Banzure Prime – home to a group of scientists that had disappeared. A group of armed combatants, known as Gunmen, land to investigate. Little did they know that this simple mission was the beginning of a nightmare.

As they entered the compound of the science crew, they marveled at the huge plant life that infested the area. Then, the plants came to life, emitting giant silicone worms that attacked and swallowed up the hapless Gunmen. The General, who watched from the landing zone, quickly went into action. He attacked, to save his crew, and he did. But at what cost? His ship was snagged by one of the worms, now known as Xenomes, and swallowed.

Years have passed (actually five years) and the general, a hero for a dark time, is about to be honored. Meanwhile the Xenomes are spreading like weeds across the galaxies, subjugating or wiping out colonies. Is it just a mindless alien invasion, or is someone controlling the Xenomes? And if the latter is true, then who is behind the infestations?

That is the premise behind Gunman Chronicles, a first-person shooter from Rewolf and Sierra that utilizes the Valve Half-Life engine, and borrows from any number of science-fiction sources in an effort to wrap a plot around a ‘come out blasting’ scenario.

The graphical quality of the game is quite good. But combine a little Tomb Raider with Day of the Triffids and Jurassic Park and you have the format for the first part of the tale.

As Major Archer, new leader of the Gunmen, you begin the game by going through training. This involves a rigged scenario where, following the briefing and the plans for the celebration to honor the General’s death, a damaged ship hits the station, requiring you to learn the controls of the game, utilize them to work around obstacles before getting to the range to bone up on weaponry. Then it's off on the mission known as Project Source, a top-secret excursion that may reveal the source of the Xenome infestation. Yep, you are going to discover who is behind it, but it’s not the answer you really want.

The planet you land on is not far from Banzure Prime, and is littered with ruins that look like a cross between Mayan and Aztec. And there are dinosaurs, crocodiles and scorpion-like creatures, along with bunkers and renegade gunmen. One path seems blocked by a giant dinosaur that looks like a cross between a brontosaurus and a tyrannosaurus. That one won’t die. It’s up to you to negotiate its attacks to press the right switches to open the only egress from the courtyard of death. Of course you were bound to meet up with some baby velociraptors that jump, chomp and need to be blown apart. To stay alive you will have to find med kits and walk through them. The same goes with weaponry. As the game begins, everyone in your soon-to-be-terminated party is carrying assault weapons and all you have is a stupid knife. Yeah, that works really good against motorized, heat-seeking machine guns.

And stay away from the mushrooms, their poison bypasses your armor and goes straight for the health bar.

There are some graphical flaws in this program. Most of the Gunmen are clones, or from an incredibly large family of identical siblings. In a lot of games, it is easy to tell the interactive objects from the static ones by the texture. Not so with this game. You may be able to climb that ladder; then again, it may be for decoration. And a la Tomb Raider, and most every other RPG, you will have to know how to leap over chasms, climb up and down obstacles, duck and crawl, and solve minor, easy puzzles to advance through the game. But most of all, you will have to know how to quickly aim and blast. Of course, knowing your weapon and how to customize it for maximum payload delivery (more nice features in an option-rich environment) also is a must.

The sound quality of this program is nothing special, but does support the game theme well. There are four difficulty levels, and an option to moderate the amount of gore and bloodletting if young children are around – nice features that allow the enjoyment to continue in any situation.

This game is enjoyable, though it is also predictable. And therein lies the game’s biggest fault: you know what probably will happen next, which definitely takes away the suspense aspect. You also know when you first confront the head bad guy, even though there is only a barred fence between you and you are fully armed, that you can’t kill him in the middle of his ludicrous, and maniacally stereotypical threats about you being eaten alive. After all, what would be the point if you could just walk up to the bad guy, and dissect him with a barrage of bullets in the first five minutes of the game.

This product is rated for Mature gamers due to animated violence and animated blood. It does support multiplayer gaming.

Install: Easy.  This program digests 592 megs of hard drive space, is a relatively unexciting install, but it does manage to move along smoothly and quickly.

Gameplay: 7.5. The player interface in this product is very user-friendly. You won’t get bogged down trying to master the keyboard, but can jump right into the action. There is some minor lag as your character transitions between ‘rooms.’ The program does have an auto-save feature that will enable you to jump back to the last good moment you may have had before getting wiped out by beasties or weaponry.

Graphics: 7.5. There are some breakdowns in the clipping of the background elements, and the Gunmen all tend to look like they were based on few models, but other than that, the environment graphics and gunplay both are rendered well.

Sound: 7. Nothing special here. The chomping sounds made by the dinosaurs are a little lame, but the audio does, for the most part, provide solid support for the graphics and game play.

Difficulty: 7. Predictable storyline translates into knowing what you should do next to continue along the game line. That erases the difficulty to some degree. However, with four difficulty levels to choose from, you should be able to find a level that does challenge you.

Concept: 6.5. There is too much familiarity in this program – though obviously derived from several sources – to allow it to score well here.

Overall: 7. Gunman Chronicles is not a bad game. It is, however, predominantly a shooter program with a thin storyline to support the action. If all you are looking for is a good-looking program and a reason to shoot just about everything that moves, this could be the program you are looking for. If you are seeking a shooter program that requires a little brainpower, try the game the Valve engine was designed for – Half-Life and its various offshoots.