Dead Man’s Hand Review

Developer	Human Head Studios
Publisher	Atari
Genre	First-Person Shooter

Dead Man’s Hand is not a high-profile game. It’s not host to the best graphics to be seen on Xbox. The cheesy, clichéd voice-overs don’t set the bar for videogame audio. The number of weapons in the game is far from impressive, and the title is full of technical problems that will have some gamers crying foul.

But in all, Dead Man’s Hand is a fun game because it offers the first-person shooter genre a break from the norm, which are usually sci-fi shooters filled with pipes, aliens and metal walls, or military shooters based on historical events. Dead Man’s Hand is essentially a standard shooter/digital shooting gallery like the ones you play at carnivals, complete with a spaghetti western theme. And though the game could use a lot of fine tuning, the original theme itself helps to make up for all of the game’s technical missteps.

Gameplay – As a Mexican gunslinger who is deceived by his gang, the player is out to exact revenge upon his former comrades. In a series of Western-themed levels, ranging from ghost towns to mining caverns (you get to shoot up your enemies on horseback too!), the gameplay in Dead Man’s Hand is standard first-person shooter fare, with a few fresh diversions to set the game apart from other titles in the genre. The levels themselves are very linear, with a clear Point A to Point B path to follow. Enemies pop out from around corners, behind crates, from building windows, balconies, etc. Really, just what you’d expect from this game’s theme. There are some interactive objects in the environments that can rack up some instant kills and lots of bonus points. These are basically trick shots, like shooting exploding barrels when an enemy is near, or shooting an exploding barrel that rests beside a boulder that will tumble on top of enemies when the barrel is shot. Sometimes, there are items that don’t stand out enough to know whether or not they can be interacted with, which gives the player incentive to be creative with his shooting.

Dead Man’s Hand’s biggest problem is its hit detection. First-person shooters are games whose founding principles are on precision shooting, no matter what firearm they are using. When firing a gun that is perfectly lined up on an enemy, they expect to deal damage. In Dead Man’s Hand, it’s all a question mark as to whether you’ll hit or not. At times, you’ll be right on the mark, and other times, you’ll miss completely, despite having your reticule aimed squarely between your enemy’s eyes. Shooting interactive items have the same peculiar behavior, mostly when an enemy is standing closer to you than the item. Shoot an exploding barrel, and you may hit an enemy that is on the opposite side of the screen (seriously), all because that enemy is closer to you. So oddball this occurrence is that we entered the menus to see if there was some kind of auto-aim feature turned on. It wasn’t on because there isn’t one. In addition, there are times you’ll shot an enemy in plain sight, just to miss because the game is registering the shot to a crate the enemy is hiding behind. And still, there are times when you’ll miss by several inches, and land a direct hit. What does this all mean? It means that as a first-person shooter, it doesn’t first-person shoot well enough, as there is no way to be rewarded for your shots because you don’t know if it’s you or the game.

Weapons are limited, ranging from three different pistol types, three shotguns, and three rifles. There are e few explosive weapons, like dynamite and whiskey bombs, and at the very least, there is a knife for you to stab villains to death if you like your action up close. While limited in number, all of the firearms are a blast to use, which is critical in games of this type. Each weapon has the proper oomph when fired, which makes shooters so fun to play. Some of the guns though – like the double barrel shotgun – are so slow at reloading (and must be reloaded after every shot), that they are practically ineffective in most instances, as they require you to be up close for the enemy to feel the full brunt of the gunfire. By the time you reach the enemy, another one or two may be on you. Furthermore, a close up shot with a shotgun takes an equal number of shots to down a foe as the Peace Maker pistol: three. And with the Peace Maker, you can kill a foe in three shots from any distance. With the shotgun, shooting from a distance can take seven or eight shots.

