REVIEW: Hired Guns
Paul Harrison
PRODUCT NAME
Hired Guns
[MODERATOR'S NOTE: This review was written a few years ago, just
before the reviewer temporarily lost Internet access. He recently
rediscovered this review on his hard drive, so here it is! - Dan]
PUBLISHER
Name: DMA Design (distributed by Psygnosis)
Address: 29 Saint Mary's Court
Brookline, MA 02146
USA
SUPPLIER
Name: Special Reserve
Telephone: +44 279 600204
PRICE
UKP#10.99 (full price ~#25)
REQUIREMENTS
An Amiga. :-)
1Mb of RAM minimum, 1.5Mb if using a hard disk.
If another .5Mb is available, and there's at least 1Mb Chip,
the sound is improved.
TESTED ON
Amiga 500+, Green Screen (!) Monitor [ok, ok, I know, but you don't
get any interlace flicker with one], 1Mb chip, 2Mb fast, 40Mb Hard Disk
("Reference 40").
INTRODUCTION
Hired Guns is a role playing game, set in the future. You control
four mercenaries, controlled though separate windows in the playing screen.
Controls are via mouse, keyboard, or (modified) Sega joypad.
The plot, for what it's worth, is that your band of mercenaries have
been picked from intergalactic 'non persons' and wanted criminals, and have
been hired to shut down a mutation producing plant on an artificial planet
called Graveyard. It seems like an easy task, but there's something more
sinister behind all of this...
PACKAGE
Copy protection:
A fairly relaxed 'type in a code from a list' type
system, that only came up once when I was playing
(just after I saved my position onto disk)
The disks are copyable.
Hard disk installable:
YES! Using a hard disk installation system that *reeks*
of professionalism (NOT an ICONX script!)
Installation takes up 2-3Mb of hard disk space (which is odd,
because the program comes on 5 disks). The result is a
drawer which contains the program - no other parts of the
hard disk (FONTS:, S:, LIBS:, etc) are affected.
Documentation
Four manuals: "Hired Guns Game Manual", "Amiga Instructions",
"The Lyten System" - data on weapons, enemies, etc,
"Countdown to Graveyard" - SF novella + character profiles
Executable
A rare instance of a Workbench-compatible game for the
Amiga. You can switch in and out of the game from and to
Workbench more or less as you please. Indeed, there's
a window in the corner of my screen right now with a button
in it I can press to continue the game. Why aren't more
games written like this?
OTHER NOTES
This one will please the "I'm going to watch Babylon 5/Seaquest DSV
because they do it on Amigas" fraternity - according to the sign on messages
everything, including the documentation, was produced on the Amiga.
THE GAME
The game comes in three flavours: one is a collection of practice
sessions, really only there to help you prepare for the other two games, one
is the game as advertised, "Full Campaign", where you have to shut down the
mutant producing plants; and the last flavour takes the form of various
'action games' (17 in all), designed as short games to play occasionally.
The game can be played by 1-4 players, as a multiplayer game the
action games come into their own as they can be played as contests between
players as well.
The action games vary in type and levels of seriousness. Two of them
use Lemmings as the main enemies! Others vary from the shopping mall from
hell (starting with a certain amount of toilet humour...) to a prison to
levels where your main enemies are sharks or puppies.
When you start playing, the screen displays four windows, one for
each character in the game. If the mouse is being used, to control the
characters you just point at the required window, move the mouse close to
the edge and click if you're moving or turning the character, click in the
middle to fire a gun (or use an object, or push a block, or a button), right
click in the middle to reload a gun or pull a block, and click on various
gadgets at the top of each window to manipulate the character's inventory,
see where s/he is on the map, and see what the status of the character is.
Generally, it's fairly intuitive what you do. Two players can both
use mice by plugging a second mouse into the joystick port, or alternatively
other players can use the keyboard or a joypad. The controls are rather
different in all these cases.
You generally move your character around, shooting at things and
picking up objects. But there's more to it than that...
This will sound very weird, but I was reminded throughout playing of
the game Lemmings. There are two reasons: despite the horrendous plot and
the detailed graphics and sound, the game is actually very simple in design,
and it's that design that somehow makes the game very addictive; the second
is that the game has an extremely strong puzzle solving element. I normally
cannot stand role playing games - I've played demos of games like Ishar, and
I've been shown and tried to play other similar games, but I still couldn't
stand any of them.
Hired Guns is different: the strong puzzle solving element really
makes it addictive - it's not one involving strange riddles uttered by
chained up dwarfs, but in terms of how you get to places, the best strategy
for weapon use, and, well, just generally. Again, most RPG players would
probably argue that that's true of any half decent RPG, but the difference
is that the puzzle element is, er, different in HG and far more intense and
central to the game. And I like it that way! It makes the game very
addictive.
The graphics are unspectacular, there's little animation to speak
of, the characters to be honest look like they're made out of cardboard.
This actually adds to the game IMHO, large scale animations in RPGs are one
reason why I've never liked them: the animations are always crude, and give
a game too much of an arcade feel. The cardboard characters in Hired Guns
actually add to the atmosphere and make it easier to see the game's puzzle
element.
The sound is brilliant, very atmospheric. There's superb music to
get you into the mood between levels and while options are being set, and
during the game there's spot sound effects coupled with continuous
background sounds that again helps the game's atmosphere. The background
sounds, breathing, running water, are so relaxing, that a single unexpected
sound, a door suddenly opening for example, is enough to send your heart
racing. On the face of it, being attacked by a cardboard mutant shouldn't be
remotely frightening, but hearing a door suddenly open, realising you've
done nothing to cause it to open, instantly puts you into a major state of
alert. I bought this after using the demo, which actually gave me
nightmares...
OTHER GAME FEATURES
Got a scanner? I haven't. But if you have, you can make up your own
characters from photographs etc. Even if you haven't you can edit the
characters that come with the game with DPaint.
QUIBBLES
I like this game, so I have few quibbles. It doesn't work if the
LacePointer utility is in operation for some reason: the mouse pointer can't
be moved around properly if this happens.
Er, er, oh yes, there's an error in the manual. It says that you
pick up objects by clicking with the left mouse button, when in fact it's
the right mouse button you use.
There are actually few things to complain about: I can't complain
about it not multitasking with Workbench, because it does.
I can't complain that I can't install it to hard disk, because I can.
I can't complain that it's copy protection system is intrusive
and/or unreliable, because it isn't.
Generally, I think it's pretty good!
CONCLUSION
Why aren't more games written like this?
This is an original and refreshing way of looking at a tired old
overworked game concept, and one which appealed to me as someone who doesn't
generally like RPGs.
This game is also written in exactly the way most of us have been
telling software houses to write them for years: it's hard disk installable,
it makes use of more powerful Amigas without sacrificing compatibility with
less well endowed models, the programmers have put design and gameplay ahead
of flashy programming tricks, the copy protection system is unobtrusive, it
doesn't force you to reset your machine to exit it, you name a common
complaint about current Amiga games and you can bet it's fixed with Hired
Guns.
If you're not an RPG fan, check this one out, and see if it changes
your mind.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This review is public domain.
Paul Harrison pa...@phszx81.gn.apc.org
I blame the government PGP public key available on request
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