A Fistful of Outlaws...

Not too long ago – I think during the late 1st year of my degree – I went through a profound Spaghetti Western phase. I can’t quite remember what started it off. I think it was after watching Last Man Standing. I was impressed by that film and learnt it was a virtual remake of a Fistful of Dollars. So I bought that movie and fell absolutely head over heels in love with it.

I don’t quite know what it was that made it so wonderful. It may have been a combination of Sergio Leone’s direction, the cinematic appeal of the locale, Eastwood’s anti-hero or the absolutely magnanimous musical score by Ennio Morricone. Whatever it was I ended up buying the trilogy and a few other Leone/Morricone movies as well as cheap spin offs.

As you can imagine it was a virtual wet dream for me to realise there was a game on the market, by Lucas Arts no-less that placed us in a similar environment. I got my hands on a copy as soon as I could. Initially it is important to remember that this game is a First Person Shooter from the Doom/Duke Nuk'em/Blood/Jedi Knight etc era of games. In other words, those of you who were weaned on the like of Unreal Tournament or Quake 3, from a graphical point of view there is no comparison. This is a clear software/pixel max 800by600 resolution affair. Right – lets get down to the details.

Story

What can I say? It’s a very typical western affair. You play a retired Marshall whose whole life has been destroyed in one night. His wife has been murdered and daughter kidnapped. It’s all due to the fact that they wouldn’t sell their farming land to a greedy tycoon from outta town that wanted it for a railroad or something. The aim of the game is to pursue the enemy and bring back his daughter. Like it says on the cover of the game – ‘Dyin’s too good for ‘em.’ Various level names are called The Shack, Hideout, The Mine and Two Feathers as a way of trying to give you a better idea for what’s install.

To accompany the levels are a massive series of Full Motion Video sequences that I personally think are on par with any Disney feature cartoon. Very very well done indeed. Quite lengthy with dramatic action, they hold the plot together between missions and also explain a little of what you must do. The icing on the cake really.

Graphics

As I’ve said, this is from the post Wolfestein 3D and pre-Half Life era of games. In this day and age there should be absolutely no question of whether or not a computer is powerful enough to run it. Because of this, expect the same type of first person shooter graphics as in the games already stated. In other words, running in software mode, graphics in a 2D/3D-esque format. By that what I mean is that, the terrain modelling and buildings are in 3D, but your enemies although having nice colours to enrich the models, are essentially in 2D – weaving their way to you in a rickety fashion from side to side. But...there is a catch.

Since the development of 3D accelerator graphics cards and Open GL, the developers have released a GL patch that enables hardware acceleration. Whilst not exactly any more real, it’s a plus to see all the grains in the graphics disappear and a greater explosion of fluidity flowing to enrich the visuals. If you intend to buy the game in this day and age – I would advise that your computer is compatible with this patch – I expect most are.

Sound

Environmental effects in the game are pretty good. The sound of your enemies taunting you saying ‘Where are you Marshaaaaall!” are very impressive. The developers of the game are apparently great lovers of Westerns like I. If there is one aspect of this genre that had to be retained it’s the musical score ala Morricone. I might be so harsh as to say that 50% of the fascination with westerns can be found in the familiar whistling of the musical score. Well it’s nice to see that they have retained this feature. It’s LucasArts so we expect nothing less! Whilst not Morricone in itself the music is a variable clone of the great composer’s creations. It has the familiar western swing and the similar drive. It both exhilarates you whilst you’re speed shooting a six-shooter and inspires you to continue playing.

The music does not change tone or feeling with what is happening within the game. It’s just a collection of 17 audio tracks that are level specific – the mood taking place with the general flow of the level. What’s more, you get two cd’s with the game, both containing game data and audio tracks. The best music in the game has to be The Train – containing very appropriate twangs of the banjo and harmonica, and The Last Gunfight which sounds very similar to the latter overture of ‘La Resa Dei Conti’ from For a Few Dollars More (The musical pocket watch). Showdown, the last track in the game and the last level is also very well done. All in all – I would say that the game is worth purchasing just for the music – you can think of the game as a bonus! Whereas the FMV was the icing on the cake – this is the cherry.

Features

Weapons
It’s nice to see that the developers have stuck with the conventional weaponry you would find in the movies and not thrown in something exotic like a Telsa cannon or something. You’ve got items like the Six shooters, the shotgun and grenade launchers as well as the always-official dynamite. Incidentally the six-shooter is amazing, because you get the standard mode of shooting by pulling the trigger over and over. Additionally you get the ability to speed shoot. Like in the Westerns, this involves simply flicking your hand back on the cock over and over to shoot as fast as you can. It’s nice to be able to switch at will depending on how many enemies you have on screen. The weapon sound effects are also excellent. Sounds of loading the weapons are fine whether it be the short sharp clinks of bullets being placed into the six-shooter or the heavy clunks of shells falling into the shotgun. The ricochet effects have to be heard to be believed.

Controls
Very standard for dated games like this. It has gamepad support, and seeing as it’s very iffy with the mouse freelook, I could recommend either gamepad or keyboard. It’s just that games of Outlaws’ era require the right mouse button to always be depressed when looking around. But accuracy is not the main theme of the game so looking around is not all that important. My one qualm with the weaponry is in the Sega mouse shooter style reloads. You have to manually reload the weapon every time when the bullets run out. It’s simply a case of depressing the reload button 6 times to reload the six-shooter for example. Once for each bullet. Luckily you can toggle this function on and off. Although realistic I wonder if it may annoy some people. It didn’t bother me, but it may to some.

Gameplay
These features are pretty standard. It’s a simple case of find the silver, iron or rusty keys etc and gain access to a particular area. There are a few bosses dotted around the place with surprisingly distinctive characterisation, all fitting in neatly with the plot. The ultimate aim is to find the eejit who’s kidnapped your daughter and slug him full of iron.

Replayability?
The game has a multiplayer system – I can hear you all sigh in relief! But the best feature has to be the additional game modes. In one of them you simply manage a jail. You have Wanted! pictures of various criminals from within the main game who you have to go on missions to apprehend - dead or alive! Pretty cool.

All in all – a very satisfactory game for it’s time. More than enough to keep you happy. If you like other games with a western sort of feel then I would also suggest looking into Redneck Rampage. Although not a true Western – it has decent weaponry and gameplay. Until the release of a Western FPS shooter that takes advantage of current technological advancements in graphics and sound – this game is the One.