|
January 24th, 2007, 01:03 Posted By: wraggster
via ign
A little over a year ago, Deadline Games introduced the world to the first chapter in the world of Total Overdose with A Gunslinger's Tale in Mexico. The title was apt as it was an over-the-top, no-holds-barred, wake-you-from-a-hypnagogic-state action shooter that encouraged you not to plan strategic attacks but perform all sorts of crazy stunts as you nailed headshot after headshot. Deadline is back with a sequel of sorts entitled Chili Con Carnage. Though it doesn't share the same name, all of the important characters and gangs are back and like the previous game, it doesn't take long for things to get started and totally chaotic.
The game's main El Gringo Loco story mode opens with Ram walking into his dad's office at the Federales building. It's the old man's birthday, and Ram has a few gifts for him. While his dad talks about his work, a hay stacker quickly runs through the windows behind him and chops him into bits, depositing his limbs into various hay stacks. A quick cut to his open grave shows Ram standing over a series of individually crated small caskets for each of his parts. It's time for revenge.
Ram's entrance into Rancho Virgillo is anything but subtle. Launching his car into the gates, he flies out of the door with guns drawn. At this point you take over and are immediately dropped into the mix.
Much like one of the levels from Total Overdose, you need to take out a large refinery machine by first destroying three, smaller tankers. Once these are down you'll have access to the main building where Mama Virgillo resides, the woman that carried out the hit on your father.
The battle with her is essentially broken up into two parts. In the first, she repeatedly unleashes exploding chickens from four different coops towards you. Shooting them just as they're unleashed will damage the coops, and once they're down she breaks loose and attacks you herself. Running around the stage, she occasionally tosses dynamite at you while mostly relying on her cleaver, which blocks incoming bullets. Waiting for the opportune moments when the cleaver is mid-air gives you an opening and is the key to victory.
Chili Con Carnage carries over most every mechanic from Total Overdose. Every kill or move you perform will add to a combo meter, and the crazier the stunts you pull off the more points you'll earn. Flipping off a wall and then nailing a headshot will earn you a great deal more points than simply hitting someone a few times in the gut, for instance.
Targetting is handled automatically for you, with the closest and most-centered enemy automatically pinpointed for you. Pressing the R button will attempt to dial in a headshot, though you need to time it correctly as it essentially "resets" rather quickly. While you can always just shoot at whatever's directly in front of you, being that you don't have direct control over your targeting means that it sometimes won't lock onto someone you think it should. As well, there's an occasional problem right now with moving and shooting at the same time, like attempting to jump sideways while shooting someone in front of you. It's workable and as of yet hasn't ruined our experience, but we hope it's cleared up before the game ships as it's really fun in every other regard.
After each level you're rewarded for the combo kills you received. Score enough points and you'll receive a bronze, silver or gold badge along with an upgrade of some sort to go with it, like increased health or longer combo times. Each level you complete will also unlock a challenge level. These cover a variety of challenge types, like Style Challenges where you need to perform a series of specific kill moves to endurance challenges where you must kill everyone in the level in one combo. These are optional challenges, but finishing these will unlock even more content, like bonus levels for El Macho.
El Macho is the game's second main singleplayer game type and is essentially a timed style mission. You can pick from a number of different characters, most of which are locked to start, and simply attempt to rack up as many points and take out everyone in the level as quickly as possible. The game keeps track of high scores, so it's pretty evident that it's mean to be a challenge mode shared amongst multiple players.
Aside from the targeting issue, Chili Con Carnage has thus far been as fun as its name is corny. We liked Total Overdose a whole lot when it came out, so we're looking forward to this one when it ships in the middle of next month.
For more information and downloads, click here!
 There are 0 comments - Join In and Discuss Here
|
|
