Wanted! is a new Half-Life
addon from the makers of Redemption, Maverick
Developments. Unfortunately I never had the
opportunity of playing their first masterpiece,
Redemption, which was well received by the community.
So I couldn't wait for them to wrap up Wanted!
and release it upon the masses.
You play the role of Rogan
Black. A hard frontier man that holds honor
and values above all else. You settle in a quiet
little town known as Redrock Creek to spend
the rest of your days as the sheriff. A troubled
past had been left behind, but it was soon to
catch up on you. An old enemy, Ramone, was back
in the picture and now it's your job to kill
him.
The story is told well over
the game, with plenty of interaction with different
characters. Particularly the town whore, at
least for me...
It takes place in the old west
where on your escapades you explore four sections,
that seamlessly blend into each other.
The town: a very well designed
area at the start and then end of the game mainly.
Many little buildings make up the town, although
exploration is limited, you are able to explore
each of the buildings eventually. Some nice
new textures have been used to good effect,
and there is plenty of variety. No single building
pasted several times here. They capture the
warm friendly feeling that your town should
have, until you start shooting innocent horses
and chickens... and whores.
The mountains: moving out of
the town is a particularly long section where
you climb through canyons, caves and cliffs.
The outdoor terrain is constructed very well,
believable and no stroppy amateur brushes. Natural
mountains and caves is not an easy thing to
do. The gameplay also begins here with the odd
scorpion and snake (can we PLEASE move away
from tiny enemies that require crouching and
repeated slashing with the crowbar). Also some
bears and pumas (thankyou) which were very strong
opponents.
As we further explore, new
small towns or mines blend into the mountainous
region very well. As do some proper enemies
(at least some of them). First are the miners,
a race of inbred, redneck, drunken hillbillies
who spend their days, er, mining. The models
are a little cartoony, not very realistic. However
this may have been the look Maverick were going
for. But I'm sure they weren't going for enemies
that just stand there doing nothing as you hack
away with your weakest weapon. Fortunately they
are usually in packs so one may come up behind
you and attack. Or the more deadly ones will
carry a grenade/tnt stick which can be painful.
A fairly poor enemy are the miners, but in large
packs combined with speed and grenades can be
a challenge.
We couldn't forget the cowboys
now. Carrying pistols and having very deadly
accuracy. The speed at which which they can
accurately shoot a bullet when you duck your
stupid head around a corner is no laughing matter.
But with some good speed and accuracy yourself,
you can have great fun picking them off. Unfortunately,
that's when things go wrong with Wanted! As
the ammo dropped, replenishments were few and
far between.
There were also Indians thrown
into the mountain areas. On the odd occassion
you may find one of your men dead from an attack,
or little Indian tents. The Indians, carrying
either a shotgun or bow and arrow, are very
good shots. The shotgun Indian will take your
head off pretty quick, so you need to be fast
to kill them. While the Indians with the arrows
aren't quite as fast. Shells for your own shotgun
can build up a little here, so it was a great
pleasure to blast them away before they could
react to your surprise attack. There were several
times when they were a little too distant though,
and if you've run out of ammo for your pistol
(not a tall order) you're screwed and will most
likely have to put on god mode to run up to
them to use your shotgun.
A great twist on the plot occured
when, having killed some bear, the Indians are
now your friends because the bear was a great
threat to them. So you visit their little town,
then carry on your way.
Mexican: this was certainly
the worst section of the game. The buildings
designs were good in layout, but large plain
grey walls and dull textures made the area very
boring looking.There were few great setpeices,
but it did at least feel a little realistic.
The gameplay here was also poor, ammo taking
an all-time dive with many enemies with good
accuracy.
Eventually you're back where
you started at Redrock Creek, and given access
to a new area where the boss is hiding. So the
point of hiking through mountains, mines, towns,
Mexican and Indian villages, was pretty pointless
when the end is right back where you started!
Ammunition, was quite a large
problem. So it become quite useful that the
miners don't need any bullets to kill. There
were a few times during the game where god mode
had to be used, particularly in the Mexican
village. It was helped by the weapons not being
very effective. The shotgun was great, the pistol
was useful especially for enemies at long range,
but most of the other weapons that you'll get
ammo for were not very useful. The double shotgun
needs to be used basically at point blank to
even hit your enemy, while the bow and arrow
needs a few wasted shots just to get the aim
right.
Apart from these issues, though,
gameplay was fairly enjoyable. Just a little
frustrating at times. The different range of
enemies was welcoming, and the models and skins
were good. The weapons also had good models
and sounds, although not all were effective.
The reload times were also rediculous on some
weapons like the double shotgun.
Each of the different styles;
mountain, Mexican, town and mine, were well
designed with enough set peices and exploration
for a professional standard.
Overall, an addon of two halves
- great level design but with some frustrating
gameplay at times.
