Gunman Chronicles

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Review: Gunman Chronicles

The original Half Life turned the PC game market on its ear by combining a good story and first person shooting action. Rewolf's Gunman Chronicles tries to bring back some of that magic and actually succeeds pretty well. Using the Half Life engine as the driving force behind it, Gunman Chronicles tells the story of The General, who has gone slightly loopy after being left behind when a raid against genetically engineered mutants went bad. Now he's heading up the R+D on mutant life with a vengeance, and since you were responsible for ditching him five years ago when you ordered a retreat, he has a few nasty surprises in store for you

Same Game, Different Planet
Gunman Chronicles blends a decent story into the action by using the game engine in the same style as Half Life, but the game remains much the same. You blast aliens, mutant dinosaurs, and enemy soldiers loyal to The General as you make your way past different obstacles. Typical of most first person shooters, the puzzles are pulling levers in the right sequence, or hunting for a hidden passage, but the game overall holds you in its grip.

Some of the alien enemies will look familiar to Half Life veterans. While many are definitely custom made for Gunman, others move and attack in old recognizable ways. The human enemies use cover well (as in Half Life) but they also mow dodge fire pretty well with tuck and roll moves.

To fight them, you've got an arsenal at your disposal. Everything from a knife to a rocket launcher to a shotgun to a Polaris Blade that fires a nasty energy beam, can be brought to bear against the enemy. Your rocket launcher and some other weapons have a number of different firing modes, letting you pick the best one for each situation. The only problem is that it can be a bit tough to switch modes in the heat of battle, and to be honest, the different firing modes aren't as necessary as they should be. Still, the various guns and other goodies you can pack (in addition to the occasional tank driving rampage, and mounted machine gun riot) give the game a good dose of adrenaline, but on the whole, the enemies seem to be sparse.

Revving Engines
The Half Life engine was a marvel when it first showed its stuff two years ago on the PC, and even though it has aged a bit, Rewolf has tweaked it to the max with some nice textures and lighting combined with solid level design. The audio backing the visuals has good fidelity with deep bass and solid mid tones, and overall the sound has a very dense feel to it. All is not well in the Gunman Chronicles however, there were quite a few times when the game would stutter and hang for a few seconds before resuming normally. A couple of unexpected crashes (which weren't repeatable) and two minor clipping problems are the only dings against the production quality.

Gunman Chronicles doesn't break any new ground, but it's a fun diversion. The single player game is a bit slow at times, but the great visuals and decent story will pull you through. Multiplayer mayhem extends the replay value a bit, but since everyone worth their salt is playing Unreal Tournament, finding worthy opponents online can be a chore. Otherwise, Gunman Chronicles is a worthy title if you hanker for a reheated FPS experience. It's like day old meatloaf: still delicious, but still meatloaf.-- John Marrin / GamePro