As
the new and improved version of Chrome, Advance Battlegrounds:
The Future of Combat may be too little too late.
Chrome
is already dated. It's over a year old and in this
industry that can be a lifetime. That is, unless the
game is destined to become a classic. Chrome wasn't
- and isn't - and ain't gonna' be. The reason that
Advance Battlegrounds exists is to salvage what's
left of Chrome and repackage it under a new name.
I like this new version but only because it's what
Chrome should have been in the first place. Compared
to shooters like Half Life 2, Advance Battlegrounds
doesn't stand much of a chance of a second life in
2005.
In
the future, large corporations rule the universe.
An ex-corporate mercenary, Bolt Logan, has now taken
on the position of guarding the miners that extract
the most precious element in the universe, chrome.
It's not made entirely clear why chrome is so valuable
but as long as you go with the story you don't even
have to know. Advance Battlegrounds is basically a
shooter. Your main objective is to blow away the enemy
by any means available. That will involve an assortment
of guns such as pistols, rifles and machineguns.
Weapons,
ammo and health kits can be scavenged off the fallen
bodies of the enemy. There are plenty of these packages
to pick up so you should seldom worry about getting
killed. It's like having access to cheat codes throughout
the game. This can make you more reckless but it also
increases the pace of the game. You can't take this
game too seriously anyway. The main character is an
ass. There's not much to like about him in any regard,
especially his name - Bolt Logan. That sounds like
the name of a porn star action figure.
You
can upgrade some of Logan's abilities throughout the
game to make him a more powerful force but other than
his skills, there's nothing that draws you into the
character - or the story for that matter.
Vehicles
such as a bike, four-wheeler and a two-legged walking
tank offer you some diversion. Unfortunately the vehicles
are loose and difficult to control. It's too easy
to slam into a wall. There's no way these vehicles
would be this hard to control in real life. What we
need is a broader perspective of the environment and
a speed which is to scale so we can actually see where
it is we're going before we get there. There is an
on-rails segment where someone else is in control
of the vehicle and we just have to shoot at the enemy.
It's a lot more fun when you don't have to do the
driving.
Not
only do you have virtually unlimited health and ammo,
but the enemy doesn't really put up much of a fight.
They don't take cover and they don't attempt to flank
you. They will stand right where they are and shoot.
Occasionally one or two of them will duck. Self-preservation
doesn't appear to have been a mandate at the guards'
safety seminars.
The
weapons are effective and easy to aim. They do a lot
of damage, often sending the guards flying through
the air. The sound effects are somewhat anemic making
the guns sound more like firecrackers than death-dealing
ballistic machines. The voiceacting is tragic. The
actors go through their lines like they haven't even
had their morning coffee. They didn't just walk-through
their performances, they sleepwalked through them.
There's
little change in the graphics since last year. The
backgrounds are great but the character models are
a little on the rough side. They don't move well and
their facial expressions leave a lot to be desired.
They all look like they've had facelifts performed
by a first-year med student - most probably a dentist.
The gameplay mechanics have been smoothed over from
Chrome although you can still expect some incredibly
long load times and the occasional freeze-up. Online
play hasn't gotten much more popular. If you want
to play Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch, you'd better
try another game. The servers here are about as empty
as our Forums.
If
you can get this title for less than twenty bucks
you might get some value of out of it. It's fast,
it's fun and it's totally disposable.
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