While we’re on the subject of enemies, the game’s AI is horrid. The smartest thing an enemy does is duck behind a crate. Otherwise, they either charge straight at you, or they stay in the exact same spot as when you first encountered them. The arrival of many of your foes is also scripted, so they will always emerge from the same hiding place, and will always react the exact same way, every time you play. Some enemies are so dumb that they’ll run right past you, only to stop at their pre-programmed spots to turn around and shoot. Oddly enough, until they reach their designated position, they are incredibly difficult – maybe even impossible – to kill. Their aim is good though, depending on the enemy. Some realistically miss you, while others can’t hit the broad side of a saloon. Still, others are crack shots, able to hit you from any distance, no matter how much cover you’re behind. And once an enemy hits, he rarely misses you afterward, as if he’s permanently locked on to your character.

Between levels, you can play a hand or more of Poker, which the better the hand earns you extra ammo for whatever firearms you have at the time. You can play till you lose, but once you are play a losing hand, every bonus you earned is automatically lost. This proves useful for guns that you tend to use a lot more than others, as ammo seems to be fairly equally doled out throughout each level. And since only some guns come in real handy, you’ll tend to use those guns a lot more. Combine this with the bizarre hit detection issues, and you’ll need all the ammo you can get.

Between each level, you have a choice to play on three separate difficulty levels, so the game is never too hard or too easy. The one flaw with the game in terms of difficulty is that you can’t save your game until a level is completed. When playing through a particularly hard level, starting from the beginning on death can be a real pain. Thankfully, the levels aren’t very long, but not being able to save – especially when you’re close to the end – is still annoying.

Graphics – While Dead Man’s Hand is far from a graphical masterpiece, the game still looks quite good, thanks to the freshness of the environments. While just what you’d expect from a Western-themed game, you won’t care, but will instead welcome with open arms. The physics model is great, offering a dose of realism that the game really needs. Shoot an enemy on a balcony, and he’ll tumble down off it, taking parts of the railing with him on the way down. Take out a foe at the top of a hill, and watch him roll all the way down. It’s amazing what a little bit of physics can do for a game, and the otherwise “nothing special” look of Dead Man’s Hand greatly benefits from it.

There is no blood, which affects the look of the impact you make on enemies when you drop them, likely to keep the game at a “Teen” rating. Bodies disappear after you kill them, which is disappointing, but even worse is that they often pop in after you’re already onscreen with them, and they disappear before you’re off screen. The game moves pretty slowly, but the framerate, while stable, is far from smooth.

Sound – Dead Man’s Hand sounds pretty generic, which is a good thing, as the clichéd voiceovers add a good bit to the Western-style flavoring of the game. The music is fitting, though not as good as it could’ve been. There is a slight rock mixed in with the rest of the music, which feels out of place at times. The weapon effects are pretty solid, but nothing outstanding in any way, though they do sound more authentic than some other shooters out there.

Online – Playing online via Xbox Live offers gamers your standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch games, as well as a couple of unique modes like Posse, where all eight (that’s the max) players join up together to take on hordes of computer-controlled gunslingers. Bounty is another game that makes one player the target of every other player. While all the modes are adequate, mixing the questionable hit detection almost makes the idea of online multiplayer not worth it.

Bottom Line - There are plenty of better shooters on Xbox than Dead Man’s Hand, but luckily for this title, there aren’t any that are Western-themed, which is really this game’s saving grace. Technically, the game is sub-par, mostly due to a severe hit detection problem, and the generic-ness of the core gameplay is too by-the-numbers to have any lasting power.

If you even have just a passing interest in Western-flavored games though, Dead Man’s Hand is a real hoot, and is bound to hold your interest in some way. The shooting gallery-style gunplay and cool-looking physics, along with the cheesy voices and music, really nail the Wild West. The online multiplayer isn’t great, and there is no splitscreen option, but for those interested in the Wild West, you won’t find many other games that offer the gunslinger approach to the first-person shooter genre. And at $20, it’s still a great way to pass the time.

Review by Brendon Hivner