Before passing judgment on the visual presentation of Gunman Chronicles, the fact that they are using a two-year old engine (which includes base parts of the Quake II engine) to create their game world must be recognized. With that said, Gunman Chronicles looks very nice. The world textures used in this game are quite detailed and varied, and that is perhaps the most important thing to note. While the engine has its limitations technically, really well done textures can make up for a lot, and Gunman Chronicles has them. As for the NPC models, it is more of a mixed bag. While the dinosaurs and aliens are done very well, the human characters all share the same skin, save the main characters of course. I will admit this was somewhat common in the original Half-Life but it is even more noticeable in Gunman Chronicles since you often encounter human NPCs in large groups.

Textures and model skins aside the general look of the game is very consistent. In some modifications you often find one area looking like it just got a bit more work than the last area. Gunman Chronicles uses consistent lighting effects as well as some decent level design to create environments that are equal in terms of detail. These level designs can be creative at times but this is where things start to falter a bit. In order for me to justify the purchase of a user developed MOD, which is what Gunman Chronicles started as, it needs to stand out on its own as much as any other game. The level design and scripting in Gunman Chronicles, while very good, is very reminiscent of Valve’s Half-Life. Many plot-points share some odd similarities not only script wise, but visually as well.

The act of navigating through these areas also has an eerie Half-Life feeling. Since Half-Life we have been treated with many FPS like it, and being revisited with Half-Life-esque puzzles and obstacles feels so routine that it is not only second nature to do these things, but it also becomes boring. I like making progress as much as the next person but finding your way through levels just seems too easy.

In fact the shadow of Half-Life is what works against Gunman Chronicles. It is obvious Rewolf tried their hardest to have this title stand out on its own as a unique experience, but while Half-Life was a good game, in order to sell a MOD it has to be really good. A really good total-conversion MOD is one that does all it can to build upon the existing game but have as little to do with it as possible.

The puzzles and obstacles in Gunman Chronicles’ may be lacking but the real challenges are to be found more in the ‘in-your-face’ combat, which is incidentally the main thing that sets it apart from Half-Life. The combat is fast and furious, and desperate. The distribution of ammo in each area is actually a little sparse even on easy mode, which leads to many situations where your knife is your lifeline. This is of course assuming you are a terrible shot, but thanks to the many alternate fire modes conservation of ammo just requires a little thought.

Each weapon, except the combat knife, has two or three alternate fire modes which not only regulate ammo usage, but how the weapon fires. These weapon modes are also another factor that shows some decent amount of thought by its developers. Weapon models are also very clean, save the Polaris Blade which got a little bit too much of the chrome-effect treatment.

Controlling these new weapons introduces the main change to the Half-Life control scheme. With the use of the mouse wheel and the right and left buttons the player can navigate a series of quick-access menus that allow the player to not only switch weapons quickly, but firing modes as well. This is all very quick and friendly and most importantly, easy to accomplish during a pinch.

I had always noticed something odd about the voice samples in the original Half-Life, a strange static like effect that kept things from sounding clear. This occurs in Gunman Chronicles as well. It might have something to do with the compression method, but in any case it really doesn’t sound too good compared to audio performance found in today’s games. The general ambient sounds are a lot clearer and really make up for the voices, and these are the sounds you will be hearing through the entire game anyway.

Rewolf’s Gunman Chronicles is a very solid effort, but it fails in properly creating a solid identity of its own. It all comes down to what our money is worth, and with so many user-modifications being released to the public for free it is hard to justify the purchase of one. Make no mistake, Gunman Chronicles isn’t a terrible game, I just suspect many of us have been there and done that. I have heard some stores are selling this game for as low as twenty dollars, which wouldn’t be a bad price for this honest effort.