Machine Hunter

"Robots, guns and blood! What a winning combination this could've been...."

A year after the success of one of Playstation's greatly hyped and celebrated game Loaded, MGM Interactive took it upon themselves to create the same game under a different premises. Loaded was a success because it brought something new and 'shocking' to the gaming world much like Mortal Kombat managed to do. A bunch of bizarre freaks set out with nasty guns and fun special moves tearing apart the enemies in a flood of blood. Machine Hunter keeps the guns, keeps the overhead shooter perspective, and plenty of blood.... too bad they didn't do enough to make it a best seller, or even a good one. Don't get me wrong, it can be an enjoyable game, but there's just enough lacking in it to have left a somewhat sour taste in your mouth if you happened to shell out $40 for it.

Graphics: 6/10
I remember thinking how cool it was to hear of shooting games where firing your weapon would light up dark rooms. And while Machine hunter does feature this, loads of blood, dead bodies, and 9 different machines, there's just nothing special about it. The grated floors, the military base, the robot factory, the fiery pits, yes, Machine Hunter has them. But at the same time, nothing is done with the graphics or animation to make you stop and say ''wow.'' And while the introduction shows some very cool looking machines to get it, they all seem to lack the flair when shrunk down on the screen and viewed from above.

Gameplay: 6/10
Simple, effective, and fairly enjoyable. The four buttons correspond to shooting in their respective directions, while holding two adjacent at a time will fire in a diagonal direction. There are shoulder buttons for switching power-ups and strafing, the latter of which is rarely useful due to the machines' presence or lack of rotating turrets. Basically, you start as a stiff looking human with twin handguns of limited power, and gradually find stronger and stronger machines, 9 total in increasing power, as the levels progress. It's a standard situation in trying to take as little damage as possible while completing specific missions like rescuing hostages, retrieving items or destroying landmarks/vehicles. Getting machines is simple.... shoot a machine until it's disabled and either completely destroy it, or walk into it to immediately transfer into that machine at full life, at the same time destroying your previous machine if you had one. If you walk into a disabled machine just like yours, the machine's life is restored. The premise is good, but ultimately repetitive and uneventful, especially with uninspiring 'seek-and-destroy' or 'seek-and-save' missions.

Variety: 3/10
Unfortunately, the gameplay hits quite a pitfall here. First of all, when the whole basis is on fighting with machines, what good is it just to have machines of progressively stronger ones as levels progress? As weird as it sounds to say in a game such as this, the game is completely linear. Games that let you get stronger throughout aren't bad, but this isn't a matter of getting enhancements, you start with level one robots, then as soon as you see that level 2, you'll never want to go back to one again. Ultimately, level 1 machines become quickly useless unless you're desperate for life, and quickly disappear among stronger machines. The cycle continues as more and more machines become absolutely pointless. Progression is pointless when it's forced!

Furthermore, the variety of the machines is basically nil. The size, speed and power of weaponry change minutely from machine to machine. Nothing is inherently different though, they all have a specific type of shot that fires straight out at enemies. And because there's basically no difference other than power, there's no incentive to use weaker machines at all. Power-ups are no different, one that changes your shots from red to green, adding a little power, and another that makes your shots blue, the strongest shots. They last for a certain amount of shots, adding power and abilities like bullets that ricochet, and in a sense, conserving these power-ups could be considered a strategy to implement. That, however, is giving a lot of unneeded leeway. Even some of the more interesting power-ups feel like pointless afterthoughts.

Sounds: 5/10
Does the idea of monotone announcer proclaiming the level of your power-ups and when your machines' life is critical sound like a fun concept? If so, change the score to a 6. The problem isn't that there's anything fundamentally wrong with the sound effects, it's just a matter of overall quantity and magnitude of the sound effects. Continuous sounds of explosions and fired shots riddle the game whenever the action gets intense, then things slow down to the ambient sounds of your machine's legs or tires moving you around. And this may have been speculation, but with the vast amounts of blood and charred corpses in the game, it might have been worth an extra point or two to integrate those sounds into your machines walking or driving through the puddles. Or, more distinctive sounds for each machine would've been very interesting. The sounds in the game are decent, but no better, and lacking in variety.

Replay Value: 4/10
Yet another disappointing area, the likelihood of replaying the game is generally low. Again, a great deal of this traces back to the severe lack of variety. If for instance, you started with a few options of balanced robots to start with, then were able to upgrade in different ways throughout, you would have <u>something</u> to make you want to explore the game further. But sadly, such is not the case. What they give instead is a system of showing your mission completion screen, analyzing the percentage of kills you made, hostages rescued and 'secrets' found. Secrets? Sounds great, except these generally are nothing more than walls that can be destroyed to provide access to extra areas and power-ups. With an overhead view, there's no distinct way to find these other than by luck or thinking ''Hmm, there might be one here.'' And yet again, with the very limited amount of fun in these extra power-ups and secrets, it all seems pointless. The only real saving grace here is the cooperative 2-player mode, which though frustrating, is more fun.

Overall: 5
Is it a horrible game? No. Would it be a waste of money to spend 5-10 bucks to find it used at this point in time? No. Will this go down in the annals of video game history as a game that brought people into the shooter genre? Not a chance. After playing a game like this, one's mind races with thoughts of hundreds of different ways it could be made just a little better. A little more research and TLC into this game and it could have been a lot better. Thanks for trying MGM, I did enjoy it when it came out, but that doesn't mean it was a great game, even for its time.

Rent/Buy?
It's not likely that a rental store will still carry this, but if it does, it can't hurt to take a hand at some mindless action, especially if you have a 2nd player to go ballistic with. Otherwise, only go for it if you enjoy hitting buttons over and over rapidly, and can find it under $10. Regardless, trust me when I say you can do better =)

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/01, Updated 10/30/01