A Few Pointers : Wild Wild West - The Steel Assassin

Ursulla · 01-24-2009, 12:09 PM

I have just finished it...
There are not many Western Adventures out there and this one has been released 10 years ago...
The story here is not the usual nonsence about greed and romance...The game takes you to one of the most turbulent period in U.S.A history...Few years after President Abe Lincoln has been assisinated...The president this time is Grant who strives to keep his popularity amongst the American people...He decides to attend the premiere of the re-opening of the same Theatre where Lincoln was murdered...But In doing so he exposes himself to be assisinated himself...Your job is to save his life...
You play two of his henchmen..One is a gunslinger the other is an inventor of all kinds of gadgets...
The game is divided into chapters and you play each one of those heroes alternately...thus giving the game a variety of different styles of gameplay ...
The gunslinger hero relies heavily on his weapons...Each mission you choose 4 pieces of weapons out of an arsenal of all kinds of weapons from that period...I suspect few of them are just pure wild imagination of the designer but they are quite fun to use in combat...He also ride a clever horse to help him with his mission...
The inventor hero never uses guns and relies on his gadgets,toolkits,disguises and his superior intelligence...
Together they invistigate different locations in different cities...Each location is a different style of gameplay thus making the game entertaining and interesting...
I was looking forward for the actions bits and choosed the highest level of combat named "Give me all you got "...Relying only on weapon power here will not get you anywhere as you are outnumbered....You must use your brain how to get out of difficult situations...
Playing with the inventor is more difficult as he doen't carry any weapon and the only solution available for him his using his wits...
You have 5 lives for each mission and you have the ability to use bandages to retrieve a life but never above 5 lives...Lossing all 5 lives means End of game...
Best puzzle :Crossing a giant Chess board using only the knight piece ability movement while surrounded by many robot enemy knights...Wrong move and you are electrified...
Graphics were suprisingly good and a feast to the eye...
The game has a sound hardware accelaration and using my surround speakers with this feature yield a very satisfactory experience...
The game is fully speeched and has two CD's one for installing the second for playing..
The game is presented from 3rd point of view and all the action is watched in that way...Only when there is a significant object to interact with the view changes into 1st perspective...

Technical issues : The game started in a very promising way but once there was a dialogue with lines to choose from the text vanishes...
The only solution for this was using Virtual PC with windows 98 as Operating system...
With this I had a few crashes and the frame rate was poor...meaning the movement of characters were a bit jerky...

My final verdict : A worthy game with varied gameplay....

Marian · 01-26-2009, 07:31 AM

Nice review!

The crashes might have to do with your processor speed; Virtual PC is great for running older Windows games that are problematic on newer systems, but it doesn't always solve this sort of problem. Sometimes lowering your sound and/or graphics acceleration within Windows 98 on Virtual PC can help, I have found---when I played Nightlong and Dark Side of the Moon on Virtual PC, for example, the sound was stuttering, but when I tried reducing the sound acceleration within Windows 98 on the Virtual PC, the problem was resolved.

Have fun!

Ursulla · 01-26-2009, 07:54 AM

Hi Marian

Thanks
Resourceful as always..
But do you mean lowering the volume or what ?
Where exactly and what exactly need to be lowered under Windows 98...
I'm not sure I follow exatcly your intention...

VoodooFX · 01-26-2009, 12:39 PM

No she/he means sound acceleration under Dxdiag... type dxdiag into Run command line (In Start Menu), select "Sound" tab. There you will see a slider for sound acceleration from default "full acceleration" to "no acceleration"

The same thing is also reachable in Control Panel under Sounds and Audio devices (Windows XP), select "Sound" tab, select Advanced in Playback section. Once there, select "Performance" tab.

Ursulla · 01-26-2009, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooFX

No she/he means sound acceleration under Dxdiag... type dxdiag into Run command line (In Start Menu), select "Sound" tab. There you will see a slider for sound acceleration from default "full acceleration" to "no acceleration"

The same thing is also reachable in Control Panel under Sounds and Audio devices (Windows XP), select "Sound" tab, select Advanced in Playback section. Once there, select "Performance" tab.

