The Wild Wild West legacy continues with Southpeak Interactive's
Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin. It all began as a Sunday
morning television series featuring James West and Artemis
Gordon as protectors of the American frontiers. The show was a
mesh of fancy gadgets, gun-slinging action, humour and
outlandish scenarios. It was shallow, but none the less
entertaining. Last year, the action duo made their big screen
debuts in the release of the big-budget summer movie starring Will
Smith and Kevin Klein. While it seemed like an idea that couldn't
miss, the movie flopped. It was shallow and poorly written. Into the
picture crawls Southpeak Interactive who, less than a year after
the movie was released, has published a game based on the Wild
Wild West. Were they able to re-capture the glory of the television
show, or the misfortune of the movie?
It's been five years since the brutal assassination of Abraham
Lincoln, and the rift between the North and the South is finally
beginning to mend. That is, until President Grant receives a death
threat signed, "The True Executioner of Abraham Lincoln." As
Secret Service Agents Jim West and Artemus Gordon, you're job is
to uncover the villains behind this ruthless plot and save the
President.
The Steel Assassin makes use of several video cut scenes to span
the action-adventure sequences. The game is revealed is a series
of acts, or scenes, which flip-flop between West and Gordon, with
the two heroes intersecting for the climatic finale at Ford's
Theater. Much like the movie or television show, the scenes
involving West are usually action-oriented, while the scenes
involving Gordon take more wits and puzzle-solving to complete.
At the heart of the game is The Wanderer, a train which seems to
be everywhere West or Gordon want it to be, despite how
outlandish the situation may be. Onboard the train, a messaging
system is present for the two protagonists to leave important facts
and information. A variety of gadgets and weapons are also at
their disposal on the train.
Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin is messier than my humble
abode. Each scene featured richly detailed backgrounds and
rendered animation but the characters weren't quite as nice, nor
the objects and baddies they encountered throughout the game. In
terms of sound, Southpeak did a fantastic job fitting voices for the
main characters. The actors sounded uncannily like Will Smith and
Kevin Kleine during the game. It seems as though most of the
audio attention was paid to the voiceovers though, as the rest of
the sound was uninspiring. The special effects were bland and the
sound did nothing to help the atmosphere of the game.
The adventure elements in Wild Wild West are very traditional.
When you enter a scene, you can interactive with the 3D
environment, begin conversations with other characters and
collect and use objects found at each locale. The far-fetched
characteristics that were present in both the television show and
movie are also found in the game. That's to say you'll be using
some very odd gadgets and applying them in weird and interesting
ways. There are actually two difficulty settings for the adventure
portion of the game, those being "Give me clues" and "I'll figure it
out for myself". You're also provided with a journal where
important clues and threads are noted.
Now come the action elements, which seem completely out of
place in this adventure title. Usually featuring James West,
although Gordon will occasionally get himself into trouble as well,
these sequences call upon your skills to defend yourself from
enemies using a variety of weapons. Six-shooters and shotguns,
for example, are one way to fend off baddies, but other weapons
and objects are at your disposal as well. The combat scenes are
mouse driven. Once a weapon is ready, the cursor changes into a
target reticule. At this point, you can click your mouse to fire your
weapon. This requires far less than arcade reflexes and
responsiveness is often jerky, even on a solid machine. When you
kill an enemy, you can usually pick up 'health' from their bodies to
regain strength for future combat. All in all, it's nice to see these
action sequences in the game itself, but the design and
implementation is far from sound.
Much like many of the television shows, and the movie in
particular, Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin ends abruptly with a
pair of scenes that feel rushed, not to mention heavily scripted so
there's very little interaction at the end. The game failed to hold a
level of consistency throughout the acts. The adventure seemed
shallow and uninspiring. All in all, it's not a bad gaming
experience, but it certainly won't appeal to general adventurers as
much as it will to Wild Wild West fans.
Ratings:
[ 14/20 ] Graphics
[ 10/15 ] Sound
[ 16/30 ] Gameplay
[ 12/20 ] Fun Factor
[ 02/05 ] Storyline
[ 06/10 ] Overall Impression