Almost Adventure
and
Matthew Desmond
We
occasionally like to recommend games to our readers that are not adventure but
feature some related element that would interest the adventure gamer. An eclectic
mix of strategy, RPG, simulations–one never knows what we might be hooked on
at the moment, but rest assured that even though we neither grade these games
nor review them in-depth, their inclusion in Almost Adventure is our highest recommendation
to the adventure community.
The
Sting Genre: Adventure/Strategy
Developer: Neo
Distributor: Jo Wood Productions
Platform:
By
Randy Sluganski
If you have, like me, shied away from strategy games
in the past because, for the most part, they always seem to be too damned serious,
then be prepared to have your staid perceptions shattered. Just as many gamers
mistakenly believe adventure games to be boring point-and-click affairs, so do
most adventure gamers probably believe most strategy games to be dry recreations
of the Civil War (or any major war for that matter) or Japanese feudal history.
While this may have at one time been true, the times they are a’changing.
The
Sting could have been a rote, by-the-numbers recreation of a bank heist, but
instead the developers wisely decided to follow in the footsteps of Woody Allen’s
Take the Money and Run and Small Time Crooks and bumble along the
comedic heist route. The game has a cartoony feel that is amplified by comic-strip
cinematics and wacky, lovable bad guys. The constantly changing cast of characters
keeps the goings-on fresh.
You play as Matt Tucker, an apprentice burglar
who aspires to rise from a legend in his own mind to a legend in crime. Petty
crime is replaced by more and more convoluted operations as Matt works to increase
his notoriety on way to the most spectacular and stylish robbery ever–The Sting.
While the micromanagement involved in pulling off a burglary was sometimes too
much for my taste, as an adventure gamer I enjoyed the large cast of characters
and the immense background information provided.
The “living city,”
with its constantly moving cast of people and automobiles, provide a vibrant atmosphere
that is often lacking in adventure games. (Neo, the developer, claims it is the
largest city ever animated for a computer game.) If you find the dishonest subject
matter offensive, rest assured that there is no violence–these are “honest”
thieves who follow a strict code of conduct. In fact the only hostility they can
really be accused of is tickling your funny bone with their ineptitude.
Download
a demo of The Sting here.
Desperados
Genre: Adventure/Strategy
Developer: Spellbound
Software
Distributor: Infogrames
Platform:
By
Randy Sluganski
Imagine famed western director John Ford (Stagecoach,
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) developing a computer game. Just as his
movies were known for developing a strong microcosm of characters inside the maelstrom
of the wild, wild west, so too does Desperados. Desperados is, along with
Max Payne, the most fun I have had playing any game this year. I am not
in particular a huge fan of Western movies or even strategy games for that matter,
but that is quickly changing as many genres incorporate the better elements of
adventure gaming.
Infogrames has been advertising Desperados as
a real-time, team-based adventure strategy, and those are certainly some tall
boots to fill. Just as The Sting succeeds based on the strength of its
characters, so too does Desperados. Simply put, there are 25 missions that
you must shoot, ride, fight, sneak, and cheat your way through. Six bounty hunters
are gathered to stop a gang of banditos from raiding and robbing any more trains.
For those who need more than action and strategy, though, there is also a wonderful
cast of characters replete with their own quirky personalities and specific modes
of attack. Cooper is the master of the blade, Kate’s a wily female not above using
her good looks to get what she wants, and Mia Yung has a trained pet monkey that
you don’t want to spank.
The bounty hunters can be controlled either singularly
or simultaneously, and while this can become complicated, the learning curve–each
character’s tutorial is incorporated into one of the game scenarios–never detracts
from the pure rush of this game. Each character has been molded in the time-honored
tradition of any “team” movie you have ever seen. Two of them are ex-lovers,
two distrust each other, and so on. But these cliches actually work in the game’s
favor–you feel as though you are personally involved in an interactive remake
of The Magnificent Seven (in fact, one mission is named “The Magnificent
Six”).
Each character also has an array of special moves or tricks
that can be used to progress through a level. For those who think I am committing
blasphemy by gushing so over an adventure/strategy game, there are literally dozens
of situations you will encounter that are the equivalent of any puzzle in an adventure
game. For example, pyromaniac Samuel Williams carries a rattlesnake around in
a sack. The sack can be placed on the ground in a troublesome area, and when an
opponent attempts to pass, the snake will attack and kill him. This nifty trick
was working great for the most part, but occasionally a bad guy would notice the
movement in the bag, shoot the reptile, and then overtake my gang. What happened
was I was a victim of my own success! A group of dead bodies would accumulate
that was obviously noticeable by those stumbling upon the scene. To overcome this
hitch, I then had to have one of my men carry some of the bodies away from the
trap and, voila, my snake was back in business.
Desperados plays
like a movie and adventure game in other ways. The missions are not helter-skelter
but actually build upon each other to advance the storyline. There is ongoing
chatter between the characters and enough twists and turns to fill the pages of
a cheap paperback novel. Lengthy cutscenes between the missions are not just eye
candy filler and always add another layer to the plot. Even the music, while not
on a par with High Noon, had me humming along and is suggestive of the old matinee
Westerns. The developers have done a great job of recreating a time when Westerns
were the undisputed king of Hollywood.
Download a demo, screensavers, and
trailers for Desperados here.
