document type..... review product name....... gore product's address.. http://www.4drulers.com/gore/ ok. i just got done with playing the first few levels of 4d rulers' "gore: ultimate soldier". i'd checked out a few screenshots (which looked pretty good) and read a bunch of reviews (mostly good) about the game. since the screenshots were good, i decided to at least try it out for myself before passing judgement. loading the game on my computer was a snap... since they don't really give you many options. setup of the game was also pretty easy, all the various configuration possibilities were easy to find. it started fine and i jumped right into a "easy" single player game. the first thing they throw at you is a simple tutorial, which also sets up the main storyline. not bad but a little thin. gameplay is similar to every other f.p.s. you have ever played. if it moves, shoot it... if it complains and is not shooting you, shoot something else. not really the greatest setup for "friendly fire" but there seemed to be no way to change it. ai in the game is pretty pathetic. my experience was that if the enemy saw you, they came after you. regardless of if you had the pistol or the mini-gun. you could be invulnerable with a mini-gun pumping bullets, point-blank, into their skull and they'd still try to get to you with their beer can. lame. what in the name of john quincy adams were they thinking? enemy ai has taken huge leaps and bounds in the last few games i've played (q3a, rtcw, swjk2:jo) and they dump this kind of weak-kneed ai onto a game coming out now?!?! weak. so sorry, try again please. and if that wasn't enough, it takes 4 to 6 bullets in the head to kill one of them but i could lose half my health to a loser with a beer can in one hit... on "easy". what is that all about?!? "easy" should flip-flop those statistics. someone was asleep when it came to "quality assurance". next! graphically, the game looks ok. now remember, i just upgraded from an old skool 3dfx voodoo3 3000 with 16mb to a hercules 3d prophet 64mb (based on the geforce3 chipset). my graphics should be near the top for any game out there. this game simply looks "ok". it isn't bad, it's not terrific... it's just "ok". you want examples?? ok... the people look fake. not as in "they-look-like-square-blobs-floating-around-the-screen" fake, more in the "they-look-like-plastic-dolls-with-twelve-polygons-for -their-punk-hairdo-and-run-sideways-but-their-legs-are-pointing-at-you" fake. on the other hand, the buildings and environments look really nice. the streets look like a real chunk of street, the buildings look like real buildings, etc, etc. but those plastic people... ouch. the levels in the game are very average. they are as linear as you can get... there is only *one* way to get from point "a" to point "b". sure, there are a few side tracks but they never seemed to be more than 40 or 50 feet long with one, maybe two enemies. most games these days have 3 or 4 different ways to each objective, with ample enemies no matter which way you went. boring. overall, the game looks ok and plays ok... nothing to write home about but better than some fps's i've played. while the graphics display smoothly, the replayability is very so-so. i'll definately wait for this game to hit the bargain bins. all pages and contents (graphic or otherwise) are © 2002 by spudwrench or their respective authors.