In a galaxy rife with political, corporate, and religious turmoil, a
tuff-as-nails renegade named Mace Griffin has been framed for the murder of his comrades.
After a stint in prison, Griffin becomes a bounty hunter in order to gain the means
necessary to track down and kill the people who framed him. Ah, revenge. What better reason to
pick up a controller and start blasting away those who dare make you their adversary?
However, Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter is more than just a grand, galaxy-wide revenge tale.
It is also an innovative cross-pollination of two solid gaming genres: the first person
and space flight shooter. Thats right, when you take on the role of Mace Griffin,
you get yourself a gun and a spaceship to kick some ass.
The
way it works is this: the story moves in a mostly nonlinear fashion, somewhat akin to
Grand Theft Auto 3, so that some of the encounters you have are story-driven, some are
incidental. You fly around in your spacecraft, find a spaceport, land, get out, and walk
around. While doing so you will find clues, receive assignments, encounter hostile
enemies, and ultimately take your revenge. And all of this is seamless. Yes, in this game
you will be dogfighting with squadrons of spacecraft, your game screen consisting of the
cockpit and HUD of your warship. Then, upon finding a serviceable place to land, you step
up from the pilots seat, walk down the exit ramp, and fight your way through
unfriendly environments in a FPS. Okay, I am being a little redundant, but it really is
this cool. I dont know why, but I even got a kick out of the fact that you can be in
mid-flight, gallivanting around in space, and still step out of the cockpit and walk
around your ship. Likewise, you are not bound to an area once you have landed. If an enemy
runs into a spacecraft and tries to make an escape, you hop into another ship and give
chase. Plus, with an open-ended story that emphasizes exploration and encounters rather
than single-minded level conquering, this is the kind of game that could take over your
life. Imagine if, while playing HALO, you could hop in a Banshee and just take off into
space and go somewhere else. Thats Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter.
Non-player characters will play a large roll in Mace
Griffinboth the ones who give you assignments, and the ones you encounter along the
way. And be careful, screw over the wrong guy and you may encounter his unappreciative
buddies later. The AI promises to be great as well. Reactions from NPCs depend upon many
factors, such as their intelligence, bravery, or health. Enemies will engage you in
different ways depending upon their numbers, type of weapons, available cover, et cetera.
They will even run away if they are injured or things get too hairy. Playing the demo at
E3 2002, I got a taste of this, and even though the AI was still early, the enemies rolled
and dove for cover, flanked me, and behaved otherwise unexpectedly.
The game sports a plethora of different hand weapons and upgrades for your
ship. During the course of the game you earn cash in order to purchase different items.
You can also find and steal them along the way. You will have the opportunity to fly as
many as seven different vehicles. Also, each environment you encounter will have its own
unique physics, inhabitants, and creatures.
Even
though the game was very early in its development and there was only a portion of one
level to play, even though I knew I should be out on the floor playing other games, I
couldnt help spending an undo amount of time with Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter. I even
came back to play it again. Sure, it looked and performed great, though there was little
to do in the demo. But there was more to it than that. I guess I just couldnt help
but explore every available inch of what was there, because, in the end, I wanted more of
what the game had to offer. I couldnt get enough of Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter, and
considering I was surrounded by virtually every other game that is coming out this year,
and well into the next, that is pretty impressive.
Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter will be available for the Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, and PC in
Quarter 3, 2002.