Reviewed: August 12, 2003
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Black Label Games
Vivendi Universal Games
Developer
Warthog
Released: June 19, 2003
Genre: FPS
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature
7
8
7
7
8.4
Supported Features:
After plenty of delays and extended deadlines Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter has finally arrived. I remember seeing this game at the 2002 E3 show and it was looking pretty good. The latest version on display at this year’s show was more or less the final copy that would hit shelves a month later.
A lot has changed during the extra year that Warthog has been poking and polishing this new action title, but at the end of a long day of hunting bounties the gaming community is left with a fairly average first-person shooter. There is certainly nothing wrong with that – FPS games are my favorite genre – but the end result is far from the visionary concepts we’ve been promised since this title was first announced.
Mace Griffin has a fairly interesting story, although not entirely original, it is still more than enough to get you started. When we meet our hero he is a Ranger, part of an elite tactical strike force formed from the recently disbanded intergalactic police force. The first mission not only introduces the main character but also serves as tutorial and sets up the classic “betrayal” plot device.
As the sole survivor of your first mission you are charged with negligence and sentenced to some jail time. A few years later we rejoin Mace who is fresh out of the “joint” (and still in his Ranger suit?) and ready to find out who set him up and deliver his own brand of payback, Mace-style. While the story has some promise it falls apart quickly and you can easily enjoy the gameplay while skipping the lengthy conversations.
Mace is divided into two styles of play. Most of the game takes place in typical FPS style but there are a few excursions where you get to slip behind the controls of your own ship (hey, isn’t that the same Ranger ship from the first mission?). I admit, the time spent in the cockpit is quite fun, visually spectacular, and even a bit challenging, but these missions are usually pretty short and end up seeming like a gimmick rather than being truly innovative.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of Mace is the lack of any noticeable load or transition points between levels or style of gameplay. Everything is seamlessly integrated so you can walk from the bounty hunter office into the hanger, into your ship, sit in the cockpit, and fly that sucker right out into space. You can even explore the various rooms and cargo areas in your ship. The only time a cutscene interrupts the gameplay is when you are traveling great distances or you are engaging in conversations.
And therein lies my biggest complaint. When this game was first announced there were claims made that this was going to be a free roaming space adventure dealing with galactic scum and villainy. One enthusiastic PR guy was even bold enough to claim similarities to Grand Theft Auto in that you could commandeer other spacecraft. That may well have been their intensions, but the end result is a fairly linear progression of levels with no way to explore on your own or even choose your own path through the story.
Most of the game will have Mace wandering around futuristic locations seeking out new life and new civilizations then executing them with extreme prejudice. There’s no real stealth concepts at work here and the puzzles are never more complicated than finding the right button, switch, or lever to open a door, operate a camera or fire a remote turret.
At first the levels look quite large and imaginative then you quickly realize that locked doors, broken elevators, and other “classic” gameplay elements are guiding you along a very linear path. Even when given the options of multiple directions you can bet the others are all dead ends. The good news is that these other paths usually have a few nice items and aren’t terribly long, so backtracking is minimal.
Mace has a modest arsenal compared to other FPS games. For being set in the future, most of Mace’s weapons are ballistic-type guns like pistols, machineguns, shotguns, and some grenades and a sonic blaster thrown in to give you some additional options.
Control is fairly intuitive and very responsive, ranking right up there with TimeSplitters 2, Tides of War, and HALO. The analog sticks provide excellent movement and look/aim controls and the D-pad serves as you weapon select. You can jump and crouch but there is a disturbing lack of stealth moves like crawl, lean, or peeking over boxes. There really isn’t any excuse for having the movement style of DOOM in a 2003 release such as this and it becomes quite unforgivable when you realize the enemy can do all these cool tactical moves that you cannot.
Combat is fast and furious. Mace uses the gameplay model of setting up rooms full of enemies that you must clear out before continuing to the next. While the model is tried and true the AI of these enemies is actually quite surprising. Enemies will exhibit almost humanlike behavior, as snipers perched high above will try to keep you pinned down while ground forces flank your position. If you try to get a bead on a target they will duck behind cover. If you stay hidden for too long you will inevitably hear the “tink tink” of a grenade landing nearby. Most importantly, these enemies tend to work together, which makes this one of the more challenging FPS games I’ve played recently.
