There's a lot to like about Mace Griffin despite its flaws. It breaks no new ground in the first person shooter genre, it has a archetypal plot line of wronged man seeking revenge and it's derivative of so much that has come before it-Doom, Golden Eye, Castle Wolfenstein. Half Life and Halo. It lives under the shadow of Halo as any shooter would, yet it's a fun game to play and it looks great doing it. It's probably the best shooter for the Xbox since Halo, and should collect more than a few fans.
The Story
Mace Griffin started out with a career in the Ranger service, serving as a pilot and in the infantry, until Mace and comrades fell into a trap that took the lives of an entire troop of Rangers, except for him. Mace was court-martialed, and gives a ten-year prison sentence. Upon completing his sentence, Mace finds an old friend from his prison days gets set up with a Guild of Bounty Hunters. Mace's employment in the guild helps him to uncover the plot that killed his fellow Rangers and sent him to prison. Ultimately he is set on a course of revenge to set things straight.
Game Play
Mace Griffin features the standard FPS method of game play. Move from point A to point B. Kill everything in sight. Shoot up every thing that's destructible. Pick up fallen enemies weapons, collect health packs and extra ammo, push buttons to open doors and turn off/on machines, go for a swim, jump some platforms, climb ladders and stairs and so on. Various objectives are scattered throughout the game, making each of the thirteen missions quite long. One different twist is the interspersing of space combat the helps to break up the standard routine found in a game of this type.
The space combat sections are nicely executed. The transition from first person shooter to first person spacer flyer is very smooth. The space combat is derivative of other games of this type. While the space backdrop-stars, planets, and asteroids look nice, there is no sense of speed. Even so, the space battle segments are a nice break in routine from traveling up and down hallways and shooting at stuff.
Mace is bucking the trend in shooters these days by allowing for multiple weapons pick up. The two-gun rule from Halo won't be found here. Mace offers a variety of weapons from simple hand guns to rocket launchers to an assortment of grenades and bombs. My favorite is probably the sniper rifle. It has a zoom that won't quit and you can zoom up on an enemy's eye and take him out long before you can cause you any trouble.
Your enemies will be human, alien and various forms of alien wildlife. For most part these enemies are well animated and the models are not too bad to look at. Enemy AI is not as good as say, Halo, but not too bad for a game of this type. Enemies will stay behind objects for cover and duck and weave as you are try to shoot them. (They seem to be impatient though and don't stay behind cover for long.) Sometimes they charge at you but that's mainly the technique of the alien wildlife you encounter. When shot they fall in realistic way.
Mace Griffin can get bloody with shot enemies blood splatter on walls and when blown up, with chunks of meat flying about. Ugh! No wonder the "Mature" rating for this game.
The game play offers no difficulty levels. Also intermingled in the game are timed sessions, where you have to complete an objective in so many minutes. Some of these can get quite frustrating but not to the point of keeping you stuck permanently. It's basically trial and error till you get it right. So far, I haven't found this to be a hindrance in enjoying the game but I would have preferred difficulty levels to this.
There are only 13 missions or levels and each one has it's own distinct flavor and style from the interiors of luxury liner space ships to asteroid mining colonies. The trouble with games like this is you can do a lot of wandering around hallways till you get where you are going. You are given at times, a directional indicator in the Heads Up Display but it's not available all the time. So expect to do some roaming around. As with other FPS style games if you see a door with a red light above it that means you can't enter-unless you find a control panel to unlock it.
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Graphics
The graphics of this game were a pleasant surprise. Mace Griffin sports some nice 3D art for fighting through. Since most of the action is indoors there are plenty of gargantuan rooms either in mines or inside ships and surface buildings. The architecture is well done-as good as Halo in this area. The texturing is very nicely done and still looks good close up. Metal and concrete look good and various pieces of equipment have a used look with warn parts on them. The interior lighting is nice but average considering what the Xbox can do (see Splinter Cell). Explosions are realistically rendered if a bit brief in duration.
The frame rate is a butter smooth 60 frames--when it runs smooth--which is mainly in the space battles. I've had a lot jittery moments, particularly in the big environments (and for some reason around Mace's ship) but everything calms down in the smaller areas and rooms. This is a shame considering the powerful graphics chip that Xbox features. On this same vein, some areas appear to be jaggy was well. That's odd considering this feature is part of the Xbox hardware. Clipping errors are seen with fallen foes floating over the floor or stairs and spent cartridges floating in the air.
Most of the character models are adequately rendered. All the characters are well animated even though they are a bit predictable in action. I've seen characters do the "jog in place" routine. I shot one bad boy and he didn't fall-he just stood there frozen in place. Too bad developers can't work these bugs out before somebody pays $50. Like many games of this type talking characters seem to have a hard time synching their mouth movement to their sequence of words.
One feature of the game I really liked was pressing the Y button will let you get past the cut scenes, which are numerous and sometimes 3 or 4 in a row.
Sound
The music score is largely forgettable and never really seems to match action of the moment or set the right mood. On the other hand, the sound effects of the various weapons, ships and machinery are all nicely done. However, there is no variance in a lot of the sound effects. Hit a metal bulkhead and it'll sound the same as a rock wall. The explosions and sound effects of the various weapons are well done. The whine of the machine gun is nicely implemented. The voice acting is not bad and comedian Henry Rollins does a very good job at playing the terse baritone of Mace. The voices of the enemies are adequate even they have a limited vocabulary.
The Bugs
I've yet to read a review any where in the gaming press that mentions how buggy this game is. So far I've had screen freezes and other strange happenings. It's very annoying is to complete a mission objective just to have the game freeze up, forcing you to reboot the program and start over again. The Official Xbox Magazine recently reviewed Mace and never mentioned this fact. I guess they wouldn't with the publishers running a full page 4-color ad in the same issue! Of all the Xbox games I've played for the past 18 months this game is the worst I've seen for
Just remember, you've been warned....
Overall
Despite its blemishes, Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter is one of the better shooters to come along for the Xbox in a long time. Not as good as Halo or Wolfenstein but far better than Time Splitters 2 or Red Faction 2. There are some quirky aspects (try the ladders and you'll see what I mean) but not enough to spoil things. The graphics and levels are well executed and interesting to look at. The missions are long and drawn out with lots of objectives and enemies to defeat. The timed mission objectives were my least favorite part of the game. Multiple difficulty levels would have been more appropriate. While the frame rate can lag at times and the game can hang up at unexpected times, it does not detract from the fun of the game.
4/5
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