Why only 4 stars? Because of the idiotic save-game system! The way you save in this game is by visiting pubs that can be found in the levels (usually one per level). While visiting these pubs is great fun (take the time to listen to the dialog!), they do not work well for their intended purpose. For one, they are to inconsistently positioned. Sometimes, you may play for half an hour, just to find a pub 2 minutes before the end of the level. This causes you to replay very large portions of the game, some of which you literally have to learn by heart and play absolutely perfect (count your bullets!) to make it through.
The other problem with the pub-save-system is that the levels are way too big for a single save point (and the levels with more than one pub are generally the shorter ones for some odd reason). It's just not cool to play for 30 minutes or more without an oportunity to save. You often achieve major objectives with no save point anywhere to be seen.
Also, you will find yourself going back to the pubs just to save the game again. This means that you end up running through previously cleared parts of a level with nothing to do. For minutes at a time! Can you say 'boring'?
If this game had a better save-game system, it would be pure fun and an instant classic. The developers cheat themselves out of a great title with this sort of nonsense. I even considered dropping the game's rating to 3 stars, just because of this issue!
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This game is about one thing: fun. It is outrageous, it has very unrealistic weapons (Shark gun, world's smallest black hole, etc.", and it has a ragtag group known as the Lionhearts. I'm not sure how far through the game I am at this point, but I can't put it down. The jet pack missions are just awesome.The game won't win any awards for graphics, but they do the trick. No complaints there. The voice work is some of the best I've ever heard. And the sound is top-notch.
The cut-scenes that move the story along are a treat...parodying star wars among other things.
If you just wanna play an old-school, blast 'em up game, this is it. I highly recommend this one.
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This game is just plain fun. Not a lot of logic, and the plot and story are so-so, but when it comes to action and humor, this is one of the best titles to grace the market in some time. You play Roman, the leader of a group of ragtag heroes known as the Lionhearts. You're accompanied by Jonesy, a moleman who speaks with a thick Scottish brogue and is (more or less) an expert with explosives; Q, formerly one of the King's robotic guards who became self-aware and now spends as much time making tea as fighting; and Rexus, a squat, smelly, and blind seer who's not so sharp after suffering head trauma. The plot is pretty straightforward: Find the Book of Rule and use it to break the evil King's rule over the land. The format is very simple: Go from Point A to Point B, find this or that, destroy this or that, and kill everything that gets in your way. It's a very simplistic shooter, and under other circumstances, this game would barely dent the market. But what makes "Armed and Dangerous" stand out is its sense of humor and non-stop action.The game's humor may be its strongest aspect. The characters are just plain funny, with Rexus and Jonesy stealing most of the best lines. The game takes shots at the French and references "Aliens," "Lord of the Rings," and especially "Star Wars," (this is from LucasArts, after all). The cutscenes are especially funny, with jokes and gags about cannibalism, leprosy, and even a doomspeaking evangelist type who looks a lot like Elvis. There's also an exploding sheep (Seriously). Especially funny are a trio of gardening robots that are reprogrammed to be soldiers; unfortunately, the programming backfires: they only want to defend plants and flowers, go into battle screaming "Death to the salad-eaters!" and nearly execute a poor villager for being a "cereal killer" (he was caught reaping wheat!)
Equally funny are the weapons you're provided with. Some are given at the beginning of a level; other are rewarded when you reach various pubs scattered throughout the game (these also serve as save points and will recharge your health). You get some pretty standard weapons: rifle, machine gun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, etc. But it's the special weapons that are most fun: There's the Land Shark Gun, which fires a projectile that turns into--you guessed it--a shark that gobbles up your enemies from under the ground! There's the Guy Fawkes Traitor Bomb (a clever reference to a notorious English traitor) which makes your enemies turn against each other for a time. There's the Topsy Turvy Bomb, which briefly reverses gravity and causes your enemies to fly off the earth; and my personal favorite, The World's Smallest Black Hole. Toss it and stand back, because it sucks in everything around it.
Most of the missions are straightforward and usually involve defending something or someone or knocking out enemy positions. The game switches from third-person (with a thankfully fixed camera position) to first-person when you take the helm of a mounted gun and defend a village or the like from advancing troops (who come in swarms). Too many get over the wall and the mission fails. Other missions involve flying (with a cool jetpack-type device) across levels and finding and destroying enemy positions. Located throughout the game are tokens that will unlock special features and cheats (though most gamesites have them posted). The graphics are above-average, controls are uncomplicated and easy to use, and the voicework is top notch, with animation standouts Jeff Bennett, Kath Soucie, and Rob Paulson providing many of the voices.
A couple of hints: When you hear a siren alerting the enemy to your presence, find it as quickly as possible and destroy it. Otherwise, enemies keep coming as long as it is sounding. The same is true for the rounded troop houses you encounter here and there. Much like the generators in "Gauntlet," they'll keep spawning enemies until you destroy them. Two Sticky Bombs will usually do the trick. If you can't hit a sniper attacking you from a window, throw a Sticky Bomb onto the structure and just blow up the building and him with it. When attacking rocket towers, run underneath them. They can't hit you if you're right below them. Also, when defending Lily's house in Zitwalla, stay near her house. There's no need to wander away to find enemy paratroopers and leave Lily's house undefended; they'll come to you. As long as her home and at least one other residence survives, you'll complete the level. (That was the only one that gave me any trouble). Oh, and once you beat the game (a reasonable challenge) stay tuned through the final cutscene for a funny sing-along.
If you like a good shoot-em-up with a sense of humor (think Serious Sam, for example), then this is the game for you.
