Gain Ground

"Caveman teams up with Cyber Soldier is this slow paced, two-player co-op classic."

Are you ready for some high intensity, slow paced action? Gain Ground must be the only game besides Max Payne that makes walking slowly fun. When you think about it, after all, which is more exciting: dodging bullets at super, inhuman speed or dodging bullets at a snail’s pace?

The gameplay is deceptively simple. You’ve got a stockpile of playable characters and must either move all of them safely across the screen or kill all the enemies on the screen. One hit from anything will kill your guy, leaving a tiny homunculus behind that can be rescued by a teammate if you’re quick. If you’re not, the first guy disappears for good and his would-be rescuer turns into the little homunculus. Lose all your guys and it’s game over. This leads to one of the fundamental quandaries of the game: should you risk another guy to rescue one of your downed warriors or just kill all the baddies, leaving your poor soldier behind but not risking anyone else? There’re some reflex tests here, for sure, but they’re not of the twitch variety. Mostly just trying to very slowly move out of the way of a very slow moving bullet. Sort of like being in permanent “bullet time.”

Your dudes all have different abilities in the form of two attacks. One guy might be able to shoot in all directions for his primary attack and shoot a strafing shot that fires towards the top of the screen only but can go over walls. Another guy might be able to fire to the left and right at the same time, allowing you to move him up a hallway and quickly take out guys tucked away in alcoves. The trick is in quickly assessing the level and deciding which guy you need to send in first. Either your first dude has got to be able to clear a path to the exit and make a break for it or clear enough of the level that your next guy can clean up a little and make it to the exit while rescuing the first, out of commission guy. The strange part is that the levels move forward in time from the stone age to sci-fi future, and the extra characters you collect go along with the theme of the time period you are currently fighting in. You’ll find yourself sending in a spear-throwing caveman to clear out a nest of robots and rescue your downed high-tech super soldier. The spear and laser rifle basically do the same amount of damage. This game is seriously pro-caveman.

Two player is beautiful. Example: you choose to start the level as the guy who can shoot arrows over walls and your buddy decides to be the rocket launcher-wielding Robocop look-alike. Both of you will be able to take out enemies that the other could never reach, clearing the path to the end of the level. Just try not to fight over the bonus little extra men you’ll find along the way. If they ever remake this game it needs to be four player, each starting from one edge of the screen and assaulting the impregnable base at the center. I seem to remember the arcade version being four-player, but maybe I’m misremembering.

This game is definitely worth ebay-ing for. Single player is pretty neato, but the two-player coop is really where the beans are. Do yourself a favor with this one, boys and girls. We’re talking borderline forgotten classic here.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/02, Updated 10/10/02