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Platform: XBox, PC Developer: Warthog Publisher: Crave / EA Genre: Action Release Date: Fall 2002
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Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter
One of the cooler (if somewhat more dangerous) occupations is that of bounty hunter, and that’s exactly where Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter places gamers.
In a storyline ripped right from the introduction of TV’s A-Team, Mace Griffin is framed for crime he didn’t commit and when he’s released from prison he goes looking for a little revenge (and maybe find out why he was framed and by whom). The difference between A-Team’s backstory and that of Mace Griffin, is that the A-Team was smart and nimble enough to escape – “Yay” teamwork!
The setting is the far-flung future where humans are attempting to colonize new planets and in the process have annoyed some aliens – no change there: humans are always annoying some alien species. The setup is fairly standard sci-fi shooter fare – but the fact Mace Griffin is a bounty hunter opens a huge variety of possibilities for mission types. A bounty hunter’s main drive is to earn money – everything else is irrelevant, they just want to get the job done and collect their reward. Most of the action appears to take place in the first-person mode, but there’s the promise of multiple vehicles to pilot. This opens up even more possible mission types and even more varied environments. Imagine starting a mission in a space fighter, docking with a freighter, clearing out enemies in the cargo bay by commandeering a tank (or something), blowing up the freighter from the inside then escaping via your fighter confronting the traditional token enemy patrols as you leave the area – all without extra loading. (Only space-going vessels have been mentioned.)
Much comparison will be drawn with Halo and rightly so. The setting and the general feel is similar to Halo, but Mace seems to be grittier since it’s set in a sci-fi version of the American Wild West.
Expect the control scheme to be similar to Halo. Recently, the big “M” announced Halo has sold over 1 million copies, and because it goes to reason that the target audiences are the same, to remap the controls entirely would border on foolishness. Warthog is making an effort to keep the controls as consistent as possible across the board, or at least intuitive so gamers don’t have to relearn the basic controls every time they jump in a vehicle.
With the mix of action that Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter is promising, it could be something for Xbox owners to look forward to – scheduled for a Fall 2002 release. (With a possible name change I hope because I every time I hear "Mace" I think "Windu" and Star Wars.)
- Omni (April 10, 2002) |
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