Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball

"All the fun of paintball without being shot"

As nearly all fans of this game will tell you, this game seemingly came out of nowhere with little fanfare. Surrounded by more highly touted XBOX games of Holiday season 2004, this game somehow slipped under the radar. As for myself, I found a link that took me to screenshots of this game. The screenshots looked interesting, and I figured I would take a shot; especially considering the 20 dollar sale price at Best Buy it was listed at. As any gamer will tell you, paintball games are indeed a rare breed, and to my knowledge a good one never existed. That has changed with Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball.

Graphics:

I'm never one to grade a game soley on graphics. If you do, you are missing out on a vast library of older games. Anyhow, the graphics in this game are nice, and seem on par with other XBOX games.

Sound:

Simply beautiful. From the sounds of paint bouncing of bunkers to your teammates screaming when being shot. The game nearly sounds like you are on the paintball field. The game also features an in-game soundtrack along with custom soundtracks. I personally prefer to keep the soundtracks off so I feel like I'm on the field.

Controls:

The controls are natural and do exactly as they are supposed to do. Some players first starting out may complain the controls aren't good, but that is how the game is designed. As you advance through tournaments, you add attribute points which help your character improve. This is some good stuff.

Gameplay:

Great, but could still be tweaked. The game revolves around speedball, which is mainly advancing bunker to bunker trying to outflank your opponent. It would have been nice to throw you out in a woods game, or even a war simulation. The XBOX game this one resembles the most is Counterstrike, but it has a deeper single player experience. The game is fun, but is still prone to some dumb AI moments. I like to play on normal, and sometimes my teammates will still shoot out in the open. However, the enemy AI is solid and will provide you a nice challenge. Also, I would have like a stat tracking feature that keeps track of what each member of my team does. Other than that, this game is solid fun

Online Play:

Nice selection of features like stats are provided, but as usual it seems every user has to have the best gun with maxed out stats or they cry the whole time. If you are a disgruntled XBOX Live user like I am, this game won't make your experience online much better.

Features I would like to see in a sequel:

-more single player features
-stats for each member of your team
-more "woods" fields instead of exclusive speedball
-even tougher AI, although the AI is good

Overall:

The game is something original and is a bit of fresh air on the XBOX. If you get tired of playing constant Tom Clancy games or Halo matches, or if you like paintball this is the game for you. It's a shame this game is more well known, as it is truly a deserving title to be in your XBOX library. It is all the fun of paintball without being shot.

Overall: 8.5 rounded to 9

Max I would pay to buy the game: 30 dollars
Worth a rental: Yes
Worth buying: Yes

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/05