Armed and Dangerous Review | Bullets, pubs and Tea
What is the first thing that does pop in your mind when I say the name "LucasArts"? Usually, it's either one of their point-and-click masterpieces or one of the many Star Wars based games that they licensed.
But beyond these, LucasArts also published titles out of their comfort zone, titles such as Armed and Dangerous.
Aesthetics
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Despite the extravagant action, the visuals are rough |
Even by the standards of 2003, this game looks bad, the models are excruciatingly edged, the textures are flat, the lighting is uninteresting, and the animations are awful, especially during the cutscenes the characters move like malfunctioning robots. The artistic directors must have gone on vacation during development and left the job for the rest of the unlucky crew. It's a shame really, because there are really things that would look wonderful if everything was polished, like the explosions of the zeppelins and the remaining debris, or the wanted posters which update the bounty with each passing level.
As for the soundtrack, it's not bad, but it's not emphasized a lot and gets lost between the sounds of battle, sounds that are serviceable and decent to give a sense of a chaotic battle.
Summarizing, it didn't look good back then and it definitely it doesn't look good now, sound department is ok though.
Game Mechanics
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Remember when turret sections were considered the apex of game design? |
The game is a third-person shooter, with some mandatory turret sections thrown into the mix and jetpack usage in some levels. The player has 4 main tools at disposals: 6 guns to choose from, 5 special weapons, two shooting companions and some static turrets here and there. The first half of the guns are ok (a semiautomatic rifle with infinite ammo, a machine gun and a sniper rifle), the second half gets interesting: one is a rocket launcher with chasing projectiles, another one is a portable mortar that looks like a tuba, and the last one is a land shark gun that spawns sharks NPCs who go after enemies automatically and last a lot. The special weapons too are wacky (besides the default Sticky bombs), some highlights are: the Topsy Turvy Bomb (an antigravity device that will make the enemies "fall" in the sky) and the World's smallest black hole. As already mentioned, there are mandatory missions in which the player must defend a fortress from an incoming army, if the player runs out of health or let 100 enemies slip by, the game is lost. These are okay, they are definitely the weakest part of the experience, but at the very least they are not completely without challenge, and it is possible to move, even if in a very limited way.
The poll of tasks for the completion of a level is narrow: get to the end, kill X enemies, save civilians or defend the walls. All missions have a variation of these basic requirements to be met for a level to be completed, sometimes it's only one of these, sometimes it's a combination. Nothing particularly groundbreaking, it works.
To save, you either do it manually in the menu or in a pub, to avoid the case of soft blocking, it's advisable to use the saves granted when entering a pub.
There are various enemy types, some are: goons, officers, zeppelins, giant robots and druids. The goons are the basic type and are present in all missions, they are not very threatening alone, but in groups they can make a mess, they can also use the static turrets in a level, making them more dangerous. They can also be spawned infinitely from a barrack, so the top priority is to destroy it as soon as you see one. Officers have more health and can throw grenades. In certain stages, they even have a jetpack, making them more agile and fragile. Zeppelins are a real nuisance, they can shoot you from far up and have a lot of health. The robots are bullet sponges and will require a lot of destruction power to be put down. Towards the end, druids show up, they can teleport and throw spheres of energy with an area of effect attack, dealing chip damage that could grind the health out.
The enemy variety is satisfying, they pose a good set of challenges to face, having something as simple as having a different combination of them in an area makes the fight feel different and stimulating.
Despite the seemly scary number of enemies, the AI itself is very basic, they are going to chase you and shoot you, they are never going to try to use more refined tactics, considering the frenetic nature of the title, it's understandable.
There are 4 difficulties, but only 2 are selectable at the start, easy and normal, the other more difficult ones must be unlocked by finding the tokens, 3 extra levels get unlocked by finding these tokens, including some cheat codes, like Big heads.
I finished the game in 5 hours.
In short, the combat is frenetic and fun, even if not the deepest or complex.
Narrative
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That, or go the fast way using the back entrance |
In a frigid wasteland, the 3 outlaws known as the Lionhearts have made a visit to the old man Rexus, former guardian of the book of Rule. The Lionhearts have a bold plan: steal the book from the grip of King Forge, who rules over the continent of Milola with an iron fist. Rexus is uninterested in this offer and tells the Lionheart to leave, but fate is against them, a couple of officials from Forge's army have just arrived to arrest Rexus and kill the Lionhearts once and for all. While Rexus gets seized by the authorities, the Lionhearts manage to survive, but their journey has just begun, for now they must rescue Rexus and with his help steal the Book of Rule.
From here, the adventure starts in the shoes of the main protagonist: the Lionheart leader Rome, with his two friends and companions: Q and Jonesy, and of course the support of Rexus.
There is more on the background of the world in the manual, but the settings and main story themselves are not interesting, they are used as a backdrop for the main focus: the comedy.
I would say that two thirds of the jokes manage to still be funny, like when the Lionhearts need reinforcements, so they reprogram a set of gardening robots to become combat robots, and while they do fight, they fight to protect the plants, not the humans. The other third instead results being outdated, like one case where Rexus mind controls a couple of soldiers from the King's army and tell them that they are French, so they surrender and run scared.
As for the cast, each of the main characters receive a unique personality to them. Rome is a cynical hero who, despite his constant cynical remarks, at the end is always ready to help the downtrodden and the oppressed. Jonesy is a more aggressive type, with his constant sarcastic comments about current events, but he is loyal to Rome and Q to the death. Q is the more refined member of the group, being a robot that gained self-consciousness by his sheer love for tea and then defected from the King's robot army because he felt unable to relate with the other robots.
While it's possible to read more in depth about them in the manual, their personalities are well expressed in game, and it's fun to see them talk.
In conclusion, while the story is nothing worth to talk about, the humor itself remains for the most part enjoyable.
Recommendation
It doesn't look pretty and one third of the jokes are cringe, but Armed and Dangerous pulls itself up with frenetic over the top combat and writing swinging between crude, snarky and witty.
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