Gun Law, Commodore 16 and Plus/4, Mastertronic - 2C0146
-
Score - 5.5/105.5/10
Summary
Gun Law is a clear and obvious clone of Commando. However, on this system, it is better than the Elite conversion of the arcade game. The difficulty level is ramped up a fair bit, so you will need some practice to get further and to get to the alien ships which mark the end of each level. The lack of diagonal movement can be a cause of frustration, as is the narrow screen, but there is more than enough in there to give you that one more go factor, and at least plays better than the original Atari 8-bit version.
User Review
( vote)Gun Law (or Gunlaw as the title screen and the cassette labels say) started out as a game for the Atari 8-bit systems, being released there first. Richard Clark, who had already programmed a couple of Commodore 16 and Plus/4 games, namely Cave Fighter and Trizons for Bubble Bus, was on hand to do the conversion job. As the system also did not have a great home conversion from the Commando arcade machine, there was a potential gap which either Who Dares Wins II, Legionnaire, or this game could fill. The plot effectively puts you against alien attacks (perhaps a nod to the German version of Commando, Space Invasion) and to fight alone and reach the enemy space ships and pass those until you find your own ship at the end of the game.
Diagonal Dilemmas
After loading and being presented with the title screen, you can press fire to start, and straight away you are in enemy territory. In this version, your man has a green outfit on and the enemies in blue (which are the opposite way around on the Atari version.) As you move, the first frustration of the game does hit you – in that you cannot move or shoot diagonally, only in four directions. The only leveller is that the enemies can also only move and shoot in those same directions too, meaning careful positioning and placement as well as shots are required to progress.
Two Thirds Trauma
The other noticeable thing you will observe is that the screen is presented more in a wide screen format, with only around two thirds of the height of the screen visible as the play area. This may have been a way of saving memory to ensure what does scroll is smooth, and once you pass that initial shock, you can carefully push your way up to scroll the screen without immediately running into one of the enemies that spawn as you move. In addition, the trees, bushes, and some of the fences stop the bullets, so that can sometimes be useful if you wanted to just get past an enemy without engaging in a shoot out to the death.
When you load up the game, you also see a line under the bullet character when you or the enemies shoot. After some investigation and noted on Plus/4 World, this was down to fact that the final byte of the 16K memory ($3FFF) was not saved, and setting this to the correct value restores the correct bullet view. You will note that the screen shots show the bullets correctly, as I entered the correct POKE and then restarted the game accordingly so it would look more like what the game should be intended.
Going Commando
The enemies do shoot at regular intervals from the get go, and indeed their shots travel a fair way unless blocked by an object, so you really do have to keep your eyes out for bullets everywhere. You can also be killed by the enemies touching you, so keeping a reasonable distance is key. This is not so easy when approaching the enemy huts, especially those you must walk through the door of to progress further in the game. There is also later an electric fence which switches on and off, which you need to time your run past to avoid death and losing one of the five lives you start with – although it says 4 men at the start, your last life is with 0 men, so that status may indicate spare men.
Alien Syndrome
At the end of certain sections of the game, an alien saucer type craft appears at the top of the screen and shoots at you. You cannot destroy it, but you need to ensure you avoid any bullets and survive. One bug bear I did see was that if the bullet remains on screen after the ship has left, this becomes a death hazard to avoid which is not ideal. If you do manage to get all the way to the end a similar craft is your own space ship which then comes to collect you. It will be a long and difficult way to get there, and no doubt will require patience and possibly a cheat.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics in Gun Law are functional but not spectacular, with the trees, bushes, huts and fences all recognisable. As the background is mainly brown, your character also has that background which is more visible when approaching the fences or huts and walking past them. There is not much animation, but the bullets are at least visible. The sound is very limited to a few effects when you shoot an enemy or die, or when the alien craft appears, with a small sound when you achieve an extra life – of which one is earned every 10,000 points you make.
Final Thoughts
Gun Law on the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 seems to do a reasonable job at being a clone of Commando. Yes, the narrow screen and the lack of diagonal movement are off-putting, but at least it is the same for the enemies too. The game is very difficult, but at least you do feel like you get further each time and can learn from the best places to stand and fire, whilst negotiating the huts, fences, and the alien ships at the end of sections. There is a sizeable challenge, but the difficulty level will without doubt put some off. It is a competent effort without being spectacular, and worth a try if not just to compare that to the Elite conversion of Commando.
* * *
You know what we think but why not share your thoughts on this game! Let us know what you think of it in the comments below, or add your own score using the slider in the summary box at the top of the review!
I expected a big improvement over the lacklustre conversion of Commando on the C16 when I first set eyes on this.
The only improvement over Commando I found was that at least this was a horizontal scroller, like Commando should have been.
Unlike Commando though you get no grenades, you rely solely on your machine gun. The playing area is also very small, so being hit by a bullet becomes a lot more unavoidable. But unlike the flickery Legionnaire, at least you can easily see the enemy fire.
These drawbacks makes your mission a bit tougher. No I’ll rephrase that, a lot tougher. Particularly so when you cannot move nor shoot diagonally. But thankfully nor can your enemies.
You can’t shoot diagonally in Elite’s C16 version of Ikari Warriors either whilst your enemies can. But at least you can move diagonally although they can too, and you do have grenades as well as a driveable tank. The playing area is also larger in Ikari, so enemy bullets are more avoidable.
This makes Gunlaw a much tougher game to progress through. If you get past the first stage, then well done.
Similarly like Ikari Warriors, this requires far more patience to play, and plan ahead. Not just steam right in like Super Joe. But because you cannot move diagnonally in Gunlaw within a far smaller playing area, it requires a lot more patience.
The graphics are quite nice though if nothing special. Fairly decent title screen with a high score display. There are also options for joystick or keyboard control. Sound is minimal though, but this is pretty standard on the C16.
Whilst there is a playable & challenging game there, I just found it a little too challenging to the brink of frustration. Particularly because of the small playing area. I found any noticable progress in this game to be too slow to hold my interest for very long.
But it’s better than Commando. Dare I say it I even prefer it over Legionnaire which I found too glitchy to be enjoyable. It’s probably on a par with Who Dares Wins II.
For a Commando experience for the unexpanded C16, Ikari Warriors is the best you’re going to find in this genre, which includes grenades, driveable tanks and even the co-op 2 player play. Despite its own lack of diagnonal fire (unlike the enemies) it’s a lot less frustrating and more enjoyable to play than Gunlaw. The best game in its genre and my favourite arcade conversion on the C16 actually.
I equally give Gunlaw 5.5/10 as Warren Pilkington. It’s ok but the frustrating high difficulty may have you reaching for the reset button quite quickly.
Slight amendment. I mistakenly called it a horizontal scroller, when in fact it’s vertical.