When you aren’t blasting the bad guys in person you will be doing it in deep space in a visually pleasing but ultimately simple space shooter. Considering Warthog is the team behind the stunning Dreamcast port of Starlancer I was hoping for a bit more in this part of the game, but alas, you will simply find yourself rotating your view with the right stick and thrusting with the left trying to get your crosshairs on the enemy circles then firing either lasers or missiles. The enemies aren’t especially challenging, even when they outnumber you ten to one, and you’ll have to suck pretty bad to ever die in these space missions. I was impressed that they do force you to pilot your ship through several guidance rings to “manually” land your ship, but even that is hardly a challenge.
Mace offers a puzzling mixture of incredible textures and lighting effects that end up wasted on uninspired level design. After awhile rooms start to look alike, they might mirror the location of some stairs or reorganize the furniture, or throw in a nifty hologram or original set piece, but each level will get boring before you finish it which is a shame because when taken in small doses these graphics easily beat those in HALO. The level of texture detail, bump-mapped surfaces and real-time lighting, both off of the environment and your weapons is amazing.
The space levels are breathtaking to the point of actually becoming distracting during combat. You’ll be blasting your way through colorful star fields and vaporous nebulae while enjoying brilliant laser fire and intense explosions.
The HUD is quite intuitive and I love the way that it bobs around as if it were mounted over a face shield (even though I’m not wearing one). Weapon selection is done through a pop-up shadow menu that shows all the weapons by shape, and your health, shield, and ammo status are conveniently located in the corners of the screen.
A few things bothered me with the graphics such as Mace wearing his Ranger suit after he had been discharged and imprisoned. His primary spaceship appears to be the same one (or at least same model) as the one from the first mission. There isn’t a huge variety of enemies in the game but all the ones that do exist are quite clever, especially the guys in the Temple mission who have CRT’s on their head with smiley or frowny faces on them to denote their disposition.
Cutscenes are generally done with game engine graphics and the opening movie is quite spectacular. There are some clever reload animations that will have Mace switch or reload weapons with a bit of bravado. Cool stuff!
Mace Griffin delivers a killer soundtrack that fuels the combat with some excellent music that cues to the action on the screen. It’s all great orchestral stuff with a unique blend of military and space themes.
Sound effects are equally as good with unique weapon noises, booming explosions, and the echoing sounds of footsteps from both you and your enemies. There are all sorts of environmental effects like hissing airlocks, alarm klaxons, and beeps and whistles of computer consoles.
Henry Rollins is the voice behind Mace and is even hyped on the box. I’m not sure how big a deal this is as Mr. Rollins isn’t that big of a star (sorry Henry). He does an admirable job of delivering flat dialog to move the game, but not necessarily the story, forward. The rest of the cast delivers a comparable performance and even the random NPC characters will often have something to say.
My one and only complaint is that there is no Dolby Digital support for Mace, so all of the wonderful music and sounds end up being a bit flat. The 3D nature of the FPS genre demands the use of 3D sound. Even so, the resulting stereo mix is still very good.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a publisher bold enough to release a FPS title that didn’t support multiplayer. You either have to be terribly naïve or have a great deal of faith in your single-player content. I don’t know why multiplayer was left out but I do know that the single player game can easily be finished in 15-20 hours, probably less. This makes it a perfect rental game but only diehard bounty hunters will want to invest in a full-price purchase unless you have multiple family members interested in the game.
Mace does offer several unique slots allowing for multiple profiles so several gamers can play through their own story without disturbing another person’s progress.
Mace Griffin may have been accepted with far less criticism if it had released a year ago as scheduled, but this past year has seen countless FPS games and while not all of them have been outstanding, most offer more compelling gameplay than Mace.
Even so, Mace Griffin is a solid bug-free game that is fun to play and gorgeous to look at. It could have been so much more, but what we are ultimately left with is still a total blast. Whether you rent or buy, all FPS gamers should treat themselves to a tour of duty with Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter.