I think it’s fair to say that if sales figures are anything to go by, the Wild West still has a big part to play in the gaming industry. Gun and the original Red Dead Revolver fared well when they came out and Redemption has just cleaned up right across the board. It seems a rather fitting time to have Paradox and Fatshark bring out Lead and Gold to ride on the crest of the ‘Cowboy and Indians’ wave.
When I first saw this game, I was under the impression that it would be a first person online shooter, much in the same vein as the Orange Box’s multiplayer offering, Team Fortress 2; and in a lot of ways it is, but the first person viewpoint has been swapped with a more resurging over the shoulder camera, like Gears, the upcoming Quantum Theory and the others that have come before it.
Now, normally with any shooter there is some sort of storyline, a major piece of prose to blend everything together, no matter how ropey and full of holes it may be. This isn’t true with Lead and Gold. Looking in from the outside you can see it exactly for what it is, an online community shooting game, with no real plot to speak of, but nothing else to hide either. There is a huge feeling with this that it was made simply to have a lot of fun and enjoyment with. But this doesn’t mean that elements have been left unfinished or sloppy.
There are 6 game types, with 5 covering all your team based options, such as deathmatch, capture the flag, domination and so on; and these are spread out across as many maps, which are varied enough to keep your wits about you, but also give you ample opportunity to find good places to shoot from. The odd one out is a 2 player co-op mode that leans towards the growing trend of wave defending (something I think you cannot get enough of) but I don’t really see how you cannot have 5 human players going for it, like the usual example I choose of Gears 2’s Horde.
To add to this you have the choice of 4 soldier types, just as you would in most of the Battlefield stuff. Think of the Stetson wearing equivalents of sniper, engineer, soldier and manic commando and you get a fair idea of what to expect. There may well not be a hardcore mode, but to be honest, most of the guns on offer give you enough clout to take things down, although some of the hit detection can be a little awry. The aiming system is functional, but again can leave you scratching your head as to why a bullet didn’t reach its target. A patch needs to fix this soon.
As far as the look of things go, it does have that hint of cartoon finesse about it, much like the aforementioned TF 2, but it isn’t cel shaded. Instead, much of the impact from how it looks is done from the very bright colour scheme, something that a lot of today’s shooters seem to avoid, with a fair few of them looking duller than a trainspotter on a very overcast morning, sipping his thermos as the 8.52 from Pointless Town cruises by. There isn’t a lot of standard shading going on either, as most of the design is kept to a rather refreshing minimum, as it gives it a really distinctive look.
The only trouble I have in this department is that there are other minimalist areas of the game that I think could have done with looking at, although this could be to do with the recent FPS stuff we’ve been spoilt with over the past year or so. The scenery can’t be destroyed in any major way, not even barrels which are just sitting there minding their own business as you sprint past them. CoD and Battlefield do have a lot to answer for, but a little destruction wouldn’t have gone amiss boys, would it?
The sound is also subject to being scrutinised, mainly due to their being good stuff there, but not enough of it. The tunes are suitably western, but there just isn’t enough of it to make you go wild with excitement. All the sounds are as expected, so that’s fine with me, to be honest.
Does Lead and Gold play well? Yes, it does, actually. The game modes are familiar enough for people to get used to, but in a different enough environment to add a bite of freshness that some other shooters could learn to look at. The funny thing is that the main criticism I have with the game isn’t actually of its own doing. There just simply not enough people playing this online, which for a game that is more or less 95% done over the net, is helping to suffocate it before it can breathe. There is some really nice and solid enough gameplay here, not to mention the map sizes are just right, rather than having a usual mish mash of everything, from being dead in 3 seconds from crazy spawning in a tight space, to running the entire length of 10 football pitches just to be shot once you arrive. But if no-one is there to play it, how can they be fully enjoyed?.
The synergy option is a nice touch as well, allowing for team perks if everyone actually works like one. Improved accuracy, health and extra firepower can be attained through the different classes picked, as long as that person is holding a synergy flag on their back. It’s a really nice touch, as it almost orders you to stick together, rather than running ahead to be Rambo.
Whether this is a success or not really comes down to the buying public. While it may pick up some of the hype from Red Dead Redemption, so must it accept that the multiplayer of that same game does offer a lot more in terms of what can be done. I think what Fatshark have done here is a quirky little title with it’s own identity and a good dose of fun thrown in for good measure and deserves a look at, but with Rockstar once again showing the world that they can make very good sandbox stuff, this may well be a game that rides off into the sunset a little too quickly. I can only hope that Lead and Gold bucks the trend of a classic Western saying and pray that the town really is big enough for the both of them, especially when this costs a quarter of the price and is readily available from the PSN.
VideogameUK verdict: 7.5/10
