Gunman Chronicles

Though it's worth considering that this game was essentially developed by a group of amateur designers, there are many first-person shooters available that are much more worthwhile.
Gunman Chronicles is a unique game in that it wasn't designed by a traditional development team, but by a group of individuals working out of their homes in North America and Europe. Most of the team members have used commonplace tools such as chat programs and FTP software to coordinate the production of this first-person shooter - interestingly enough, most of them have never met each other in person. Gunman Chronicles was originally slated to be a straightforward single-player-focused user-created mod for Quake II, but it gradually evolved into a total conversion of Valve's popular Half-Life. Partway through its development cycle, Gunman Chronicles caught the eye of Sierra, which decided to publish the game through traditional retail channels. Gunman Chronicles isn't the first stand-alone Half-Life mod to be formally released by Sierra - Counter-Strike, an extremely popular multiplayer mod, was also published as part of the company's recent trend of cultivating independent talent into success stories at the retail store. Unfortunately, Gunman Chronicles lacks the polish and the lasting value of Counter-Strike, not to mention many other recent first-person shooters.

In Gunman Chronicles, you play the role of Major Archer, an interplanetary soldier whose squad of gunmen battle deadly creatures called Xenomes. One time, the gunmen were forced to retreat in the face of the creatures' overwhelming strength. Archer escaped with his life, but others on his team, including the general (his superior), weren't as lucky. Xenome activity has since been rampant, and Archer has been sent off to investigate a mysterious distress call from a remote planet thought to be under attack by these ravenous creatures. Upon landing on this planet, it becomes clear that the distress call was nothing more than a ruse to lure Archer and the gunmen into an ambush. But Archer survives again and learns that this elaborate setup was orchestrated by none other than the general himself, who mysteriously survived the encounter with the Xenomes five years earlier and felt betrayed by Archer and the gunmen's retreat. The general has since been researching the Xenomes' power and has been using them to instigate these unprovoked infestations of planets inhabited by humans. Archer is tasked with the duty of stopping the general's scheme and, of course, escaping with his own life.

The similarities between Half-Life and Gunman Chronicles don't stop with the premise of an alien infestation. In fact, the game's similarity to Half-Life is almost blatant from the beginning. You're taken through a tram ride of a military complex built around a massive asteroid as soon as you start the game - an obvious testament to Valve's classic shooter. Later on in the game, you'll even be forced to shoot down a helicopter with a rocket launcher of sorts. Gunman Chronicles does attempt to distance itself from Half-Life by offering certain gameplay conventions that weren't available in Valve's game, including customizable weapons and controllable vehicles. In addition, the game's futuristic Wild West setting and Civil War-type character models give it a rather unique look and style. Regardless, people who have played Half-Life, or any recent first-person shooter for that matter, will be able to instantly acclimate themselves to the gameplay in Gunman Chronicles. You progress through a wide number of levels scattered across four distinct worlds. As in Half-Life, you can travel back and forth between the levels, and you will sometimes have to backtrack to earlier areas. The squad tactics of the enemy characters is another aspect borrowed from Half-Life, although Gunman Chronicle's enemies aren't nearly as clever as the deadly marines from the original game. When engaged in a firefight, most of the time the enemies will simply stand still until they are killed. Occasionally, they'll run back and forth between two points in some form of attempt to either get cover or a clearer shot at you. Nonhuman enemies are even worse - they will often simply charge you.

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Game Information
Number of Players: 1-12

Minimum System Requirements
System: PII 233 or equivalent
RAM: 32 MB
Video Memory: 4 MB
Hard Drive Space: 400 MB


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