Bandits: Phoenix Rising (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.0 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Erik Wolpaw
• Reviewed on: 04/14/2003
• Released on: 03/28/2003
• Originally published on GameSpot: Bandits: Phoenix Rising (PC) Review

Bandits: Phoenix Rising is a straightforward car combat game that promises straightforward driving and shooting action and more or less fulfills that promise. It's not especially ambitious, but for what it is, and despite its problematic save system, it's good enough.

As far as plot is concerned, Bandits can be summed up in three words: The Road Warrior. It's the future, society has gone to pot, one thing leads to another, and all of a sudden you're driving a nitrous-injected dune-buggy tank across the desert. The main vehicle is actually piloted simultaneously by two characters: Fennec, a traditional wisecracking hero type, and Rewdalf, an angry Scottish dwarf. Which, technically, leaves you in the role of the car.

The game's 22 missions offer a nice variety of goals. There's offensive driving from points A to B, the running defense of friendly vehicles, racing, and the occasional oddball surprise mission, such as one in which you man a stationary turret. Most of the missions start at a screen where you can choose a chassis (light, medium, or heavy) and then stock it with a variety of weapons. Every vehicle's primary gun is a rotating turret that can fire in all directions. Steering defaults to mouse control, though you can switch on the fly to operating the turret with the mouse and steering with the keyboard, letting you drive in one direction while aiming and firing in another. This control scheme, combined with the large size of the environments, makes the combat less prone to the constant driving in tight circles that characterizes other car combat games. You can actually tear across the desert and still effectively engage a pack of cars on your tail.

Secondary weapons--ranging from missiles to Gatling guns to land mines--generally fire either straight ahead or straight behind your vehicle. This weapon choice adds a minor, but somewhat interesting, strategic element to every level. Some missions are definitely better tackled with a specific combination of chassis and armaments, though you may have to play a particular level a few times to figure out the best combination.

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