Gunman Chronicles

"It's high noon in deep ****."

Estimated Gameplay Time: 3-4 hours that seem longer than they really are.

I can feel it... eating my heart...
Rewind to 1999, when Half-Life first came out and it was the bee's knees, the most innovative and original FPS since Doom. The real kicker was that fans could make their own levels or modifications for HL and allow others to play them, and with the million new abilities HL had it meant allowing level designers things they could only dream of (in bed by themselves, presumably). But for every absolutely brilliant mod or level that was made, there at least one despicable level that either was too amateur or it was trying to pose as cool. This was a mod that was completely uninspired and mediocre. And I wouldn't be here complaining if it had stayed on the Internet and been free to download, but Valve and Sierra had other plans and gave Gunman Chronicles a publishing deal to be a retail mod like Opposing Force (except Opposing Force was pretty good).

The idea is pretty much childish banter: "Hey wouldn't it be cool if they're were like cowboys, dinosaurs, and robots in outer space?!". Fortunately, Rewolf decided to leave out the ninjas, pirates, vampires, zombies, and the Terminator, and just stick with that plot. Considering it's a Total Conversion, the textures pretty much look the same (hell, even the level areas are similar). The only real new addition here is the ability to customize your weapons. You can edit styles of attack, amount of ammunition, and other features on the weapons, all on the fly. But it's just a gimmick to draw your attention away from how cliche the game is, and it's too little used anyways.

And this game is cliche. The whole "lone person must save himself" plot was done better in Half-Life. And Gunman messes up in doing one thing: While yes, it's acceptable for unlikely coincidences to happen to form a path to the end, you shouldn't have them happen in front of you. What made it work for Half-Life was that you would come to a hallway and see a giant pit in the middle, but fortunately the rubbage is formed in such a way that you can get across. Boy it was very lucky that the path was made over such a dangerous obstacle by pure luck, but you don't think much of it. Gunman has you walk to that hallway and then BOOMCRASHPIZAZZ the floor sinks in and makes a pit and the wall explodes into a neatly formed pathway across. Shyeah right! What laughable nonsense!

Things are going down here, wouldn't you agree?
Anyways, in Gunman Chronicles you are a Gunman, which is a corny name for a spaceman cowboy. You guys fight Xenomes, BUT WAIT not the cool ones from Half-Life but lame ones that act similar but are stupider-looking. First off, it starts you off on a tram ride, which is the #1 most annoying thing user-created mods do. What made the tram ride on Half-Life impressive was because at the time it did something FPS's normally didn't: It created an environment that seemed living. But when people play mods with tram ride beginnings, it's annoying because it's something they already have seen.

Back to the game: So one day you're on a mission and everything is normal, but suddenly it's an ambush and your entire team is killed except for you. It was an insidious plan by a General who became a traitor after narrowly surviving Xenomes that you retreated from and left them in Death's palm. And now he's using Xenomes to try to kill you and the other Gunmans. But not before you have the chance to go to four different worlds, each feeling like a level out of Half-Life (we have the forest level, the desert level, the metal base level, and the facility level).

Basically, the game is a ho-hum FPS with no real originality or clever ideas. The enemies are just about the same from Half-Life, and although the weapons are customizable, they're pretty much the same weapons from older FPSs. What's most insulting is how you don't even get to fight the boss!

Instead of putting down a fiver to play this boring total conversion, I say save your money and check out the online mod community. I specifically recommend the They Hunger trilogy, as it's an excellent series of mods with more luster and originality in one level than Gunman's entire campaign. Gunman is just a worthless, pointless mod that's not worth the cash.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/20/05