Full Review: High Plains Drifter…
Welcome to the Guild. I don’t care where you came from or what you’ve done in the past; all I’m interested in is what you can do for me now. If you can handle a gun and have a penchant for dealing with scum, you might just make a good bounty hunter.
–The Guild of Bounty Hunters, New Member Primer.
Mace Griffin has been in production for a long time. I think I wrote the first preview of the game sometime around March of 2002. Delays involving revamping the main character and level design seemed to bode ill for the success of Mace Griffin, but surprisingly, the developers have managed to produce a very entertaining, if incredibly derivative, sci-fi adventure.
The year is 2784, and the Tannan Corporation is the main manufacturing/research company in the Vagner system. In an effort to protect its interests, it’s created the Enforcers, a quasi police force that rules the outer rim worlds with an iron hand. They’re in direct opposition to the Rangers, professional soldiers with a strong code of honor. As the game opens, you take the role of Mace, a Ranger tasked with infiltrating an enemy stronghold. Of course, after fighting your way through the opposition (this first level acts as the game’s tutorial), your entire squad is wiped out. The blame is placed squarely on you, and after a dramatic cut scene detailing your sentencing, it’s off to prison for 10 long years. Fast forward, and Mace is on the street, pissed as hell and looking for revenge. The means? Bounty Hunting. At this point, you go to work for the guild, receiving weapons, supplies, and a Pallbearer MK III to tool around the galaxy in. The hunt is on…
Mace Griffin controls well, with movement mapped to the left thumbstick, and view to the right. Primary fire the current weapon with the right trigger, and secondary with the left. Select weapon (or zoom scoped hardware) with the directional pad, and use Y to perform actions. Tap X to jump, A to reload the currently equipped gun, and cycle weapons with the black and white buttons. When Mace takes to the skies in his starship, the controls default to a comfortable scheme that is well suited to the space combat sequences. It’s pretty cool to take off after a grueling on-foot mission, only to be attacked at the jump gate by swarms of enemy fighters. Shooting them down is lots of fun, and the dogfight sequences, while fairly straightforward, do offer a nice change of pace. Landing requires you to line the ship up with landing boxes. Once you do, a tractor beam takes over and you’re free to move about the cabin. You can look out the window as an enormous docking bay engulfs your ship, and finally leave the craft to begin ground operations, all with no load times.
Mace Griffin’s story is made up of seemingly unrelated missions. Cleaning out a colony of insane religious fanatics (called The Order Of Virtual Light), attacking a mercenary base buried deep below a mining colony, or clearing tunnels of vicious spider-creatures within a hidden fortress, you’ll eventually realize how each mission relates to the overall narrative, which is actually pretty good, even if it is more than a bit clichéd. Mace’s shield system is taken directly from Halo, with a rechargeable barrier that rejuvenates when you duck under cover for a few moments.
MG: BH provides you with plenty of powerful weaponry, ranging from an automatic pistol, to an incredibly cool heavy machine gun (which is basically a scaled-down mini-gun with a rotating, rapid-fire barrel). This weapon also features a grenade launcher as a secondary. Tearing up the opposition with this bad boy is very satisfying, and alien blood splatters the walls as you blow them away. The level and mission design, as well as the enemy placement, is excellent. Despite some less than perfect AI, most adversaries will give you a realistic combat experience, trying to outflank you and advancing, as well as ducking for cover when fired upon. The enemies are an assortment of alien creatures, human soldiers, and huge fearsome brute-warriors that can take an entire 80 round clip to bring down. The game provides you with some cool energy weapons, grenades, and a sniper rifle as well.
Visually, Bounty Hunter looks very good. While not among the best the Xbox has to offer, the graphics do an excellent job nonetheless. The environments and character models are top notch, and the lighting and textures, as well as the particle effects evident in explosions and weapons fire, lend impressive realism to the adventure. Aurally the game is strong as well, with the sound of ordinance and the massive roar of starship engines admirably recreated here. The music is well implemented, with urgent, sweeping passages during intense firefights, and laid-back, simplistic themes during lighter moments of exploration. The voice acting is solid, and Henry Rollins speaks as the main character, doing an excellent job of bringing a Dirty Harry feel to Mace’s delivery.
