Bandits Phoenix Rising

Post-Apocalyptic warfare has never been so intense, or fast paced till now.

In the post-apocalyptic wastelands everyday is a battle. A battle to find enough gas to keep your battle buggy running, a battle to find enough to eat and drink, and a battle to stay alive, because if you have anything at all its sure someone else wants it too, and is willing to fight you for it!

Four tribes now roam the wastelands, fighting with each other for the scraps of an age long past. Driving vehicles built from these scraps and armed with whatever they can find, life is a combination of desert dust and gunsmoke.

Jericho City is the last refuge from this destruction. Built with huge surrounding walls, the inhabitants have water, food, and the legend of an all powerful weapon that the tribes want. The weapon that could make the walls fall and the riches within available to the conqueror

Bandits is a very fast paced weapons mounted vehicle combat game that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the opening scene. Completing levels will take guts, good aim, and careful planning. Ammo is limited and every shot counts. Your primary weapon, either a machine gun or a cannon is mounted in a turret on top of your rig. This weapon by default will fire forward in the direction your vehicle is headed, but, the turret can also rotate 360 degrees! Now rotating the turret to stay on target while continuing to drive the car forward does take a little bit of practice, but once you have it down, look out cause that makes you one dangerous Hombre!

Other weapons may also be mounted on your car such as mine layers, gatling guns, cannons, missiles, and grenade launchers. Being able to properly arm your car and then cycle through those weapons on the fly make for an action packed bought of mayhem that is nail biting to say the least.

All this action is backed by a sound score that is very very good. Each of the four tribes has its own music style that ranges from techno-funk to guitar blazing heavy duty rock. Not your standard computer generated background garbage noise! This stuff rocks! The game sounds are very good also and when played in surround sound system you can hear all the action from every side, a definite advantage when trying to tell where someone is when they are shooting at you, follow the sound.

Great graphics and realistic physics make the game a visual pleasure. While slightly on the arcadish side, the physics really make the game a blast to play, the only thing I would have liked to have seen was a vehicle damage engine. Your vehicle has armor that shows no damage until its level meter is depleted, then your whole car blows up. To me that's a weak point and would have preferred gradual vehicle and weapon damage and repair. But what we do get is very well done, runs well, and is a pleasure to view.

This game is a very nice offering and approaches the vehicle combat game from a new angle that is refreshing. This game will keep you coming back for more, and more, and...

Gameplay: 8
Very fast paced combat in which you will have to learn to cycle through multiple weapons while traversing your turret and driving the car at the same time. Single player mode is linear, following a story line that gives you specific missions to complete before you progress. Completing missions will earn you new weapons, cars, and other goodies. Setup is achieved through a neat interface that will allow you to adjust video, sound, and controller settings.

Graphics: 8.5
Great looking graphics, all top notch. Special effects such as bomb blasts and missile strikes are very well done. Dust, smoke, and blasted vehicle parts abound during the battle sequences. Very bright and well detailed terrain.

Sound: 8
Great upbeat musical score keeps everything moving along, and with four different tribes, you get four different music styles. There's something for everyone. The vehicle and weapons sounds are well done also and when this game is played on a system with surround sound capabilities, it becomes very realistic and you can even tell which direction the enemy fire is coming from.

Difficulty: 7.5
Once you have mastered the turrets on these vehicles, your next big obstacle is figuring out the proper armament for each mission. Arming your car with the wrong weapons will almost certainly seal your fate.

Multiplayer play adds another dimension to difficulty as now you will have to ploy your skills against real drivers instead of computer AI bots.

Concept: 8.2
Vehicle combat games have been around for several years. Bandits adds a new twist by setting it in a post-apocalyptic setting and capitalizing on the MAD MAX aspect of this futuristic game. Wondering tribes with armed vehicles, scavenging the desert wilderness for parts, water, and food do add a new view to a already proven game genre.

Multiplayer: UNRATED
While this game does come with multiplayer support via GameSpy, I was unable to find anyone online to play with during the review period. I am sure however that this game would be a ton of fun online. I did load up a Host game and tried out all the cars and weapons and found it to be a great place to practice with your weapons and hone your driving skills before taking on the single player mode.

Overall: 8
I really liked this game with its new twist on the combat vehicle genre. Multiple tasking with multiple weapons makes for a wild ride, and I like that, boy does it get hot and heavy at times. Game has good replay value and great potential for online play!