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"Armed and Dangerous" is an immensely quirky and amusing game that fuses 3rd person action and uproarious comedy into one entertaining, if imperfect, package.The game casts you as Roman, a handkerchief-wearing bandit who is absorbed by the world's struggle against a tyrannical king when he would rather just steal expensive things. He is joined by a tea-fueled droid called "Q," a surly Scottish mole named Jonesy, and a blind seer named Rexus. The storyline itself isn't anything to write home about, but the characters are great. The cinematics are usually so funny that they're worth watching several times, and they even have a kind of claymation quality that feels entirely appropriate. Unfortunately, the gags do become generally less amusing as the game progresses, but not by a significant margin.
Jonesy and "Q" are not characters restricted to the cinematics, though. They are featured prominently during gameplay as well. They provide support and covering fire for Roman, and Roman can even issue them a few basic orders, but the two often feel like set dressing that moves. They do not serve any strategic or tactical purpose, and even if they are killed in battle they magically reappear in the next mission. Even so, their inclusion is appreciated, as they banter and offer some pretty good one-liners, and occasionally do help out when things are rough.
The game's action is visceral and entertaining and as this one's an action title that's certainly saying something. Aiming is a snap on the Xbox version, and you'll never feel restricted by the controller response time. Shooters do not usually shine on console systems, but this one does. On top of that, "Armed and Dangerous" provides some of the most inventive, original, and downright satisfying weapons ever seen in a game of this type. Its tone allows for weapons that can literally launch sharks at your enemies (that then burst from the ground and snap up the unwary opposition), create small black holes, and even turn the entire world upside down for a few seconds at a time. Jet packs also come into play, and allow Roman to leap and glide through the air while causing all sorts of mayhem.
The game's action is undermined a bit by its bland and repetitive mission objectives, though. Too often you will find yourself rescuing peasants or demolishing a set number of buildings. What's more, you'll find yourself gunning down the same dog-faced enemies over and over again, with few exceptions. While all of this is fun in small or medium-sized doses, lengthy sessions become very monotonous. To top it off, "Armed and Dangerous" just isn't very challenging. The so-called Flemming machinegun hardly ever runs out of ammunition, and enemies are of the run-and-gun variety. Only one of the game's missions ups the ante, and it goes too far in the other direction it's downright frustrating.
"Armed and Dangerous" provides some gorgeous terrain graphics, and its characters are likewise good-looking. There are clipping issues, but it's not something that detracts from the overall experience. Sound effects are likewise inspiring, and the voice talent assembled for the game is excellent as well. The score effectively conveys a comedic world that is a sort of interplanetary stand-in for rural England, and it provides a good, quirky backdrop to the action (though glitches can sometimes cause it to loop).
All in all, "Armed and Dangerous" is quite satisfying. It has some serious flaws that keep it from achieving a classic status, but it's a good solid game that I recommend with few reservations. Cheers!
Final Score: B
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When i say that this game is probobly the funniest game up to date, i am not joking at all. Just watching these characters imitating the british accent is hilarious, not to mention the cutscenes, where, for example, a character gets shoved up a rhinos a$$, because he is catching a cold and everyone thinks that he will "warm up" that way. That was probobly one of the funniest scenes in the entire game.Now on to the actual review. As i always do, i will break my review down into sections of graphics, gameplay and audio.
GraphicsThe graphics in Armed and Dangerous are probobly the only problem in this game all together. I think that they could have done a much better job with the graphics aspect of it. The character models aren't that in depth in terms of detail, and the cutscenes, all though extremely hilarious/funny, lack in detail and animation as most games on Xbox now a days do not. If this game was a PS2/Gamecube only game, i wouldn't complain so much considering that those systems graphics are much worse then those of the Xbox's. The background animation lacks in detail as well considering that the landscape and where the game takes place is extremely simplistic. The movements of the characters are also very choppy and should have been much more smoothed out for a more "comfortable" gaming experience. Sometimes, i thought that the game was going to freeze up on me because of the extremely slow speed/framerate which is just unexceptable when your talking about a high powered system like the Xbox.
GameplayAhhhh, the best part of this entire game is the gameplay itself. When there are guns that you can use like the "Shark gun" which shoots out a shark that eats people, you cant help but laugh your head off.
No doubt that this game was making fun of real games/movies like Star Wars when theres a small intro on the back of the game reading..
"A smack-talking rag-tag bad of rebels
bound n an impossible quest. With an areseal
of outrageous weapons, they're destined for
victory in 12,000 bullets or less. If they can
make it through an army of psychotic robots and
wall-smashing Goliaths, they just might save the world...If they don't burn it down first..."
See what i mean?
The cutscenes are another aspect of this game which make it definetely worth buying. They are beyond hilarious way funnier then even some comedy movies that i've seen; now thats funny!
The controls in Armed and Dangerous are fairly easy to master and don't require much skill, neither does the game thank god. (I hate games now a days that require skill, they end up not even being fun.)
So all in all, the gameplay in Armed and Dangerous is amazing and cannot be forgotten!
AudioThe audio in Armed and Dangerous is another great thing about the game. The voice overs are apsolutely brilliant, the music is great and the sound effects are well done as well. When you listen to it without watching it, you can just tell that its a spoof on a actual battle game!
There is also a downloadable level that you can get off Xbox Live, but there isn't any online/offline multiplayer which is a really big bummer, because i think that they could have had the potential to do that, it would have certainly be possible!
So in conclusion, Armed and Dangerous is recommended for all gamers out there in the world. If you are a hardcore multiplayer fan, then this might not be the game for you, but for everyone else, this is worth your money!
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