hours long and can easily be finished in one sitting. But honestly, I doubt you’ll remember much about it – or the story – a few months later. It’s fun enough in the moment, just not particularly memorable.
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Hardware:
Compaq Garcia
Intel Pentium III 1133S Tualatin
256MB SDRAM
3DFX Voodoo 3 3000
Creative Sound Live!
10GB HDD (IDE)
