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  • Time to take a look back at one of the more forgotten, but intriguing Mechwarrior-likes from the mid-90s.

  • This is G-Nome, developed by Distant Thunder and published by 7th Level in 1997 for Windows PCs.

  • "G-Nome pushes real-time 3D simulation over the edge!"

  • "Actual screenshots", ooh!

  • Yeah, 7th Level were quite proud of this one. Prior to this, they were largely known for a variety of rather bizarre 2D adventures and

  • novelty desktop applications, stuff like Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time and Arcade America

  • But in 1995, 7th Level purchased the developer and the rights to G-Nome from the financially troubled Merit Software.

  • Who'd first teased it to the public in 1994?

  • At that point, G-Nome was only a conceptual demo, showing off Distant Thunder's new engine,

  • taking the form of an adventure game that allowed for

  • "cutting-edge comic-book style graphics and characters that look as though they've stepped out of the comic book and onto your screen."

  • They also boasted of it having an intricate artificial intelligence system

  • that was expertly created by engineers who formerly designed Command Control Communications and Intelligence (C3I) for the Defense Department.

  • Yeah, well that changed!

  • After several delays, what we got in 1997 is a mech game that superficially blends in with all the other mech games in 1997.

  • Inside the box, you get the game itself on a single CD-ROM,

  • a keyboard and joystick command reference sheet,

  • advertisements for things like the defunct Mplayer network

  • and a manual that goes into a lot more than it needs to.

  • While I appreciate that it delves into the specs and history of each in-game item,

  • in actuality this is almost completely inconsequential to the gameplay itself.

  • G-Nome begins with a G-Dang intro video showing a guy having intense monochrome flashbacks.

  • "... discovery of the middle rich uninhabited Phygos star system."

  • Say hello to your protagonist, retired sergeant Joshua Gantt,

  • who's been brought back into the action, due to an imminent threat in the year 2225.

  • "I'm sure you've heard of the discovery of the Phygos star system."

  • "Whoever controls this system controls the whole spiral arm."

  • Hmm, so we can easily travel between star systems on a whim,

  • but this one particular system is somehow the key to controlling the entire galactic arm?

  • K.

  • "Quick, strong, intelligent and designed for combat."

  • "Impervious to pain."

  • "Your mission sergeant, is to kill the G-Nome and destroy the facility where it's kept."

  • The catalyst for the war are creatures called G-Nomes, hence the name of the game.

  • Bit of an odd choice since you practically never see a G-Nome outside a couple of cutscenes, but whatever!

  • After this, you get the main menu, where you do menu things mainly, as well as aimlessly peruse the lab database, voiced by Jennifer Hale.

  • "Darken, darken, darken, darken,

  • union, union, union, union,

  • merc, merc, merc, merc,

  • scorp, scorp, scorp, scorp..."

  • "Developers, developers, developers, developers..."

  • Starting a new game gives you the option to play a single mission, play a training mission or begin at the beginning.

  • Sounds like the kind of redundant redundancy I would put in my script, but they went ahead and did it for me.

  • Thanks, 7th Level!

  • There's also a multiplayer mode but I'll just be showing single-player, because I'm the only person I know with a copy of this thing.

  • The campaign training mode is a nice place to start, because I mean that's why it exists.

  • But while I welcome its inclusion, it's not the best example of a tutorial that I've ever seen,

  • since it carelessly tosses you into the action and expects you to look up the controls on your own

  • as you fumble around and probably blow yourself up.

  • [explosion]

  • But if you're familiar with games like Mechwarrior 2, Earth Siege 2 or Shattered Steel, you'll be right at home.

  • Those aren't arbitrary examples either. It comes with control layouts that mimic those games exactly,

  • making it pretty obvious where their inspirations lie.

  • Those inspirations continue into the story missions, where you take charge from the cockpit of a giant walking mech.

  • Wait, sorry, 'Heavy Armored Weapons Chassis', or HAWC.

  • Oh, it's cute how all these BattleTech universe clones came up with their own unique 4 letter acronyms.

  • Anyway, as the lead HAWC pilot, it's your job to wander the landscape

  • and carry out objectives by following waypoints and addressing any resistance with a show of force.

  • Cannons, missiles, energy weapons, shields, turrets, you know the drill!

  • You'll also half the time find yourself with the expected wingman in tow,

  • who can be given broad commands to carry out, such as following, attacking, defending and riding along as a passenger.

  • But where G-Nome stands apart is with one key on the keyboard:

  • Backspace.

  • Pressing 'backspace' makes you eject from your HAWC, and take matters into your own hands at ground level.

  • This is not only helpful for making an escape when your HAWC is toast, but it's also a legit strategy.

