no way dude! small world, eh? I played Action Half-Life for a while to make some footage but only with bots and it was so much fun. I wish there were still servers, it would be a blast to play against other people :)
@@guncanny It really was. There was an active community into the late 2000's, but all good things come to an end. There have been a couple of attempts to bring a version to Source, but nothing really came together in a finished project. Back in the day though, it was a great thing. I worked on models, animations, and maps. Built a stand alone utility to manage replacement models called Armoury that worked with the big repository of the time, Haven O' Frags. I've got most of the original source kicking around on a backup somewhere still. Even my personal build with wildly crazy changes around weapons balance. Heck, I worked with Gooseman on Action Quake 2 as well, way back. He worked on the initial models for AHL before starting Counter Strike. That was a long time ago.
@@Vaximous It's backed up on a couple of cloud services. I don't think I'm in a position to release it without the rest of the team being good with that, and we've lost contact with each other many years ago.
Awesome! I loved Action Half-Life. Especially the soundtrack! Did you use free samples or was that produced by you too? I also liked The Opera which was like Action Half-Life on steroids
If you enter a valid, unused Gunman Chronicles CD Key into steam it unlocks every Goldscr game and places it in your library. For those who have picked up a physical copy, It may not be the game but its proof that Valve still has its product information lurking in their database
I didn’t even know that! Yeah, the photo I showed in the video is from a 2002 leak where Gabe had the game in his inventory :) so it’s definitely there, they just chose to ignore it :(
Interesting. I don't know why this vid was recommended to me but I played Gunman Chronicles & before Steam I'm pretty sure, and have the CD in my garage somewhere. Is "pre-Steam" considered used? I think I already have every Goldsrc game though in my library.
@@ezrimuldoon THIS! About 6 years ago I was going through my old stuff and found Gunmen cd. Then just out of curiousity entered that cdkey into steam and was very surprised when it gave me the whole goldsrc library.
I bought the big box version not long ago second hand because Gunman was a big part of my childhood. I tried the key and can confirm that I unlocked what is called "Half-Life Platinum Pack"
Ah well, the big reason why is not on Steam. It's out of Valve hands. The current holder of Gunman Chronicles right now is Microsoft from a series of bought up. Sierra->Vivendi->Activison->Microsoft. Heck, Microsoft probably do not know that game exist on their basement of unused IP.
@@guncanny yeah it doesn’t have a footnote or source to that. Odd. “Gunman Chronicles stole the show and Sierra approached Rewolf to make a standalone retail version.” This line is a bit more telling
@@KevDoy yeah I added that in the video too! I thought somehow Valve purchased the rights at some point or something since they helped with the development too. It’s hard to track what’s going on with these older titles. 🤦♂️
I got this back in 2000 for £5, new. I only ever saw it being sold as a budget title. Cool fact: If you put the CD key into steam, you get HL1, Opposing Force and Blue Shift added to your steam library :)
@@TristanSplunge yea I couldn’t find any info on the retail price but thanks for confirming that’s great to know. I’m considering getting a physical copy but it goes for around £25-30 on ebay. it’s a big box tho so looks cool :D
I kind of love the American Civil War/Wild West aesthetic this game has going on, it might not make a ton of sense but it makes the game feel extremely unique. I'm a big fan of media blending antiquated elements from throughout real world history into sci-fi settings, it makes sci-fi settings feel very anachronistic, like history is repeating itself in odd ways due to how long humanity has existed for, it's really cool.
I remember becoming friends with one of the Gunman devs when I was in high school, sadly the games failure led him to leaving the industry and becoming a horse trainer/breeder.
Respect for having the right lighting settings for They Hunger. Lot of people have it way too bright and washed out versus the moody twilight shadows as intended in the readme.
I used to play Gunman a long time ago. Around the year 2000, I guess. I don't remember, but the first time I saw it, I fell in love with the game. I never finished it and forgot about it for two decades. A few years ago I found Gunman at a flea market in Germany as a single copy on DVD. As soon as I saw it, all the memories came flooding back and I had to buy it. Of course I had to finish it and it was a good experience.
Underrated for sure, I really enjoyed this one back in the day, and especially liked the gun customisation! Sad to hear it's not on Steam, but glad to hear it's on ModDB and people are still playing it.
When I was in high school, when this game was new, I had a major operation. My dad bought me this game for me to play while I recovered. I actually liked it when I was a teenager.
Gunman Chonicles sure has aged well, the weapon system was unique for its time, and the textures/assets used made the game stick out really well. The entire experience was rather fun, and so were the online deathmatches. For those who don't know, there's actually a server on steam that is still running if you try running GC, if you ever want to play against other people :)
holy crap that’s great thanks for letting me know! I always wanted to try the multiplayer. Someone else was asking about this in the comments, will let them know now :)
@@guncanny No problem! On that note, I haven't been able to find any Discord servers so I'm not sure when people are ever logging on, it happens at random, lol :)
I remember getting the game in around 2001 from one of my mom's friends who brought it over as one of those scene releases courtesy of the warez group Myth, that also brought out Star Trek Voyager Elite Force that I was unable to play due to a missing archive file. I was astounded as to how much it reminded me of Half-life and that it was running on the same engine, in which, like Half-life before it, also became one of my favourite FPS games.
