GunBound

"The best game around...and it just so happens its free!"

Introduction:
Welcome...To Gunbound, the game where you shoot people at no cost to you. Gunbound is a 2D game, where you can choose one of many mobiles (tank like things that your character sits in), and blow the crap out of your enemy, your Allie, the map, or yourself. If you play the game as its meant, shooting your enemy, you gain gold, used to buy "avatars", or cloths, which change your appearance, and raise your stats, in some cases at least. You also gain GP, which gives you ranks. A rank can show how long you've been playing, usually, and more often than not you get judged off the bat by your rank.

Gameplay: 10/10
Gunbound is one of the most addicting games you will ever play. From the start, you will be entered into a colorful (blue) screen, with chat rooms, and games, and options. You will meet thousands of people (mostly evil), and hopefully, defeat. thousands too. This game...I call one of the most addicting because you can never leave it. Its like the PC version of cigarettes, without the bad side effects.
Sixteen mobiles, three shots each, ten items, hundreds of avatars, fourteen maps, four modes, and countless situations. You can choose to either create, or join a game. You can have 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 matches, which two teams of equal size go claw and teeth against each other to win the prize, GP, and money. You, in your mobile can adjust the angle, and the power of your shot, based on distance, wind, and weight. When you hit, you do damage. In score, your team has a combined life pool based on total players. As each person dies, one is subtracted. In solo, each person has one life, to live to its fullest. Tag you get two mobiles, one at a time, one with full life, one with half. In jewel, there are several "jewels" laying on the floor, throwing catchy phrases and insults at you, while you shoot them. First team to 100 points wins.

Controls: 9/10
The game takes a minute to learn, and a long time to master. While the learning curve seems to be pretty much strait, as you get better, you start to realize how bad you were at first. The left and right arrow keys move you left, and right, while on your turn. There are three ways to shoot: 1) Slice, where you hold the space bar down, and the power bar fills up until it reaches the point in which you let go. 2) Sniper: Which is the same as slice, except it adds 5% to the bar every time (not recommended, as it is bugged). 3) Drag, the most economical shot, you click with your mouse, and drag the power bar to where you want, but the longer you wait, the more the bar shakes. This is the most economical, because if you can do it fast enough, you get less delay (10 delay per second on your turn). The rest is self explanatory, items you click, or use f1-6, depending on the slot, and Tab or the mouse switches between shots.

Graphics: 9/10
While the graphics may seem bad at first, after awhile, you realize they fit the game very well. The graphics is 2D childish pictures. Many people call this a kiddy game because of it....Don't believe them. Graphics include characters (including avatars), mobiles, maps, and back rounds (which you can turn off). There is no frame-rate problems (unless its your computers fault), and overall the game runs smoothly.

Sound: 8/10
The music choice in this game, while not adequate for regular listening, is decent. They allow you to turn off the music when you want, but every now and again you just crave to hear it for 5 minutes. Rather than that its just basic explosions, which fit the mobiles very well. Each mobile has a different sound for its shot (in general). The music is very light-hearted, and of the few tracks they have, most of them sound very similar.

Community: 5/10
The regular community in this game is terrible. Seemingly nobody can speak properly, poor insults, and flames are thrown around like a nerds version of a football, and thats just the beginning. First you get the ignorants, who are just too stupid to listen or comprehend. Then you get the mean people, who just insult, and insult, and insult, while usually, you are doing better than them. A lot of times you just get random trolls or annoyances. On occasion though, you get a sparse bit of diamond in a mine full of coal. You can meet nice people, while a rare occasion, it still happens. Making friends with people that will be on a lot is a good idea. It improves the community by a lot if you only play with friends.

Replay ability: 10/10
This game shines in that aspect. You will keep coming back for more, whether its for the friends, for the fun, for the avatars, or for the ranks. The whole game revolves around you wanting to play more. If you get bored of it, you can change your style, try out a different mobile, a different mode, or unique set-ups, such as bunge, aduka only, random only. There are also several fun things to do with friends, such as "Tele-falling", "Morphing", and "SS only" games.

Overall: 9/10
This game is an Extremely! good game, and I recommend downloading it immediately at www.gunbound.net. The makers are bad English speakers, but they try. They aren't master programmers, but they do a good job, and they don't force anything upon you. The only cost is your time, which you will gladly hand over for an hour, two hours, or even 6 hours of joyful bliss. This is my favorite game, and I can almost guarantee will be one of yours.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/05