Warm Gun Preview
Last year Sarah and I got the chance to sit down with Fatshark Games and discuss their Wild West shooter, Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West. It was an entertaining romp through what makes Western-themed games capture the imagination. In fact, just about any time a game has the keywords ‘western’ in the description, both Sarah and I immediately perk up.
Warm Gun looks as though it has that same gritty feel you would expect from a western game, but combined with elements of Borderlands and a hit of steampunk thrown in. It’s a class based multiplayer only shooter (same as Lead & Gold), but the key differences between the two have really turned my head in favor of Warm Gun. First of all, have a look at this preview trailer.
Warm Gun (PC, iPhone, iPad)
Developer: Emotional Robots Inc.
Release: TBD
Price: TBD
The first thing that caught my eye after looking over the gameplay features of Warm Gun was the different player classes. Undoubtedly the classes that are represented in Lead & Gold also make an appearance in Warm Gun, since they’re highly stereotypical of a western themed game. However, I was more than happy to see a few class options within Warm Gun that I would have loved to explore in Lead & Gold.
Most notably the two character classes that stood out in my mind were the Preacher and the Scout. The Preacher’s weapons make him a balanced jack of all trades as he has the typical dual six-shooter setup, a medium to long range rifle, and holy water which is surprisingly explosive. The Scout’s appearance looks as though the TF2 Scout’s mother didn’t have an affair with a French man, but rather a man of a decidedly more native background. His quad crossbow is an interesting concept, but the ability to drop slowing traps and a melee grappling hook for getting in close with his giant bear claw of a weapon makes him seem more formidable than a talkative loudmouth from Boston.
The other character classes are equally fleshed out and seem to draw their inspiration from Team Fortress 2 more than its Lead & Gold cousin, as The Shaman class seems to be a mixture of the Pyro and the Medic from Valve’s class based shooter. Other classes include The Outlaw, a drop dead gorgeous British sniper, The Blacksmith, Warm Gun’s flavor of the Heavy Weapons Guy, and the 49′er as the demolitions expert. The only class from Team Fortress 2 that seems to be unrepresented within Warm Gun is the Engineer, which is decidedly ironic considering he’s the character with the most western ties in Team Fortress 2.
Location, Location, Location
Amazing character concepts mean nothing if the playable map locations aren’t as exciting as the characters, and the good people at Emotional Robts Inc. seem to understand this. When the game launches there will be a total of 10 playable maps, with six of them featuring a visual style prominent to each of the playable characters.
For example, the Dear Lord map is one carved out of the ruins of an old Church as the home of the Preacher class, with plenty of environmental traps to trigger such as the Crucifixion Trap and the Spike Log Drop. Locations range from the typical western canyon and desert to the ruins of the DC subway system a la Fallout 3.
Overall, Warm Gun looks as though it is shaping up to be a great team based shooter with quite a bit of staying power. The locations are highly unique and offer several different modes of play, including Death Match, Team Death Match, Capture the Flag, and a few game specific modes that have yet to be explored. Undoubtedly players will have their favorite classes just as in Team Fortress 2 and if the development team continues their support of the game after launch, it’s highly possible we could see new locations and possibly even new character classes once the game is in full swing.
Warm Gun is currently set to be released on PC, iPod, and iPad with no word on which digital distribution sites will carry the game. Keep an eye out for the game to be released sometime in 2011.
