Gunman Chronicles (2000)

It's pretty fun. I'm a cowboy in space shooting dinosaurs in Aztec-y alien temples - can't argue with that. For a mod, the presentation's pretty good, although the training and story drag a little occasionally. Lots of cool setpieces and fun weapon settings, though. The only trouble is it's pretty difficult. I got myself to a boss fight (with a giant brontosaurus) with only 19% health and there's no way I'm managing that, so I might have to hope there's an autosave from earlier on. It turns out crocodiles weaving their way across the floor towards you is terrifying.

You can see the Half-Life influence very clearly (not surprising as it's a HL mod gone commercial) - a tram-ride opening and lots of gruesome NPC deaths. It feels quite Unreal-y too, although it hasn't managed the epic feel of that game yet.

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I had to go back and start Gunman Chronicles again on easy because it was insanely tough, but I'm now racing through it and having fun. It has a very enjoyable B-movie-romp feel to it, bouncing from one dire situation to another like a Republic serial hero. I just got through an 'insane AI' level which had a nice 2001 feel. Not as bodyshock creepy as SS2 but lots of cool enemy designs and boss fights where you generally have to either avoid and escape or figure out a puzzle, Plus a nice twist where you join forces with the AI and suddenly all her drones help you against the alien forces. Feels very Valve. The only issues are that it crashed occasionally and it's pretty damn long - I could have done with that AI level being half the length. I'm now back to dino-planet, fighting evil space cowboys, but hopefully they'll change it up again soon.

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I've got to the bit with the chemical mixing weapon now. I'm also carrying an evil AI with me trying to plug it into places, so it feels very Portal 2. I've also just gone through a vehicle section where you have to get out and do physics stuff or flip switches, so it also feels very Half-Life 2! I wouldn't be surprised to hear Valve paid attention to what this mod did with its engine and were influenced by it.

Now I've got the sniper rifle it's a lot more fun fighting the space cowboys, and there's a cool mix of Old West type buildings to have firefights in and sci-fi bases with giant aliens breaking loose.

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I finished Gunman Chronicles. The ending was a little underwhelming but overall it was very fun. As clever as the weapons system was, however, I pretty much stuck to sniper rifle and shotgun the whole way through. That's a common problem with FPSes - there's often not much motivation to play about with the different, often more outré weaponry when your shotgun is always reliable and well-stocked.

Rating: Green.