GunBound

"A game with too high a learning curve for newbs that gets boring by the time you get any good."

Intro: I started playing Gunbound (GB) late this summer. Its a game similar to Scorched Earth or Worms you use a tank (called a ''mobile'') to destroy your opponents. Each one has a different weapon and slightly different stats i.e. one might be faster while another is slightly more durable. There are 2 hidden tanks also which are very powerful.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In my reviews a 5 is considered a middle score, not like what some reviewers do and they taught you in school where a 7 is average in mine a 7 would be ''pretty good'' or ''above average''.

Graphics:8/10 All in all the graphics look pretty good each weapon has a different effect and the backgrounds all move, all in all not as good as say MP or Halo but still pretty good.

Sound:4/10 The sound I think was a big reason I didn't like this game each weapon has its own sound for firing and hitting but about 75% of these are annoying.

Music:1/10 The game has 3 tracks maybe less and only one is heard in the game the other one or two are limited to menu but none are very good anyway. Still I'd rather listen to 3 bad songs than just one.

Control:4/10 The controls in GB are nothing special but it loses the points for 2 reasons first you often want to see someone off the screen and shoot them but you can't so you have to guess with your bad aiming thing were they are. 2nd is that it can be difficult to judge how far a shot will go since the gravity seems to vary between levels so what may have been a perfect shot on one map could fly 50 ft. overhead on another.

Gameplay:4/10 Alright so lets say you turn off the annoying sound and music replace it with one of your own CD's and get used to the controls you still won't be having much fun in GB because by the time you get good enough to hit anything the game will be beginning to get old. Every match is more or less the same shoot,shoot, maybe use a healing item, shoot, shoot some more, use teleport item...
so by your 20-30th match things get pretty boring. Of course the designers left plenty of ways to try to pull you back in there's a store that lets you buy items to make your character look better and marginally improve stats, you could always try a new tank or mode, and go for getting up to one of the higher ranks, or a different combo of items but all in all this usually won't buy the game much time.

Replay:4/10 Since it is an Internet game the replay is basically the same as the gameplay there's no offline or vs. bots at all or any game to finish so when do you stop ''playing'' and start ''replaying'' but like I said above you still won't be playing more then a month before it gets boring.

Overall:4/10 Lame sound, music, controls, and a boring gameplay experience killed this game but since its free if you have some time on your hands you may want to pick it up anyway just to try.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/03