  • It is entirely possible to reject during a firefight,

  • shoot your opponent with a grenade that forces them to eject from their vehicle,

  • then crouch down and snipe them before they can get back inside.

  • And hey, since they're not using it anymore, just jack their ride and proceed in disguise with your shiny new hardware!

  • That's right, say hello to Grand Theft Mech or Grand Theft HAWC.

  • You know what I mean, run around with your teammates, shooting people in the face,

  • infiltrate buildings and bases and jump inside any empty vessel to use it against them!

  • It reminds me a little bit of the game 'Corncob 3D' in this respect,

  • where you could hop out of your plane to blast aliens and carry out missions on-foot between flying.

  • Unlike that game though, the on-foot stuff in G-Nome isn't just a tertiary feature.

  • It's how you'll play a significant chunk of the game.

  • Many missions have you starting on-foot, sneaking into an enemy base,

  • disabling their defenses or opening new pathways and stealing one of their rides to proceed.

  • And I've got to say this is the entire reason that G-Nome is worth playing, because otherwise it's a bit mundane.

  • When you're not boosting mechs, tanks, sentries and hovercrafts, you are mostly just doing a lot of really slow cumbersome travel.

  • Don't get me wrong. I know that spending a lot of time getting from point A to point B is par for the course in games like this,

  • but G-Nome in particular manages to make piloting a 50-foot tall robot pretty boring and irksome most of the time.

  • For one thing, you can only traverse flat wide-open scenery.

  • Don't even think about walking on hills, or near hills, or through water, or anything that even looks a little bit strange.

  • You don't get any auto aiming either, so you're left with the fidgety joystick and keyboard controls for everything,

  • which half the time I found either too sensitive or confusingly unresponsive.

  • There's also very little in the way of systems management to attend to in your HAWC.

  • You have basic shields and a throttle, but nothing in the way of rerouting energy to other systems,

  • making minor repairs or customizing loadouts

  • HAWCs are all treated as disposable, which I can understand since you're meant to be hopping from one to another as needed,

  • but it prevented me from feeling any connection to my machine since I was never looking forward to earning my next upgrade,

  • or worrying about keeping it intact since there's always another HAWC right around the corner.

  • G-Nome is much more of an arcadey mech game in this respect and while there is nothing inherently wrong with that,

  • I felt that it made each mission feel isolated and left me feeling apathetic to the experience as a whole.

  • And the ending is pretty weak too with one of those annoying cliffhanger post-credit scenes

  • that makes you look forward to a direct sequel, that of course the developer never finished.

  • G-Nome ended up selling badly and received middling reviews at best,

  • with the intended real-time strategy spin-off 'Dominion' being sold off to Ion Storm before it was completed.

  • It was eventually finished and released by them as 'Dominion: Storm over Gift 3' in 1998,

  • while 7th Level burned itself alive with a merger gone wrong that same year.

  • Still, despite its average gameplay and non-existent legacy,

  • G-Nome has a charming sensibility to it that kept me curiously puttering about for a good handful of hours.

  • It's not just the mech jacking aspect,

  • I also love the mid-90s Sci-Fi atmosphere it provides with its low res texture mapping and muffled ambient sound effects.

  • [ambient sounds]

  • And I appreciate its occasional touch of humor, like when you're a passenger in a vehicle,

  • this relaxing muzak plays as the carnage rages on outside.

  • And finally, I simply enjoy any game with mechs or hercs or HAWCS or whatever it happens to call them to avoid a lawsuit.

  • Computer games with giant robots like this make me happy, even when they're pointy and low-res as G-Nome.

  • Admittedly it's not much to look at, even for 1997,

  • with its lack of hardware acceleration and limited 256-color graphics, but even in our time of copious retro gaming throwbacks,

  • very few seek to mimic this chunky software rendering, with its warping textures and dithered shadow blobs.

  • So while it's sold badly enough that running across a copy is highly unlikely, especially one complete in-box,

  • I'd still say G-Nome is worth checking out if you get the chance,

  • if only for the experience of forcing an enemy to bail,

  • stealing their mech and stomping them to bits with it as you admire its jagged aesthetic.

  • [sounds of pain]

  • And a big thank you to Joseph (aka FusionTron) for sending me this boxed copy of G-Nome years ago,

  • I've been meaning to cover it forever, just now getting around to it

  • so I hope you enjoyed and if you did, there's other videos coming every Monday and Friday here on LGR, and as always

  • thank you very much for watching!

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G-Nome:忘れ去られた90年代のメカゲーム (G-Nome: The Forgotten 90s Mech Game)

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    林宜悉 に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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