Ah, the Wild West. A timeless classic of film and television, a golden era of exploration, and the inspiration for a whole mess of dime store novels. No matter how you look at them, spaghetti westerns and their ilk hold a significant place in North American culture, so it's something of a surprise that there are so few western-themed games available. On the other side of things, those titles we do have in the genre often receive a rather lukewarm reception, so perhaps it's simply a matter of supply and demand. To test these waters, Human Head Studios have forged ahead and released Dead Man's Hand, a first person shooter set in the old west, complete with moonshine, shootouts, gamblin' and a-cussin'. And while that's all well and good in theory, the actual application is an experience that may leave one feeling somewhat disappointed.
The player is cast in the role of El Tejon, a gunslinger who formerly rode with The Nine, who were a cutthroat gang of killers and thieves. When Tejon discovers some thin shred of moral fiber, he declares that he wants to leave the group and is promptly shot for his fine upstanding nature. The Nine (now Eight) divvy up the loot and go their separate ways, leaving him for dead, and so the game begins. As it would naturally be a rather short game if this was how matters ended, Tejon survives and is locked up in prison by a Mexican general, then promptly escapes when the prison is assaulted by surly gauchos. From there, directed by his new appreciation for human life, he begins a blood-soaked rampage across the land, intent on slaughtering every last member of The Nine and anyone who protects them. And should the player feel the need to further appreciate this celebration of human life, bonus missions for the additional wholesale slaughter of villains that Tejon has never even met are available. It's the feel-good genocidal rampage of the new millennium, set in the old millennium.
available to them, divvied up into three varieties: pistols, rifles, and shotguns. While not exactly working on an ascending scale of power, each variant on the theme differs slightly, with variable rates of fire that contrasts to the damage output. Additionally, each weapon has a secondary fire with different effects, which can range from stunning an enemy, activating a zooming scope, or firing several shots at once. Apart from the three default weapons, the rest must be unlocked over the course of the game, based on the player's performance. This is graded on accuracy with each variety of firearm, in addition to kills and trick shots. Shooting at windows, lamps, barrels, bottles, hats, the heads under them… pretty much anything you can see that could be conceivably be shot will give your character Legend Points, which serve to fuel the game's power-up meter. Chaining those trick shots will give the player a multiplier on their Legend score, and charges the power bar that allows the secondary fire to be used.
Mission goals essentially boil down to "kill anything that doesn't look like a citizen", but even if the player tends to ignore that one rule there are no real repercussions for gunning down a few gauchos by accident. And there will be a mighty amount of killing going on, with over twenty-five primary and bonus missions waiting to realize their potential as human shooting galleries. Settings include mines, ghost towns, desert plateaus and forests, all of which the player will traverse be it trudging onward on foot, galloping on horseback, or riding the rails in a steam engine.
The soundtrack is appropriate enough and well done; although the occasional drum kit or electronic instrument is somewhat jarring for an otherwise traditional ensemble. Lines are reasonably well-acted, if delivered by somewhat exaggerated stereotypes, and the dialogue tends to be a little stiff as well. The constant jabbering of your enemies may become tiresome in a fairly short period of time, as they're all drawing on limited set of standard phrases, which even Tejon takes the opportunity to comment on from time to time.
As for the graphics, the game seems to suffer significantly on the PC to accommodate the console release, as even with the video settings set to maximum the objects seem blocky and the terrain barren. While this might seem perfectly appropriate in the desert settings, as for the cities and forests it makes for a somewhat unappealing and bland landscape. Character models are also suffering from the same affliction and look somewhat akin to animated mannequins with stiff movement that seem to float across the terrain without connecting.
While Dead Man's Hand is certainly not attempting to break down barriers or redefine genres, what it does reach towards is recreating something of a sense of the classic western film in an interactive format. Sadly, after a promising start the game falls into the pattern of a rather unremarkable shooter, with a hurried storyline, bland weaponry, and undeveloped characters that just happen to be placed in a Wild West setting. On the plus side of things, at least it doesn't star Will Smith.