Thanks VoodooFX

...But I havn't seen any slider for graphics only for sound...So what Marian means by lowering graphic acceleration ?
There is only a possibility for disabling it...
And does it matter if I lower the acceleration from within Windows 98 or from Windows XP ?

01-24-2009, 12:09 PM	#1
Ursulla NO senior just Senorita.. Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 210	A Few Pointers : Wild Wild West - The Steel Assassin I have just finished it... There are not many Western Adventures out there and this one has been released 10 years ago... The story here is not the usual nonsence about greed and romance...The game takes you to one of the most turbulent period in U.S.A history...Few years after President Abe Lincoln has been assisinated...The president this time is Grant who strives to keep his popularity amongst the American people...He decides to attend the premiere of the re-opening of the same Theatre where Lincoln was murdered...But In doing so he exposes himself to be assisinated himself...Your job is to save his life... You play two of his henchmen..One is a gunslinger the other is an inventor of all kinds of gadgets... The game is divided into chapters and you play each one of those heroes alternately...thus giving the game a variety of different styles of gameplay ... The gunslinger hero relies heavily on his weapons...Each mission you choose 4 pieces of weapons out of an arsenal of all kinds of weapons from that period...I suspect few of them are just pure wild imagination of the designer but they are quite fun to use in combat...He also ride a clever horse to help him with his mission... The inventor hero never uses guns and relies on his gadgets,toolkits,disguises and his superior intelligence... Together they invistigate different locations in different cities...Each location is a different style of gameplay thus making the game entertaining and interesting... I was looking forward for the actions bits and choosed the highest level of combat named "Give me all you got "...Relying only on weapon power here will not get you anywhere as you are outnumbered....You must use your brain how to get out of difficult situations... Playing with the inventor is more difficult as he doen't carry any weapon and the only solution available for him his using his wits... You have 5 lives for each mission and you have the ability to use bandages to retrieve a life but never above 5 lives...Lossing all 5 lives means End of game... Best puzzle :Crossing a giant Chess board using only the knight piece ability movement while surrounded by many robot enemy knights...Wrong move and you are electrified... Graphics were suprisingly good and a feast to the eye... The game has a sound hardware accelaration and using my surround speakers with this feature yield a very satisfactory experience... The game is fully speeched and has two CD's one for installing the second for playing.. The game is presented from 3rd point of view and all the action is watched in that way...Only when there is a significant object to interact with the view changes into 1st perspective... Technical issues : The game started in a very promising way but once there was a dialogue with lines to choose from the text vanishes... The only solution for this was using Virtual PC with windows 98 as Operating system... With this I had a few crashes and the frame rate was poor...meaning the movement of characters were a bit jerky... My final verdict : A worthy game with varied gameplay.... Share Share this post on Twitter Last edited by Ursulla; 01-26-2009 at 07:58 AM.

01-26-2009, 07:31 AM	#2
Marian Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: near Yosemite in California Posts: 245	Nice review! The crashes might have to do with your processor speed; Virtual PC is great for running older Windows games that are problematic on newer systems, but it doesn't always solve this sort of problem. Sometimes lowering your sound and/or graphics acceleration within Windows 98 on Virtual PC can help, I have found---when I played Nightlong and Dark Side of the Moon on Virtual PC, for example, the sound was stuttering, but when I tried reducing the sound acceleration within Windows 98 on the Virtual PC, the problem was resolved. Have fun! Share Share this post on Twitter

01-26-2009, 07:54 AM	#3
Ursulla NO senior just Senorita.. Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 210	Hi Marian Thanks Resourceful as always.. But do you mean lowering the volume or what ? Where exactly and what exactly need to be lowered under Windows 98... I'm not sure I follow exatcly your intention... Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ But Not Andress

01-26-2009, 12:39 PM	#4
VoodooFX Grumpy & bitter man Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Slovenia Posts: 1,171	No she/he means sound acceleration under Dxdiag... type dxdiag into Run command line (In Start Menu), select "Sound" tab. There you will see a slider for sound acceleration from default "full acceleration" to "no acceleration" The same thing is also reachable in Control Panel under Sounds and Audio devices (Windows XP), select "Sound" tab, select Advanced in Playback section. Once there, select "Performance" tab. Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ We may have days, we may have hours, but sooner or later we all push up flowers.

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