Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin
- January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST
It's better than the movie. We found SouthPeak's Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin a more than competent blend of adventure and action-that just needs a little more beef.
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Conceived as a sequel to last summer's chaotic movie, The Steel Assassin finds Secret Service agents Jim West and Artemus Gordon unraveling a plot by "The Bull"--the professed "true assassin of Abraham Lincoln"--to kill President Grant at a re-opened Ford's Theater. They work independently in parallel episodes (four each) before uniting for the "Grant Finale"--West on the trail of Lincoln's killer, John Wilkes Booth, and inventor Gordon infiltrating the playhouse as an actor.
The TV show was essentially "The Avengers" removed to Victorian America--silly, inspired fun with a spooky technological edge-and that tone is recalled nicely in the intro on the Baltimore docks. What follows is a third-person adventure game in which you use a point-and-click interface to find creative uses for a range of mundane objects--and either shoot or elude your enemies. (West packs a range of conventional and exotic heat from the arsenal aboard Wanderer-the lavish train that serves as the base of operations. Gordon won't use weapons, and prefers disguise and evasion.)
Fundamentally, WWW is fun. The puzzles are involved-you can repair a tractor in detail to get West out of a burning barn-but, thanks to the copious journals, they're also accessible. While the game is linear, you can often find alternate routes through the action sequences. The gadgets aboard Wanderer are distracting-notably the microfilm and voice mail, which serve useful purposes. The graphics are generally impressive--though the animation was sometimes jerky or unrealistic--and the voice actors do a fine job imitating movie principals Will Smith and Kevin Kline.
Yet WWW isn't wholly satisfying. It needs to be beefier. Why is West following Booth's trail rather than The Bull's? (Kind of silly to have Grant use the Bull's note to light a cigar, no?) How does Gordon eavesdrop on a conversation ostensibly directly above his dressing room, but is in fact also across and down the hall?
It lacks a sense of danger. The enemies are insubstantial and quirk-free compared to the movie's Arliss Loveless and Bloodbath McGrath and none of the obstacles are as intimidating as the movie's giant mechanical spider. The deadly turret and giant, electrified chess board West encounters are perfect WWW fodder but should have been better primed with cut scenes to make us better feel the threat. The alternate routes don't seem to extend to conversations, which have only one conclusion. The romantic elements feel tacked-on--save for one alluring near miss-and much of the humor is forced. The chemistry lab and elaborate map display aboard Wanderer have no true purpose. (A shame, as both might have made decent sub-games.)
Finally, WWW seems a little short. The game re-uses three of its five regions. The last Artemus chapter consists of a simple duel. The key sequence in the finale is too brief and too non-interactive.
Now, The Steel Assassin isn't a bad game. Indeed, for a licensed game, it's pretty good, and certainly more fun than the movie.
It just doesn't feel quite complete.
