Sporting Clays may seem like it is another one of
those titles that aren't worth playing and if that was the first
thing you thought about when it was released then you hit the
nail on the head. I played this game thoroughly for roughly an
hour or so and let me tell you, if real clay shooting is this fun
then it would be outlawed as a sport.
First of all, the only cool shooting game ever to come
out on a home system was duck hunt for Nintendo and that was
only because I was so young when I used to play that game.
The game does have several cool options that may make it
ever so slightly more playable such as a trail feature to better
judge the speed and aim on the clay. And it features a course
editor that seems to be pretty solid. But hell, a course editor
for clay shooting is basically pointless.
Mouse control in any shooting game is a big
negative to me. Take Virtua Cop II for instance. Great game in
the arcade, but failed to deliver at home because of the
crummy mouse aiming that it employed. Games like Quake
and Forsaken can pull off the mouse aiming because they do
some of the aiming for you. Aiming at a 6x6 pixel wide clay is
another story entirely. The tournament mode seemed to be
pretty sound, if not boring, from what I tried of it.
Graphics are ho-hum. Not great but functional. The
shotgun sound is cool although it reminds me of the Doom II
sound effect. I don't know if they stole it or not.
The Good:
Hmmm Hmmm let me think. Well the vector differential
optimization of the trailing shotgun path is well implemented :)
Really I cant think of much good except for the shotgun sound.
The Bad:
Crummy mouse aiming at a small, tiny clay. Without the trail
feature on the game is almost impossible to even play.
Graphics aren't the greatest. Needs 3dfx support.
Graphics : 11/25
Sound : 10/20
Gameplay : 10/20
Fun Factor : 2/15
Packaging : 5/5
Multiplayer Play: 1/5
Overall Impression: 5/10
Overall Rating: 44/100