Gunman Chronicles

Gunman Chronicles is a game published by Sierra Studios in 2000. The game was produced by a company called Rewolf Software, which is a Dutch company which changed it's name to Streamline Studios in 2001, that company is known for contributing to many great titles, seeing as they were a company specialised in programming and graphics outsourcing. Some of titles are Ghost Recon 2, Overlord, Saint's Row, Gears Of War, Unreal Tournament 3 & 2004 and Battlefield 2142.

Gunman Chronicles uses the Goldsource engine which is also used in Half-Life. Gunman Chronicles is a standard fps with a few changes to the concept such as the fact that you're able to customise your firing options on your guns.

The storyline of Gunman Chronicles is the following, you start as Major Archer, a member of the Gunmen. You're send out on an exploration mission with other Gunmen in order to investigate a planet on which you meet a guy known as The General. The General was abandoned on a planet a few years back by Major Archer, because they thought he was dead, but he wasn't, so he managed to survive and repair his ship and get an army for himself. It's needless to say that The General has quite a grudge against the main character for leaving him there, so he does everything he can to see you die. During the game you'll notice that there are three factions, the Gunmen, a robot faction ruled by a computer known as AI and The Pirates(ruled by The General). In the first few levels you'll fight against the Pirates and local wildlife such as dinosaurs, but as you progress through the levels you'll encounter other forces such as the robots, because you manage to hide in the cargo of the General's spaceship which brings you to a moon which is ruled by the AI, who's under attack by the Pirates, since they want to expand and enslave creatures in order to sell them, that's also the reason why they invaded the first planet aswell, in order to capture dinosaurs. The AI first sees you as an enemy and tries whatever is in her power to stop you, until the very last moment when she's at the verge of capitulating, then she explains that she knows that you're not a member of the Pirates and wants to sign a truce. You'll then have to take her core with you in order to infiltrate the base of the General in order to crumble his empire. Because as it turns out the General is more than simply a warlord, he's also experimenting and breeding the Xenome race, which is a very aggressive alien race.

Like previously mentioned, Gunman Chronicles is a standard fps, so you're main objective is to blast your way through hallways with enemies. Every once in a while you have to solve a puzzle which aren't very difficult, most of the time it's simply blowing up some reactors or flipping a switch. The game also has a few parts in which you can drive a tank, which offers some fun variety. Although the game has some variety, for the most part it's still shooting a lot of enemies in order to progress through levels, which is just fine for some but could be boring others. About the customization options of your weapons, it comes down to choosing a firing speed in combination with accuracy, amount of projectiles being fired and in what form. Of course, the options all vary with the weapon you're holding. The game also offers little help in what you're objectives are, which can be quite frustrating, especially when you're stuck somewhere.

The level-design is quite mediocre, the variety between levels is great but the fact that you have to follow one path is quite limited. Another thing that makes it even worse is the fact that sometimes it's completely and utterly unclear on what you should do next, especially in the later levels this becomes a big annoyance, especially in the level rebar0b, at that level you have to fall and drop on a ledge between an elevator and the wall, which is impossible to see and therefore you'll probably spend quite some time trying to figure what you should be doing.

The graphics in this game were good at the time of the release with the exception of the backgrounds. Because the backgrounds in this game are very pixelated and have a very low resolution. Whilst the rest of the graphics, like objects, characters and buildings are done quite nicely. However, some of the terrain is very unrealistic, like canyons which have walls that are completely leveled and look like they've been carved by someone with too much time on his hands. But for the most part the graphics are quite good, although there is some alternation when it comes to the quality of the graphics.

The sound of this game isn't too special, you can't really be negative or positive about it. Something that is worth mentioning is that there's barely any music to be found in this game. So, you might want to play some music in the background if you get tired of hearing gun-noises all the time.

So to conclude this review, I'd like to say that I had fun playing this game, both because of the nostalgia factor and the oldschool gameplay. Although the game had a few points that aggravated me a lot, I can say that the storyline and fun gameplay kept me playing until I had completed the game, I wouldn't say that there's much replay value to the game, but the game's worth checking out, especially when considering it's quite old an therefore cheap. So if you like FPS'es you should check this game out.