Dark
Angel: Vampire Apocalypse
Genre: Adventure/RPG
Developer: Metro
3D
Platform: PS2
By Randy Sluganski
Consider Dark Angel
as Diablo Lite, and you won’t be disappointed. In many ways, Dark
Angel is a throwback to the more simplistic days of Rogue when a RPG
could be enjoyed without all of the complications of learning fighting skills
and acquiring advanced magic spells. The ease of combat may not appeal to the
more advanced dungeon-crawler, but for someone like me who just wants to enjoy
a game for brief periods, the low-end learning curve is appreciated.
What
seems at first glance to be just another hack-and-slash, Dark Angel is
quest-based and provides much more depth and storyline than most games of this
ilk. Anna, your female avatar, must travel from region to region defending her
native land of Gothos from the Shadow Lord and his minions. Most weapons and armor
can be easily found in your dungeon romps, but the better stuff can be bought
from shopkeepers, who also will offer side quests that, once completed, will increase
your attributes. One innovation in Dark Angel is that you can sell magical
items you have found to a village, and in turn the villagers can then use the
item to improve their economy, military, or research against the foe. Lest you
think this is a never-ending epic, Anna has but one year (game time) to gain the
attributes and weapons necessary to confront the Shadow Lord.
Easy to master,
but still involving enough to attract the casual gamer, Dark Angel is recommended
for the adventurer who wants to hack his way to the top.
Download a demo
of Dark Angel here.
Max
Payne Genre: Adventure/Action
Developer: Remedy
Distributor: Gathering of
Developers
Platform:
By
Matthew Desmond
When most people think of a game that raises the bar
to the next level of game play, they look to the past. Wolfenstein 3D and
Doom set the stage for Quake, and Quake set the stage for
Half Life and the clones that followed. Which brings us to this question:
What set the stage for Max Payne? The answer: Nothing. Max Payne creates
that next level, or bar if you will, and completely obliterates all expectations.
The game’s premise is a basic film noir thriller storyline. A cop goes
undercover for the Drug Enforcement Agency after his family’s cold-blooded murder,
infiltrates the Mafia, and after his partner is killed, gets framed for the crime.
Your goal is to clear Max’s name and flush out your partner’s real killer. Max
Payne is set in the mean streets of New York City where everything is dirty
and gritty, and things get done not through talking, but with a gun.
And
there is plenty of shooting in this game. Thankfully, the kind folks at Remedy
Entertainment have added a twist to the shooting segment of this game. Anyone
a fan of John Woo or those sweet slow-motion gun battles in The Matrix? I
am. If you also are a fan of slow-motion action scenes, you are going to love
Bullet Time and Shoot Dodge. What are Bullet Time and Shoot Dodge? It’s a little
hard to explain, but imagine that you stumble into a room where five gangsters
have their weapons drawn. In a normal gun battle, you are bound to lose, but Bullet
Time and Shoot Dodge allow you to slow down time. In Bullet Time, for example,
you actually get enough time to take several well-aimed shots at the bad guys
and even the odds. You can actually take down the entire group in Bullet Time.
Shoot Dodge is activated long enough for you to dive into a room in slow motion
and fire either one shotgun blast or several bullets from your pistol. Bullet
Time lasts about ten seconds.
Remedy Entertainment has created an unforgettable
atmosphere that expertly evokes the player’s emotions. Max Payne draws
you into this world and leaves you hanging at the end of each level. There are
memorable moments from the first part of the game that leave you sitting back
in your chair, slack-jawed, eyes glazed over and thinking, “Wow …”
For
example, the first level places you in the Payne household the day that Max’s
wife and daughter are slaughtered in cold blood. You arrive just moments after
their slaughter and confront the killers. The cut scenes and graphic novel interludes
make you feel as though you’ve been hit with a baseball bat. You can actually
feel Max’s anguish because you are completely helpless to stop what is happening.
In
another scene, Max is having a flashback to the day that his family was killed.
You can hear the baby crying and Max’s wife screaming, “I’m sorry! I didn’t
mean to!” over and over and over. You run down the hallways, but the hallways
become infinite corridors. It is a frustrating scene as you share Max’s pain and
suffering.
In yet another scene, as Max takes a brutal beating from Frankie
“The Bat” Niagra, we can only watch helplessly as the brute brings a
Louisville Slugger down onto Max’s skull. It’s a very memorable scene.
The
MaxFX engine is brilliant. Everything has been accurately modeled, and for the
first time in a game, we can actually see individual bullets streaking across
the screen, heading toward their targets. Damage effects have been accurately
modeled for each weapon. Instead of seeing a similar effect for every gun (like
in many games), each weapon has an accurate damage model for things hit; for example,
hit a wooden table with a shotgun blast and there is a big, ragged hole in it.
Hit the same table with your Beretta, and there is a small hole in the table–just
what you’d expect. And there are plenty of pyrotechnics. Shoot the screw off the
top of a propane gas tank and you better run before that sucker explodes in a
nice big ball of fire. It’s all rather fascinating to just sit back and watch
the incredible display of explosions on the screen. The graphics are completely
incredible. The first time you actually play the game, you will be amazed.
Most
adventure gamers will not try a game if the story is mindless (Doom and
Quake come to mind). Everyone wants a good story, but they don’t want it
to be already told to them by reading the blurb on the back of the box. Thankfully,
Max Payne pulls through with an excellent story idea. Each time Max sees
something he wants to look at, a little ! appears on the screen. You must then
press your “Use” key to either activate that object or to reveal another
page of your graphic novel.
The graphic novel is a comic book detailing
everything that happens in the game. There is nothing worse than leaving a game
for several days and then forgetting what has happened. In Max Payne, all
you need do is check the graphic novel for a refresher. I hope that we see a lot
more games of this style in the future.
