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The Bargain Bin Binge! |
About this column: On occasion, bargain shelves at your local video/electronics store contain a semi-old title worth more than just a look. This page reviews such titles..
Recent Bargain Bin Binge pages: 3) Simpsons' Virtual Springfield! 6) A DOZEN Bargains that DO NOT stink! ***
----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
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Will Rock
Click Picture to Order this game (PC version) Anyone who's played Serious Sam or Serious Sam 2 should know what to expect from Will Rock. This is another one of those games designed to salute the good-old-days of First Person Shooters, where the action was not as adventure-oriented (i.e., no puzzle solving, here) and instead, was more arcade oriented (i.e., how long can you survive?). For $20, the best part of Will Rock is: you get more than you paid for...Slightly.
The game itself is not only similar to Serious Sam; it is just like Serious Sam. There are no real puzzles here, mazes, or even a storyline per se. The good news is: you do not need to go on any major hunts for a red key to open a red door, either; the doors open automatically when the curse is lifted on any land (i.e., when you defeat all enemies there). There isn't much thought involved here aside from the simple arcade-style challenge to keep that trigger finger jumping and stay alive until the next level. To some, that's just what they want; a simple game without any major gray matter required. For those who expect something more; what did you expect for a game under $20?
Weaponry is nothing new per se, yet it's amusing how each is inspired by classic mythology and ancient times: the "Medusa gun" (which turns its targets to stone), a flame-dart crossbow, and a decidedly devious acid gun, which makes enemies bloat and explode upon impact. Okay, so that last weapon may not be in any mythology story I ever read, though the fact is this game's weapons are quite ingenious.
An added gripe involves how easily this game could have been more, very easily. In one level, you must fight monsters in a "Medusa Room" with four mirrors. Every time you defeat a wave of enemies, the mirrors rotate automatically, one by one, toward the pedestal in the middle of the room. The graphics are nice in this scene, though there was an ingenious puzzle here, that could've easily been added to the game engine, yet wasn't. What if you had to figure out for yourself where to aim the mirrors...? Instead, you defeat enemies until all the mirrors are moved for you, and yet another door is "automatically" unlocked. Oh well; it's not like it was a big puzzle. It would've enhanced the game, though. In the end, this Serious-Sam-clone is not without merit, yet still priced correctly. This is the sort of game you buy while waiting for all that vaporware you read about in game magazines, promising such games to be out "soon." Okay, so where is Thief-3, anyway? ...or Duke Nukem Forever? ...or any other game I could mention that says it'll be out "for the holidays" but sorry...no? If you've already played Tron 2.0 and Elite Force 2, this is the game for you. Otherwise, play those games first, then come on back. Will Rock is more than worth your $20...in between $40 games, of course.
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Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
Of
course, what fan of hard rock wouldn't love a game which blasts Twisted Sister's
"I Wanna Rock!"
whenever the main menu screen appears?
This heralds the title character, Will Rock, who was on a casual exploration
of Greece, when a group of zealots kill his mentor, and take the mentor's
beautiful daughter, as an offering to Zeus. Yes, Zeus. During the commotion
you accidentally shoot a nearby statue, which releases Prometheus from his
eternal captivity there. He rewards you for his freedom with the mythical
powers needed to save the archeologist's daughter, and save the day. Good
luck!
Enemies are very
well designed, if you survive long enough to admire them. Some are even brilliantly
inspired.
At one point, I walked past a statue thinking it was just another Grecian
prop. Suddenly, I'm being attacked. I look behind me, and
here's this giant Grecian "Atlas" statue come to life, attempting to
pummel me with the giant globe he carries. A few shots, and kaboom, the
statue crumbles into pieces, with the globe rolling away and exploding
without its owner. This is one of many similar statues found throughout the
game, each of which comes to life at the most inopportune moments (like the discus thrower, shown
here). For me, these statue adversaries were the best part of the
game. Statues come to life...? Cooool.
It
helped the level editors that there was a
clearer idea of what to aim for here. This game is strictly "Ancient
Greece" in storyline, so all the levels are built using that particular
theme: an arena, for example. Some areas even have amusing
in-jokes like a giant Trojan Horse, and Will Rock even offers the occasional
macho one-liners related to what is transpiring around him (after a horde of minotaurs he
offers, "That's a lot of bull"). The overall game however
is strictly Ancient Greece and that's it. This is good news to those who would love to
explore the ruins of Ancient Greece for a whole game. Those who would be bored at such an idea
should stop reading right now. Both of you.
Then
there are the gripes. True, 99% of these gripes can be rebutted with a
"What did you expect for under $20?" However, it deserves
mentioning again, so we're on the same page here: this is not Half Life 2.
This isn't an action-adventure with an unraveling story and
thought-provoking puzzles. Instead, this is an old-school shoot-'em-up: enter an arena, hordes of enemies attack, defeat them to
proceed, continue until "game over." This isn't like most games these
days, which are far more complicated in their storytelling, puzzle solving,
and in-game cinematics. Of course, if it had all that, it wouldn't have a release day price of $19.95,
would it?