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Desperados: WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
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Story
Desperados starts like this. A train is travelling along the tracks carrying lots of money. The typical Wild West thing happens: A train robbery. Enter the player - John Cooper: a bounty hunter. Your job is to find out who is behind it and bring them to justice. Cooper starts by gathering his old allies, a handful of stereotypical western characters - Dr McCoy, Samuel Williams and Kate O Hara.
They follow Smith's information that finally leads them to Sanchez the leader of another gang. On their journey back to El Paso, Sanchez provides some valuable information; explaining that a mysterious stranger named El Diablo is attempting to gather all New Mexico's bandits together to become the leader of an incredibly powerful army.
Cooper and his posse overcome Sanchez, who claims to be uninvolved with the train raids. Cooper decides to take advantage of the situation and tries to make some fast cash by delivering Sanchez to the Marshall. Cooper also learns from Sanchez that El Diablo received insider information about the trains. Returning to town, El Diablo double-crosses Cooper. He points him out as the murderer in a knife fight. Cooper is the only person on the crime-scene when the marshal arrives. The Marshall tries to take him away as the prime suspect of murder, but Cooper succeeds in escaping.
Gameplay
If you loved Commandos, you'll definitely love Desperados. Actually that is an understatement. Desperados kicks ass. Commandos only dealt with the stupid enemy. In Desperados you don't just have to assassinate the enemy, you also have to worry about the civilians. If they see something strange they'll come and investigate and sometimes raise the alarm, but with Cooper and Sam working together you can take care of those do-gooders. Unlike Commandos you will always find ammunition for your weapons scattered around the place.
Compared to some games, Desperados takes longer to play. I've had it for a month and I still haven't finished it. It takes a long time to complete because you have to keep changing your strategy tactics. The story line also makes it addictive to play cause you want to see Cooper get his man. One more thing the story line is great. It flows like water in a waterfall. It doesn't leave gaps anywhere. You complete a mission and the cinematic movie will show you the consequences of the successfully completed mission.
AI
This has been well done. Unlike Commandos the enemies in Desperados have IQs. Such as a knife throw from Cooper wont necessarily kill them. It might just take 20% health away. (unless of course you do the Green Beret trick and sneak up behind them and slit their throats). And if the smart guys see something suspicious they'll call a friend who isn't so bright to go and investigate. There are three viewing colors. Green (Everything OK) Orange (Be Cautious & make your move quickly) Red (You're in Big Trouble) This is a list of decoys and weapons that are available for use.
John - Musical Stop Watch, Knife (for throw throwing or stabbing) fist and pistol
Dr McCoy - Pistol, Sniper Rifle, Knockout Gas, First Aid Kit (i wonder why) and mannequin
Samuel - Pistol, TNT (stick & barrel) Snake, Rope
Kate - Pistol, Playing Cards, Mirror, Sexy legs (to tease the lovesick enemies) Boot,
Sanchez - Pistol, Rock, Stick, Siesta, Tequila
Mia - Blowpipe, Whistle, Monkey, Peanuts, Firecracker.
Sound
Desperados packs a punch with its wild western soundtrack. The music is like that of a western movie with its beating drums, etc. It really creates the atmosphere that "hey we've got a job to do guys and quick but don't be stupid". Unlike other games that I've played where the music is just plain normal and boring, the music changes by the circumstance. Much attention has been paid to the sound of footsteps on wooden floors, water flowing down the river, the outlaws laughing and shooting. The sound effects are true 3D and echo. You'd think that you are really there as a civilian, outlaw, bounty hunter (whatever your choice.)
Graphics
The graphics of this game are pretty similar to that of commandos. All the buildings, people, horses, trains, etc. have had that much detail added to them its unbelievable. It would've taken designers ages to draw it all. Also (unlike commandos) you can see through doors to see if the building's occupied or not which can be very useful (especially for Sanchez) And you can also see inside buildings of importance that you are just about to enter.
The cut scenes are pretty similar to that of the Diablo 2 movie cinematics and help tell the story.
Overall
As I said earlier this is a darn brilliant and funny game (especially in the big fire fight in level 21). With all the hard effort put into all the artwork, soundtrack and everything else it definitely deserves a rating of 9.5/10 (It gets that extra 0.5 because of all the hard work put in for the artwork).
So why are u reading this. Just go and get it if you're a commandos freak or you just like strategy games with a bit of tactic to it rather than just building bases and all that other mindless crap.
Review by Rob the Loon