Increasing your individual statistics, and building your avatar to your individual liking is done through the use of weapons and armour that can be purchased using gold you’ve won from victory in battle, or purchased with your credit card. It is in this department that “Gunbound” greatly succeeds, but also heavily fails. You see, when you begin playing “Gunbound” you have a lot of fun playing and upgrading your equipment, purchasing different weapons and items that increase your armour or power and make you look cooler –- but before long you will run into a player that is either filthy rich, or has stolen his parents credit card, and as a result looks and plays like the Angel of Death. It is in these situations that you are forced to make the tough decision to either fork over some cash and beef up your avatar, or be destroyed by those who have.

Aside from spending your money on Angel Wings and Weapons, there is also a wide variety of power-ups that can be purchased and used whilst playing the game to tip the scales of battle in your favour. Every player has an inventory with 6 available slots, with items taking either 1 or 2 slots each. Items have a variety of different effects, ranging from the [Dual] which grants players an additional shot in battle, and [Blood] allowing you to sacrifice some of your Energy for a damage boost, to the more interesting items like [Bunge Shot], which buries an attacked opponent in the ground when struck, stopping them from moving around the battlefield. No matter which items you choose to take into battle, all of them will prove to be useful in one way or another, and all of them give great tactical advantage to those players that use them effectively.

With all that said and done, like “Worms” before it, “Gunbound” takes a considerable amount of skill to become a good player. You can have all the items in the game, but if you can’t shoot straight or find cover when required then you will undoubtedly fail before you even begin. And this is exactly why I enjoyed playing “Gunbound” so much; even a player that has only just begun can defeat an un-skilled veteran in the blink of an eye with a well placed shot and some tactical thinking. It’s hard to explain how this plays without actually seeing it for yourself; it’s simply one of those games that you have to see to understand. If you’re having trouble getting a picture, check the video and screenshot sections above to get a better understanding of what Im talking about.

“Gunbound” doesn’t really fit into conventional labels; if I had to label a genre, it would be 2D Tactical Shooter Room Based MMO. That’s about the best summary of “Gunbound” that you’re likely to get. On the plus side, “Gunbound” is less than 300MB, and totally free to play without purchasing special items, meaning that if you’re even a little curious about it at this point you should definitely get out there and give it a go. It’s a very repetitive style of gaming, and as such you may find that after playing for a few hours you don’t much feel like doing so anymore, but it’s addictive, and a few hours later there’s a good chance you’ll be coming back for more.

March 24th, 2009