What happens if you fuse a platform game with sketchy graphics and a Western theme? Well, you get Gunman Clive 2. Oh, and I forgot something: Get some patience. You’ll need some.
Indeed. Gunman Clive 2 lets you choose between three characters (and an extra that you need to unlock): Gunman Clive, Ms. Johnson and Chieftain Bob and three levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal and Hard.
But it doesn’t really define what will make this game cringe-worthy sometimes. It has good potential, and the theme is respected, and you’re in for a text-less/voice-less story. But there’s a flaw about it: the first stage throws you in hot water, with no explanation about the controls (unless if you really care about reading the virtual manuals, after all) and no real information about the story. You start the first level, a whole town is in flames, and for some reason, everybody wants your skin.
And talking about the controls, I couldn’t really help but feel some kind of pain: A does nothing, B is used to jump, Y is used to attack/shoot, and X is totally useless while you’re travelling the stages. Why the A Button is useless ? In all or most of the games, A is used during gameplay for something, and not only for menus ! But well, maybe that’s a simple mistake, and I’ll go on.
That’s where you’re wrong. While the levels can be relatively short, every death makes you restart from a level’s beginning. The same goes for the boss. Okay, maybe the “No-Checkpoint” thing was planned since the beginning, but, darn, that’s some hot stuff, especially during the boss battles, where even the first boss’s pattern will always deal you damage, because you can’t avoid it! Even the power-ups are useless since when you get hit, they get disabled!
But, I can find one great thing in this game: the Plane part. That’s a level which really brings fun, and where you won’t die that easily. Too bad it’s too short.
So it concludes the gameplay part: You (try) to dodge attacks, you die, you restart until you manage to get to the next level. I won’t really expand the music and the graphics part, since musically, the theme is respected, and graphically, the “sketchy” theme is respected as well.
Conclusion: Gunman Clive 2 has the idea to be a great game. Sadly, you can’t help but feel like the idea was badly executed, whether it’s about the controls, the bosses’ patterns or even the difficulty who is a total lie (Yes, I wanted to enjoy the “story”, so I picked Easy, which wasn’t that easy). While the theme is respected both musically and graphically with a sketch-like appearance, the fact that the game has no story or text might also get a bit confusing. I was kinda excited at the idea of reviewing this game, but well, I was kinda disappointed. There are games who are better for this price tag.
Final Score: 5/10 (50/100)
