Graphics and Sound

With a name like Gore, you’d expect to see limbs and heads and organs flying everywhere. Sadly, this isn’t the case. There’s barely any blood at all. The best the AMP 3D engine can do are bodies flying apart from explosions, albeit with next to no blood. Sometimes you see characters puke blood, but it looks more like an 8-bit NES effect than a modern PC engine. Even the breaking glass doesn’t break – bits of glass fall when you shoot a window, but the window can’t be destroyed. The one humorous effect is when you see someone’s ass catch on fire as they fly through the air if you hit their feet with a rocket.

In fact, the AMP 3D engine can’t even handle some of the basic principles of FPS games. There’s no “use” key, but that doesn’t really matter since nothing in the maps can move. No sliding doors, no cranes, no conveyor belts, no elevators; nothing. Yes, that’s right, there are no doors in Gore. There are doorways, etc., but no moving doors. Even Wolfenstein 3D had doors. I can’t believe I have to make a point to say a game doesn’t have doors. The Final Verdict does not bode well for Gore.

Machine gun

Evil reception desk

He's a good guy

Gore’s character animations are amateur. For example, the death animations (when you don’t gib someone) take too long. You can shoot someone and kill them, but you can’t tell they’re dead for a few seconds while their body falls over. If you’re trying to pay attention to multiple enemies this can be a pain. What makes it worse is that weapons blow up when you shoot them – this leads to a lot of self-inflicted damage when you keep shooting a body that just dropped a weapon. This also makes close-range and melee weapons totally worthless since you damage yourself just as much as your enemies.

The one redeeming factor in Gore’s graphics is the textures. The artists use shading well to give the low-poly models depth and character. I will admit though, that I also liked the textures in Daikatana, so make of that what you will. Unfortunately most of the textures on the maps are of a much lower quality than the character textures. Most of them look like the same bland, monotone wallpapers we’ve seen since Quake 1.

It looks like Dreamcatcher is trying to market the AMP 3D engine so other companies will license it, a la Quake 3 or Lithtech, but it’s beyond my comprehension as to why anyone would use this engine to make anything beyond a home remodeling tool.

Magic glass

Dissapearing blood

Armored skeleton

Sound Effects and Music

Sound effects tend to be hit or miss lately, and Gore is a definite miss. Most of the sound effects, like explosions and gunfire sound almost mono. There’s nothing remarkable about any of it. The heavy breathing when your character is tired reminds me of these strange phone calls I’ve been getting lately. (Terence might consider quitting his day job as a phone sex operator – ed) The voice acting seems like an afterthought, with such inventive phrases like, “I’m a knife guy!”

The music is completely forgettable. You can make better music in programs like MTV Music Generator. You could probably make better music throwing a piano down a flight of stairs. Well, it’s not that bad, but it definitely ranks up there as the polka equivalent in video game music.