Are there any old-school gamers out there who remember LucasArts' 1997 masterpiece Outlaws? And do you also wonder why hardly anyone since then has made a Western-themed first-person shooter?
I mean, come on ... fast guns, solitary heroes, untamed frontiers and a rich history of film, books and TV to draw from. It seems a no-brainer that someone would eventually dress up the action game genre with six-shooters and spurs, the way I sometimes like to dress up in my mom's stiletto heels and ... uh, never mind.
Well, if you were waiting for the second coming of the Western shooter, this ain't it, pardner. Sure, Dead Man's Hand is a first-person shooter based in the Old West, but it's so generic and unpolished that it might set video games about cowboys and chuckwagons back another few years.
You play as El Tejon, a member of a gang called the Nine. When El Tejon turns his back on his thievin', killin', rustlin' and cussin' ways, his old cronies gun him down and leave him for dead. But the wily Mexican still draws breath, and he's not gonna rest until he's hunted down every last member of his old posse and seen every single Western cliche in existence, from runaway trains to knife-hurling Injuns.
Built on the Unreal engine, Dead Man's Hand looks pretty decent and does a not-bad job of recreating the atmosphere of parched mesas, wilderness forts, frontier towns and houses of ill repute, as you blaze your way through the relatively short single-player campaign.
The problem is that despite its handful of innovations, Dead Man's Hand has scarcely any flavour or soul. And when you're talking about a game based on the Old West, that's a crime worthy of hangin'.
It's nifty that each of the game's nine guns (a good half of which you'll try once and then never bother using again) have an alternate fire mode which you charge up by hitting targets, whether they be enemy cowpokes or objects like powder kegs, moonshine stills or hapless chickens. And chaining together several hits in succession also earns you more points, so you're always on the lookout for something to dump more hot lead into, or clever ways to dispatch enemies en masse.
But the combination of ultra-linear levels, brain-dead enemies and an overall lack of that intangible Clint Eastwood quality makes Dead Man's Hand the derby-hatted sidekick of Western games: not too slick, not too bright, but good for a laugh or two if you're in the mood.
Not good, not bad and not ugly, Dead Man's Hand might give Western junkies a weekend's worth of hootin' and shootin', but I wouldn't choose it over a night in a feather bed with Miss Kitty.
