A Review: Bandits: Phoenix Rising, PC 2002
Bandits: Phoenix Rising is a vehicular combat and action adventure game developed by Grim Software and published by Singularity Software. The player takes on the roles of Fennec and Rewdalf as they try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where cars and the fuel to power them are held in the highest regard. The player must fight clans, militias, and roaming bands of criminals, constantly battling each other for control of this precious resource. Play is done from the 3rd-person perspective, with the player using a combination of keyboard and mouse controls to drive a combat-oriented vehicle through a series of missions.
I liked the concept and ideas behind this game and found that the controls and core elements of play were pretty good. However, there was also a lot that frustrated me and somewhat soured my experience. I found that at times the player could get stuck or lodged into the ground or hills too easily and would take several minutes to free, unless you gave in and chose to reload a save. This was a major problem in the sections of the game that were more narrow and required precise control inputs. This was also a problem during the fights, as it would stop you from being able to run away or find cover. There were a lot of problems with stability too on more modern machines, with crashes to the desktop being all too common. I think that I had twenty-two in my playthrough of this game, and that was twenty-two too many. There was some sort of issue with saving games too, and you'd have to have multiple saves and pray that they didn't all crap the bed at the same time. There was no fix for this either, and I spent hours on old game forums searching for one. I found the boss battles were very harsh and left little to no room for any errors, and without fail, the computer always had a better, more heavily armed and armoured vehicle. I grew frustrated with this and felt that it really held this game back. I didn't like that all battles boiled down to just going around in a circle and occasionally stopping or swerving. It reduced gameplay to very boring repetition, with no real variety or skill needed to get by. I didn't mind the plot; it was better than some that I have played, but I did find that it was a little trope-heavy at times. It also relied on a lot of crass and childish humour, which was okay at first but got old quickly. I would have liked to have had some more vehicles available and found that it got boring having the same car for the majority of play, especially given how little you could actually upgrade your vehicles too. I personally found the ending mission to be horribly balanced and really frustrating, with constant restarts and reloads needed to actually succeed. It's a shame really, as this could have been a pretty good game if it had received some extra work and a few spit shines.
From a visual point of view, this wasn't that bad of a game, really. Yeah, some of the cars were overly squared with strangely shaped wheels, but I didn't mind it too much. I liked that the cutscenes were done with the game engine rather than being FMVs or animated clips. The car models were pretty robust, and I liked the damage detailing given to them. The environments were a little sparse, I thought, but they worked out in the end. I did like the settlements and such and thought that they looked pretty good, though. It was nice that they were mostly individual, and I felt that they helped to make the world feel more alive. The user interface was tidy and clean with just about the right amount of information given to the player, and I liked the colour palette for this game and found that the mute and dull shades fit in well with the post-apocalyptic themes. I liked the shadow and lighting effects, and I thought that the weapons and associated explosions looked pretty good too.
Overall, this isn't the worst game I have ever played, but it is also not one that I would jump to replay either.
4/10 – Could've Been Better!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
I liked the concept and ideas behind this game and found that the controls and core elements of play were pretty good. However, there was also a lot that frustrated me and somewhat soured my experience. I found that at times the player could get stuck or lodged into the ground or hills too easily and would take several minutes to free, unless you gave in and chose to reload a save. This was a major problem in the sections of the game that were more narrow and required precise control inputs. This was also a problem during the fights, as it would stop you from being able to run away or find cover. There were a lot of problems with stability too on more modern machines, with crashes to the desktop being all too common. I think that I had twenty-two in my playthrough of this game, and that was twenty-two too many. There was some sort of issue with saving games too, and you'd have to have multiple saves and pray that they didn't all crap the bed at the same time. There was no fix for this either, and I spent hours on old game forums searching for one. I found the boss battles were very harsh and left little to no room for any errors, and without fail, the computer always had a better, more heavily armed and armoured vehicle. I grew frustrated with this and felt that it really held this game back. I didn't like that all battles boiled down to just going around in a circle and occasionally stopping or swerving. It reduced gameplay to very boring repetition, with no real variety or skill needed to get by. I didn't mind the plot; it was better than some that I have played, but I did find that it was a little trope-heavy at times. It also relied on a lot of crass and childish humour, which was okay at first but got old quickly. I would have liked to have had some more vehicles available and found that it got boring having the same car for the majority of play, especially given how little you could actually upgrade your vehicles too. I personally found the ending mission to be horribly balanced and really frustrating, with constant restarts and reloads needed to actually succeed. It's a shame really, as this could have been a pretty good game if it had received some extra work and a few spit shines.
From a visual point of view, this wasn't that bad of a game, really. Yeah, some of the cars were overly squared with strangely shaped wheels, but I didn't mind it too much. I liked that the cutscenes were done with the game engine rather than being FMVs or animated clips. The car models were pretty robust, and I liked the damage detailing given to them. The environments were a little sparse, I thought, but they worked out in the end. I did like the settlements and such and thought that they looked pretty good, though. It was nice that they were mostly individual, and I felt that they helped to make the world feel more alive. The user interface was tidy and clean with just about the right amount of information given to the player, and I liked the colour palette for this game and found that the mute and dull shades fit in well with the post-apocalyptic themes. I liked the shadow and lighting effects, and I thought that the weapons and associated explosions looked pretty good too.
Overall, this isn't the worst game I have ever played, but it is also not one that I would jump to replay either.
4/10 – Could've Been Better!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
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