Gore Review

Imagine this – you’re running through the hallways of an office complex, firing away at enemies in a first-person shooter game and you turn around the corner and what do you run into? Some fat biker carrying a beer. That’s right! A dude with half his belly hanging over his jeans, carrying a beer and he’s trying to punch you out. This is supposed to compete with the Unreals and Quakes of the world? I don’t think so. Fortunately, the developers of Gore don’t think so either but who’s the joke on really? Especially when you plunk down your hard-earned cash for this stuff?Make no mistake about it; Gore has cheesy written all over it. From the poorly done blood effects, which look like they came out of some cheap B-Movie horror film to the dumbest looking enemies that I have seen in a videogame in quite some time. Let’s see, besides the fat biker dude, you’ve got some long-hair guy wielding escrima sticks, a white-haired punk that throws knives, and then some rocker-looking chick that spews insults at you while she shoots at you (that is, until you fill her full of lead). Throw in the terrible voice acting and obnoxious screams of death, and this game will have your cat running for the door!Do we need another bad first-person shooter? At least bring one element of originality to the genre and I’m sorry, a fat slob carrying a beer doesn’t qualify. Besides the awful enemies and blood effects, the level design needs some work since you’ll find yourself running all over the d** place trying to figure out which direction to go in to get to the next level. The numerous dead-ends and doors that don’t open just add to the frustration.Is there anything good with this game? Actually, the overall graphics of the levels aren’t too shabby. The graphics engine won’t steal any awards away from Q3A or UT engine-based games but it does hold its own. Too bad they had to drop in those lame enemies into the levels.There are plenty of weapons to choose from, with many of them having secondary firing modes. None of the weapons really stand out but I thought the futuristic Shotgun was neat with its protective shield (engaged in secondary mode). The same holds true with the secondary mode of the Riotgun, which produces a gas grenade. What is now becoming a FPS standard, the Flamethrower is also a fun weapon to use. You can shoot a fire bomb projectile with it, which does wonders to clear out an area. One hilarious and most likely, unintentional effect occurs with the rocket launcher (Haw 90). When you fire it at an opponent’s feet, the blast catapults them into the air and they ultimately land safely on the ground (feet first, of course). So much for collateral damage – I can see the Quake fans just shaking their heads.Gore is definitely more attuned to the multiplayer experience since it’s a case of dealing with fewer of the shortcomings of the game. The only problem is that very few people are playing it. I went online a few times and there were always less than a handful of populated servers. The servers that I did play on were not bad in terms of basic deathmatch. I must admit that playing as one of the robotic characters was pretty funny since you get to clomp around and blast enemies. Is the multiplayer experience fun enough to justify going out and buying this game? h** no – just go out grab UT from the bargain bin or just wait for UT2003. Bottom line is that this has all been done before and better.This leads me to my final point. Quake and Unreal have set the standard for quality first-person shooters so why even bother with a FPS game, if isn’t going to bring anything new or unique to the genre? All you end up with is a game that’s a monumental bore, which aptly describes Gore.