Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter Screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay 6.0 Graphics 9.2 Sound 8.5 Value 7.0 Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter- reviewed by Andrew B Review Date: October Review Score: 7.0/10  Distributed By: Vivendi Universal

Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter is the tale of a Space Ranger who has become a bounty hunter because of a criminal justice system that doesn't work. Set in the distant future where mankind has forged alliances with a variety of aliens, it has caused the universe to become a boiling pot of different cultures, both human and alien. It was only time before corruption set into this confederated government that not only guards dark secrets but also of justice denied.   Once you have selected that Ranger outfit you are from such as the Hawks or the Eagle (#: These make no difference to the storyline besides showing the gamer some cool logos), the story soon starts as we see our hero Mace aboard a space ranger patrol ship. Unfortunately for Mace, his day is about to get worse when the rangers encounter a decimated starship that has been attacked by aliens. Fortunately for the few remaining crew members, the Rangers are here and beware the fury of Mace Griffin. The storyline of Mace Griffin uses in-game graphics to tell the tale of Mace but fortunately the graphics engine of the game is extremely pleasant on the eyes.   Unfortunately for Mace, this was the day his life would go from worse to disastrous as Mace is the only survivor of this doomed expedition. Framed for the murders of his fellow rangers, Mace is imprisoned and when he is finally released, he learns that the rangers have been disgraced and disbanded. Mace Griffin (played by the legendary Henry Rollins) doesn't like being screwed with and decides to investigate the culprits who framed him and get bloody revenge in the process.   The main method of gameplay of Mace Griffin is that the game is a first person shooter that has you embarking on a variety of different quests that allows you to purchase guns, ammunition and of course space ships. The only fast way to receive money is to become a bounty hunter and Mace finds that this is his new calling in life. Although the storyline of Mace Griffin sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster movie, the main gameplay of the game is sorely lacking. The majority of missions are fairly lacklustre and involve you killing a variety of human and alien enemies that eventually leads you to the conspirators behind your doomed ranger expedition.   You basically control Mace with the analog stick and use the shoulder buttons as your primary and secondary attacks. The combat in the game is brilliant and the weaponry is varied and impressive with some beautiful special effects. However, one of the most infuriating aspects of the game is the "darkness" in the game that frustrated me throughout the entire game. Easily one of the worst levels in the game is the first mission that is so dark, it is almost impossible to move and you continually bump into things and cannot do things that you must do.

There the developers failed to include any brightest or contrast option in the game, so I had to manually adjust my television to see where I was going. I'm sorry but this is unacceptable and gamers should not have to adjust their television sets in order to play a game.

Onto a brighter note, the artificial intelligence of the game was quite complex and your enemies performed a variety of moves in the game such as rolls, hiding behind crates and even sneaking up on you. The game also contains a variety of puzzles that must be solved and thankfully you have a mini-radar to show you where your next objective is. The auto-targeting of the game was a little annoying as you must target a creature for a few seconds before it locks onto them that made it extremely difficult to engage in enemies later on during the game. The save feature of the game is basically done via checkpoints that can become frustrating, considering that some of the levels are extremely long and time consuming.  The space missions of Mace Griffin help break up the monotony of the first person shooter engine and allows you fly freely in space and engage in a variety of space missions such as seek and destroy and it would of been nice if these missions were more prevalent throughout the game.

Graphically, Mace Griffin is up there with the best of games such as Halo and Brute Force. The game itself is visually striking with sharp graphics, gorgeous colours and some brilliantly created character models that puts many first person shooter games to shame. The game looks and feels like you are in some futuristic science movie that is a combination of Star Ship Troopers meets the Fifth Element. The character models are professionally created and move with human-like or alien reflexes that helps keep the game real. The game also contains a variety of special effects such as lighting, blurring and some brilliant weapon effects and explosions.

The musical score of Mace Griffin suits the game perfectly and helps immerse you in this futuristic fictional world of violence and intrigue. The voice acting of the game has been professionally done and as mentioned earlier, the main character of the game is played by none another than Henry Rollins himself. I would of loved for some more "harsh" remarks but Mace is a serious character rather than a Han Solo. The in-game sounds have also been professionally done, weather it's the grunts or screams of the aliens or the powerful sounding explosions from these futuristic weapons.

In conclusion, Mace Griffin isn't a bad game but unfortunately it had some highly frustrating parts of the game that really put a downer on this title. With awesome graphics and action, Mace Griffin is probably the title to keep you over till Halo 2 comes out but just don't expect too much. Oh... and don't expect any multiplayer features because this game has none.

- Andrew B