Dead Man's Hand for Xbox Reviews by Gamers

Before its release Dead Man's Hand appeared to have a lot going for it. It was almost unthinkable that a FPS based on a spaghetti western had yet to be created and Dead Man's Hand promised to include all of the staples of a good shoot-em'up. There would be trick shots, horse back riding, and an arcade style point system that would encourage fast and stylish gunplay. Unfortunately, the game fails to deliver in nearly every area. Dead Man's Hand serves as a perfect example of good ideas with poor implementation. Read on to find out why.

Gameplay

In the opening movie, players are introduced to "El Tejon," which is Spanish for "poorly animated character." He is a former member of a bloodthirsty gang of nine gunmen who steal from the rich, and shoot the poor. When El Tejon tries to break away from the morally inept crew, they shoot him in the back and leave him for dead. Unfortunately, he survives and gamers are forced to take on the roll of the ruthless pistolero who is hell bent on revenge.

Each level begins with a round of 5 card draw poker. Players have one chance to exchange three cards to receive a better hand. With scoring hands of cards, players have the chance to earn extra ammo and points towards their special shot meter. This is an interesting little touch that I enjoyed, although it is rather easy to get a statically improbably hand such as four of a kind.

There are a few things that will become immediately apparent when playing Dead Man's Hand. First off, there is no controller feedback support. This is a relatively standard feature on nearly every game that is released for Xbox. If a card game likeYu Gi Oh! Dawn of Destiny includes feedback, an FPS should have it as well. Without controller vibration it's not as apparent how close players can get to an explosion, or when they have been hit by a shot. It doesn't make or break the game, but the lack of such a standard feature is a glaring example of how Dead Man's Hand feels generally unpolished, and in some areas, unfinished.

There are 3 different types of weapons which are mapped to the directional pad for easy access. El Tejon wields a shotgun, a pistol and a rifle. There are three types of each weapon which become available as the game progresses. The weapons are supposed to be used separately for power, midrange, and long range attacks. Each weapon has an alternate fire which can only be used when the powershot meter is filled. Alternate fire includes a zoom feature for one of the rifles, and the ability to fire all four bullets at once out of the pepper box pistol. The shotgun is slow to reload while the pistol can fire off a number of shots in succession. However, once the Lewis Revolving Rifle is unlocked, there is no reason to use any other weapon. It is incredibly powerful and can fire off six shots before reloading. There is also a bowie knife, dynamite, and whiskey bombs which are available as special weapons. for some reason dynamite can be chucked clear across a level while a whiskey bomb can only be thrown a few feet.

Tejon is able to jump a short distance with the A button, and can be made to crouch by clicking on the left thumbstick. Jumping is not very useful considering Tejon's limited range. Crouching helps players to navigate under a few roadblocks; however it has nothing to do with stealth. In fact, there is no way to surprise an enemy in Dead Man's Hand. Every enemy in every level has advance knowledge of your arrival, so don't bother edging around corners or sticking to the shadows.

In the bottom left hand corner of the screen sits a deck of 100 cards which represents El Tejon's life. A standard deck is made up of 52 cards; however this is trumped by the fact that people everywhere have 100 life points. The cards will drop out of the deck as a player takes damage, and are replaced by a common first aid kit. Below the cards are a shot chain meter and a power shot meter. Shot chains are built up by hitting successive targets quickly. Players will get score bonuses for knocking off enemies hats, shooting out windows, and dinging lanterns.

Shot chains not only increase the overall score for the level, they also add to the powershot meter. Having to earn the alternate fire of a weapon is a great idea, especially when shot chains can be created by shooting any destructible object in the environment. It encourages constant gunfire in between killing enemies. I'm guessing that it was supposed to make up for the fact that enemies are devoid of intelligence. They routinely announce their presence by hollering an insult, run to a scripted location, and proceed to bob up and down behind cover. Hitting an enemy in the head produces the same results as a shot to the body. Using the Lewis Revolving rifle I was able to take out almost every bandit in the game with two consecutive shots.

In the first level these scripted behaviors actually work in favor of the game. There is an alternate way to kill almost every enemy through skilled targeting. This includes hitting barrels of gunpowder, shooting out the legs of platforms, and knocking heavy objects onto people. If this trend continued throughout the entire game it would have been very enjoyable trying to trigger all of the environmental deaths. However, as the levels drag on, there are fewer and fewer interactive targets and more standard "shoot the bad guy" game play. There are a couple of levels on horseback that basically turn the game into a rail shooter. Players have no control over the direction of the horse and simply pick off targets as they fly by. These levels also feel choppy, barren and unfinished.

Online

Dead Man's Hand includes a full array of online options, none of which are very good. There is the standard Death Match mode, Team Death Match, Bounty Mode, and Posse. Bounty pits a single player against a group of enemies. Posse pits a team of players against progressively harder AI bots. All modes of this game include the option for bots in online play, a feature not often seen in Xbox Live games. This is where the positive features end.

The most glaring problem with playing Dead Man's Hand on Live is the severe lack of key animations. For example, there is no graphical indication that another player has been hit with a shot. Did a long range rifle blast connect? Unless the hit character dies, there's no way to know. Also, when characters are shooting at you, it is not always animated on your screen. An enemy may run at you with a shotgun pointed towards the sky, while your health mysteriously disappears.

Sound is another problem all together. There is absolutely no depth of field for the audio. Every footstep and gunshot seems to come from directly in front of the player. When playing in the brothel, constant footsteps and gunshots will keep players nervously spinning in circles while the true source of the sound could be across the level.

Graphics

Before discussing the normal graphical ups and downs of this game there are some more pressing technical issues. The frame rate suffers from significant stutters the first time a weapon is selected in each level. This also happens every time Tejon is taken down by an enemy. Instead of a death animation, the screen will cut to black, freeze for a split second and then ask players if they would like to restart the level. A single shot can take a player out with over 20 cards left in their deck, the sudden cut to black feels disjointed and confusing.

Many of the levels feel blocky and dull. There is not much variation between enemies so be prepared to shoot the same outlaw hundreds of times. Explosions and fire have lame effects. The entire game feels as though it takes place on an overcast afternoon.

Sound

Dead Man's Hand also falls a bit short in the audio department. The game has some appropriately cheesy western music and voice acting. Some of the musical tracks are interesting in that they sound like remixes of typical western scores. There are also some ragtime pianists scattered throughout the game who will tickle the ivories if you let them live.

El Tejon's voice sounds as though it has been ripped directly from "El," the guitar playing hero of Desperado, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Besides a Native American character named Iron Sides, the other characters all have various exaggerations of southern drawls. The banditos will hurl a number of lame insults at Tejon as he proceeds through the level. My favorite line is, "Looks like they sent a nino to do the job of a hombre." The audio clips for character's death are laughably awful. What are supposed to be yelps of pain sound more like Tarzan's jungle howl. The sound effects in the one player game are not as poorly implemented as they are online but they add very little to the game play.

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