Team 47 GoMan Review

Damn, this is fun

A key factor that can either make or break a game is the gameplay. A game with awesome graphics and sounds, but is just boring as hell to play, well, it usually doesn't make it very far. On the other hand, a game with mediocre graphics and okay sounds whose gameplay is more fun than a keg party on a Saturday night while your parents are out of town...well you get the picture. Team 47 Goman is one of the latter: pretty good graphics, bad sounds, and gameplay that just keeps the player playing regardless.

In most cases, in order to keep the gamer interested, there is an interesting story in addition to some background information. Team 47 Goman is no exception. Here is a quick, short version of a somewhat farfetched story that nevertheless does a good job creating a fun game-playing atmosphere. In order to stop the dark planetoid 'Nemesis' from colliding with the Earth, the United Earth Taskforce marines fired proton missiles, blowing it into harmless meteorites. Two years later (2147) these projectiles managed to reach the Earth's gravitational pull and landed on earth intact. At the spots where they landed, huge shapes grew to the size of skyscrapers and began to house living aliens. Later aliens, named the 'Children of Nemesis', emerged and began to cause havoc. The player must successfully lead Team 47 Goman (5 individuals with robots) to destroy these monsters.

To give a little more to the story line, 47-Tek (the developers) added a little bio on each one of the characters. This way the gamer knows where each is coming from. These people control their own robot in order to fight. Each robot has different characteristics that vary from speed, weight, armor and firepower. As usual, the faster robot has less armor and firepower while the slowest is fully equipped with the heaviest armor and most powerful guns. Robots look like a cross between Mechs (Mech Warrior 2) and Transformers (one of the best cartoons to ever hit TV).

Due to the complicated and numerous guns and moves, control is best on a joystick or gamepad (I was using a 10-button gamepad pro). I would have to say that playing with only the keyboard would give most people a headache trying to memorize every key. Aside from the regular movement, each robot can crouch, run, jump, fly and strafe. There are a number of weapons to use against the hideous monsters, each takes a different amount of power away from your weapon/thruster supply which recharges when the weapons are not in use. Here are the different weapons in order from least to most powerful: Visor beam, Plasma Shuriken, Plasma cannon, Plasma Sword, and Ultra Blast. As long as you have good controller, Team 47 Goman's gameplay will keep you hooked.

Graphics are pretty good. Unfortunately, for best results, 3D acceleration (i.e. 32FX) is almost a must. But it is worth it. When playing on anything less, 320x240x8 is probably the best resolution for smooth game-play (horrible when compared to the 640x480x16 supported by 3DFX). Most 3D models sometimes appear on the blocky side, especially buildings and landscape, but this is necessary in order to keep up a good frame-rate. Enemies look to fit their role but sometimes have choppy movement, while the player's movements are fluid and "flow" with the game. You are given the option of a number of views including first person, overhead, over shoulder, behind, and over-the-should zoomed out.

There were 3 major things that I disliked about the game. The first is that it that the game is short. After only an hour or two of playing I had almost beat the game. The second is that the game had a couple of bugs. After playing for an hour or two and almost beating the game, I decided to re-load the last level that I had previously saved. Unfortunately I was taken all the way back to the second level and the game crashed. I was forced to play all of it again and re-save it. The third is the sound.

Sounds, or lack thereof, are the main flaws that keep Team 47 Goman from achieving its fullest (mission packs can be made, bugs can be fixed but it's hard to add a bunch of sounds and fix the old ones). Most of the sounds are not the highest quality. Gunfire, jets (from flying), and hitting the ground are the 3 sounds that seem to be played over and over and over and over etc. More sounds would have greatly added to the overall playability of this game.

All in all, playing Team 47 Goman is the best aspect. You won't see (or especially hear) anything that will thrill you, but if you just want special effects, go to the movies. If you want to get hooked on an addictive game, strap yourself into one of the combat chassis of Team 47 Goman.