Review: Combat, humor fuels 'Armed and Dangerous'
By Marc Saltzman
Gannett News Service
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Expect nonstop mayhem in "Armed and Dangerous," a fun game from LucasArts.
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Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Marc Saltzman, a freelance technology journalist whose reviews also appear on the Gannett News Service.
Playing "Armed and Dangerous" is an easy task. Describing it is not. Imagine an over-the-top action game with outrageous weapons and Monty Python-style humor. This is the premise behind LucasArts' latest title for the Microsoft Xbox and Windows PC.
"Armed and Dangerous" isn't a flawless adventure, but it's a unique and fun one all the same.
The game stars a band of unlikely thieves: Rexus, a near-blind old man with psychic powers; Jonesy, a mole with a Scottish accent; Q1-11, a tea-drinking British robot and Roman, the cockney leader of the gang. The four, collectively known as the Lionhearts, set out on a quest to retrieve a powerful ancient artifact from the evil and oppressive King Forge.
Along the way, the troupe must travel through five unique worlds -- ranging from snowy regions to deep woods to sprawling mountains -- to accomplish many side-quests, such as blowing up fortresses and rescuing villagers kidnapped by the king's henchmen.
"Armed and Dangerous" does not require much strategy, puzzle-solving or many tactics -- this is about combat. Players spend most of the game shooting down enemies, jumping into stationary turrets to demolish entire buildings and finding new weapons, ammunition and health packs. Almost everything in the game is destructible.
Weapons range from the usual machine gun and sniper rifle to hand grenades and "sticky" bombs to zany inventions such as the land shark thrower. That's right -- a shark fin can be seen slithering its way to an unsuspecting bad guy, before lunging out of the ground to devour him.
An even more interesting uber-weapon is the "topsy-turvy" bomb. Roman sticks a corkscrew-like device into the ground, which turns the entire world upside-down, sending enemies hurling into the sky. Most of the humor, however, lies in the clever dialogue.
While "Armed and Dangerous" serves as a capable stress-reliever, there are shortcomings. Some technical problems with the game's graphics cause characters to lose half their body in walls or in rubble. At other times, characters may get stuck on an object or even in thin air. Moreover, the cut-scene movie sequences, designed to help tell the ongoing story, are graphically unattractive. Fortunately, the humor makes up for this inadequacy.
And while there are a few wacky weapons and extra toys such as a jetpack, the game-play more or less stays the same throughout the entire 20-odd missions. More variety and depth would have been preferred.
That said, "Armed and Dangerous" has enough personality and action to keep gamers interested until the game's climactic conclusion.
