| I have done a bad, bad thing: I thawed and released a group of bioengineered monsters into their creators’ home base, and now I creep through darkened corridors with screams and gunfire echoing from the bloodstained walls. Could my shotgun stop whatever nameless horror might be waiting around that corner? It had better. My heavier weapons are running low on ammo. Not that I care; I have always depended upon the kindness of shotguns.
At this point while playing Gunman Chronicles, with the lights out and screams coming from all sides, with adrenalin pumping and nerves frayed, I had a tiny glimpse of the sort of wartime horror that might cause post-traumatic stress disorder. Let me clarify: I love this game.
Sierra and Rewolf have taken the best aspects of the Half-Life engine and built an entirely new system that seems daunting at first but really works well. But first: our story, already in progress.
The player is Major Archer, one of the Gunmen, who in turn are sort of the Texas Rangers of the far future. Gunmen are elite soldiers sent to maintain order in areas where the law can’t quite reach, which fits nicely with the game’s "Wild West in space" theme. During the opening cinematic, the General and his Gunmen are exploring a too-quiet science station when giant monsters attack. The General is lost, and Archer orders the rest of the Gunmen to retreat.
Five years later, Archer is sent to investigate an odd signal — the General’s own, in fact — on another research planet. Turns out the General ate his way out of the giant worm that swallowed him, and wants revenge on Archer. So he’s been releasing monsters called Xenomes onto civilized planets, just to cause the usual chaos and destruction. The General captures Archer and puts him into a sort of "Most Dangerous Game" maze, except with dinosaurs instead of hunters. And so the player’s trek across the galaxy begins …
Veterans of first-person shooters will have no problem taking it from there. Everything about this game is familiar, drawing from Half-Life and even System Shock 2. The weapons are familiar, with one unfamiliar entry (the Chem Gun) and a unique alt-fire system. Clicking the right mouse button lets the player customize the selected weapon, whether it’s number of shells fired by the shotgun or preparing acid/base mixtures for the Chem Gun, that sort of thing.
The only failure here is the sniper rifle. Basically, the default gun (an energy blaster) is given a sniper scope. Click and holding the left button zooms in on targets. But letting go of the button fires, so the player will often waste ammo when a shot can’t be made. Also, the scope sometimes unzooms or even fires without warning. Finally, and on purely aesthetic note, the gun still fires a big blatt of energy in sniper mode, reducing the target to gibs. If I’m firing a sniper rifle, I want to see a clean, precise shot.
The rest of the gameplay is fun, with only a few jumping puzzles and maybe two spots where it wasn’t clear the player had to shoot through a wall or floor to proceed. Levels seem long, but the game itself is rather short; I finished in about three days of dedicated playing. Also, there’s a nice Wild West level where the player gets to drive a tank, which is a refreshing change from most shooters. Oh, and the endgame finally breaks out of the usual fight-big-boss mold. I can’t say more without spoiling it, but gamers will either love or hate it. Count me among the former.
But Andy, you’re asking, what about your beloved scripted events? Well, GC’s packed with ‘em. In fact, there are often so many that this game really takes on the feel of a living story, with the player just one of the characters moving through it. The Wild West theme gets a little lost along the way, and there’s no real showdown at high noon, but let’s hope Rewolf is saving that for the sequel. | 
