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| .............CONTENT
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Intro There is an ancient prophecy that has now come to pass. When the Book of Rule is sought out by the king, it's up the rowdy Lionhearts to protect it from his insidious intentions. With a tea-loving ex-servant robot, a Scottish Mole, a blind alien that doesn't mind batting for either team (and you know what I'm talking about), and the standard tough-as-nails bandit, the player will see to it that the prophecy is fulfilled and peace restored. Despite not being consistently entertaining gameplay-wise, Armed & Dangerous does succeed in providing a ton of laughs and a few intrigues with some inventive weapons. Gameplay: 6/10 The Book of Rule is the focal point of the game, with the king's forces and the Lionhearts battling it out for possession. Roman, the player, is leader of the Lionhearts. Along with his best friend Jonesy, the Scottish mole, and Q, the robotic ex-servant with a love for tea, they all lend their services to protecting Rex, an alien who is blind, smelly, and short (think of the Smarties from Giants: Citizen Kabuto). Rex had been the holder of the book, but he was lax in his duties and was subsequently shunned by most people. Riding inside of Q, he accompanies the Lionhearts on the course to protect the peasants and seek out more information on the power of the book. The story is hard to explain after that, because it goes beyond the realm of Shrek-wacky and somewhere completely different. The best way to describe it is as a fairy tale that involves Corn, Monks who love basket weaving, Rex in love with a Frankenstein creature, and several moments where Jonesy's mother's sexual pastime and his …ahem… manhood is questioned - think of Jonesy as the George Castanza of Armed & Dangerous. Told through poorly compressed cutscenes, the humor carries over well with the cast all speaking in thick accents and poking fun of everything from others' accents, castration, to cannibalism. Since Planet Mood also developed Giants: Citizen Kabuto, the dialogue and situational comedy is along those lines. All things considered, the humor and story are the best part of the game. When it's time to go into action, the game tries to satisfy, but it often fails to sustain its own intensity. Armed & Dangerous is essentially a 'blow everything up and ask questions later' type of game. In keeping with that, the difficulty can sometimes lean towards the tough side since enemies are sent in large waves and seem to respawn everywhere. There is some recourse to the onslaught, like blowing up alarms or quickly passing through an area, but snipers and flying soldiers toting automatic rifles make a quick exit pretty difficult. I've heard that the game involves a strategic approach, and that its difficulty is meant to bring that out, but I finished the entire game - which is relatively short, clocking in at 21 missions - within 2 days by just strafing and not letting up on the trigger - which is to say, I found no strategy myself. There are some things that help to make the combat enjoyable - primarily, the weapons. There is a device that turns the world upside down and then back, making the enemies fall from the sky and slam onto the ground; a handy sniper rifle; a mortar gun; and, my favorite, the world's smallest black hole. Most of the time, however, the player will use the standard machine gun, with the mortar gun and rocket launcher being utilized more towards the end. It's a shame that the enemies do not come in the same variety as the weapons. Aside from a few larger foes, the standard grunts in the game consist of a half-beast that comes in both pistol and bow and arrow variety, and the soldier that uses automatic weapons and occasionally flies. With so many similar enemies during just one level, the game, despite its short length, feels like it drags on. The levels are decent, but the objectives needing for their completion don't always consist of the most entertaining tasks. Taking place mostly in villages, in either forests or mountains, the weather effects and ability to destroy almost every structure are what primarily held my interest. Since enemies love taking shelter inside buildings and their barracks, the player will end up leveling entire towns before they leave. While that can get hold, it's infinitely more fun than having to rescue peasants. Protecting the common folk involves the player finding a peasant a returning them to their home; both the peasant and their homes are designated, but that, and the fact that the player can carry only 3 at a time, doesn't stop from constant backtracking and having to slowly scour for stragglers - fortunately, most peasants aren't overly difficult to find. Aside from saving peasants and blowing stuff up, there will also be moments when the player has to man defensive turrets and unleash cannons and mortars onto approaching enemies; these are made enjoyable by the fact that the enemies attack in Two Towers mass, and watching groups of them fly into the air from a single mortar shot is always enjoyable. Brief moments of relaxation come from the in-level Pubs; here, players will have their game saved, stock up on ammo (if the king's men hadn't raided it), hear a joke or two, and have their health regeneration - the player's, Roman's, health is taken from a health pool though. There was also one moment when an objective was left unsaid, or I just didn't hear it and it wasn't listed on the list of things to do on the pause screen, which left me thinking the game had decided to stop working on me. Despite the fast action and short length, Armed and Dangerous still seemed to run on and on, with the main incentive to play being the next cutscene and what crude seen or joke would pop up. Enemies and objectives aren't the only things that bring the experience down, the slowdown and useless teammates also play a large role. Since so much of the game is hectic firefights, it's a pain that these firefights cause slowdown, and it can get particularly bad - and slowdown isn't what you want whenever several rounds are flying in your direction. Even when there were no enemies around, just weather effects could make the game seem a little choppy - although they did look nice. Despite Q and Jonesy having the best intentions, and being the player's best friends, they are two of the most useless characters in gaming. They can be given simple orders like defend an area, defend Roman, and follow, but they have a horrible tendency of walking into enemy fire and taking the worst possibly route to a location. In most levels, the player won't even notice they are there because their roles are so little; there is the occasion where Jonesy's dynamite will kill off an extra enemy or Q's random tea will offer some much-needed health, but their usefulness is far outweighed by their stupidity. A sluggish firefight with incompetent friends isn't the most recommended environment for a battle. There
are some reasons to replay the game, if one is so inclined to do so. Hidden throughout
the levels are tokens that unlock goodies, these can be basic features like the
ability to watch any previously seen cutscene, to unlocked additional stand-alone
levels. The missions can all be replayed from a menu, and they also say which
levels have tokens that were left unclaimed, so that's always there. There is
also downloadable content, but there was only one level when I signed on; it was
decent, if a little hard. Since the main game has so many ups and downs, I don't
see myself playing through it again. It was a decent the first time, so now I'm
just going to enjoy watching the cutscenes again.
Graphics: 6/10 Sound:
8.5/10 Control:
8.5/10 Overall:
6/10 [ top ] | |||
