Doom, Quake, Half-life and a few other first -person shooters have greatly influenced the gaming world. Sadly overlooked, Hired Guns was probably the first reasonable attempt at a first person shooter. It pays it’s respects to the classic "Aliens" and is one of the few games I’ve ever played to imitate the eerie tension of the movie.
The game is mix of action and RPG type management. A squad of four characters must be chosen out of a roster of sixteen, each with different weaponry, strength and agility stats.
Agility is not so crucial, but strength is very important as it limits the amount of weaponry, equipment and ammo that can be carried. There is a vast array of weaponry to choose from and lots of decisions to be made as to which is most effective, and which ammo types to collect.. (The most powerful shells are also the heaviest). Weapons require reloading, often in the middle of a fight. It’s very annoying to try reloading only to find nothing happening because you’ve run out of ammo. A good time to turn and run! Having said that, one of my favourite weapons is the shotgun, double barrelled, of course, so it needs reloading after every 2 shots. It’s so atmospheric….
The game is not
fully 3D, but is still very effective. The landscape is broken down into a series of blocks, or cubes. Each character, or alien creature, occupies 1 block at a time. Although this is very dated, remember that this game predates Doom and Duke Nukem 3D. The game makes up for this drawback with a clever mix of puzzles, mazes and action.
The original Amiga version had sound effects that sent shivers down your spine. Crackles as eggs hatched, the whoosh of hydraulics as blast doors open (I know that none of my squad opened that door, so what did….?) and a pulsing background rhythm that only adds to the tension just as a similar pulse was used in "Aliens" (Listen to the part when they first investigate the compound). The game is multi-player with the screen divided into four parts. You can play with a single player controlling the whole squad , or up to three players controlling a character each (one on the mouse and two on the keyboard). The game is designed to be co-operative, but is great fun if you allow a 30 second "run off" period, and then go for each other's throats. The equipment included in the game allows for this, including mounted sentry guns, proximity mines and grenades that can be dropped neatly down lift shafts.
The game has two modes: the campaign game is huge and has plenty of play time. The game also has "Action Levels" which last about 10 to 15 minutes and cut out much of the puzzle element and stick to blasting stuff. Hired Guns may be old, but it still has charm, atmosphere and plenty of blasting fun. "How can they cut the power? They’re animals……"