This game was one of my favourites back in the day. It's sad that so few people tried it, its quality was as good or even better than other AAA games of the time.
gunman was a hell of a game, there are tons of mod i played back at WON version of HL which i missed, even one which your hud was green and you could play multiplayer vs bots with a decent ai
So many gunmen in comment section! I found home! I still remember this game clearly, but more than 20 years passed since i played it. Nice to find this video!
@@MrNightXRay I’m glad! 🤝 you are not alone haha Consider joining our Discord, I’m planning to organize some Gunman multiplayer in the future :) (link in description)
I kinda liked the game. Some sections more then others. My Favorite quote is still "Allow me to introduce myself - I am the mainframe in control of this facility, and you are DEAD!"
I remember getting a gunman chronicles +SWAT 3 double pack from Sam’s club back like 1999-2001. Maybe 2002. Saturday morning grocery trips were awesome. I was like ten years old but my grandparents always were buying me games. Was psyched bc they somehow didn’t see the ESRB rating, usually couldn’t get m games. All I remember is the dinosaurs and the chemical gun that let you mix acid and base and a third one.
My dad loved this game. I also remember that in this game, if you ran into a cactus in the desert planet, you would lose 1% health each time and I - a young boy of about 10 years - was cheering at him to ki** himself by running into a cactus repeatedly. He never did. Anyways, it was a great game because it ran good on our VooDoo2 and AMD K6-2 350 MHz machine (unlike e.g. CounterStrike which had no 3DFX support and thus ran only in Software mode with 5fps^^).
Best GoldSrc game in my opinion. Absolute banger! And 4-shell shotgun is the actual weapon of the final war, it's sad that there's not many truly bulky and healthy enemies to use it on. Also really sad that there are no other gunmen that can fight alongside you - probably a leftover gamedesign decision from quake mod era where you couldn't have any allies, but still a bit sad. Fun fact: those two gunman dudes in the credits cutscene will actually die very quickly to the infinite xenome spam on harder difficulties, so when i played this game for the first time, it was very funny to me how reinforcements that our command sent us to beat the arch nemesis of entire gunman force were two random dudes that died in about one minute of actual combat.
yeah it would have been much more immersive if we had teammates. Even a “barney-like” NPC approach woulda been nice I think. lol that’s hilarious! 😂 I played on medium I believe so didn’t realise that.
A very unique and beautiful game, the atmosphere and look of the Rust level gives me some strong nostalgia. played it back in the day numerous times over but never managed to play multiplayer, after seeing a number of youtubers covering GC I made a discord server in the hopes of getting some multiplayer games going. Also My channel has videos of the beta versions, with some more vids on the way. Great analysis, GunCanny 👍
So happy to see people talking about Gunman Chronicles in the modern day! This game deserves a remaster. I beat the game on hardest difficulty multiple times. My grandparents gave it to me as a gift around 2005. I remember enjoying how cinematic the opening mission in the base was. They also managed to put a tank in the game! Wish I still had a copy today but I am sure there are some floating around the net.
The underlying tone of the video that this is game was like a insider tip. The games release was actually quite big with coverage in every print magazine back then. It wasn't like a hidden treasure. I played the demo.
Nice to see this game being covered. I played it as a 7 year old in 2000 before I tried Half-Life. I still have my big box PC copy. Huge nostalgia game for me. It's my number one pick for a Nightdive remaster.
I played this a bit like 25 years ago on a second hand computer a cousin got, it stayed in my mind and 10 years ago i got it and finished. I had a good time with it :D
Honestly, I think this game is even better than They Hunger and many other HL1 mods I've played. I wish there would be an option to reload weapons (for more immersion) and that the game would have bots for multiplayer (that no one plays), since the only fanmade bots that I've found just always stand where they spawn or run into a wall and immediately shoot you with 100% accuracy using only one weapon (laser piostol in beam mode - basically a railgun) as soon as you get into an uninterupted direct line of sight with them (direction at which they are looking also deosn't matter) and also so the settings you choose for different weapons would remain saved at least for the duration of one game session, one multiplayer game server or one map, and won't reset every time you die, as in Deathmatch mode you just don't have time to configure each gun the way you prefer to use it each time you pick that gun up after you get killed - and these configurations are the main "selling feature" of this game, IMO, so without it the game just turns into a clone of Deathmatch Classic (another Half-Life 1 engine based game), just with different weapons. Speaking of weapons - the Chemical Gun there has so many settings that alter its ammo type (projectiles) that it's barely possible to count (you can mix 3 chemical componments, setting the volume of each of them to 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, and also set the amount of pressure the gun will use to launch the resulting projectile (also from 0 to 5, I believe) and each mix will act differently. Here is the manual for those who are interested, it lists some basic combinations for that weapon: archive.org/stream/Gunman_Chronicles_Manual/Gunman_Chronicles_Manual_djvu.txt
Never had the chance to play multiplayer unfortunately. :( Maybe we should do some community event at some point, that’d be huge! Yeah the chemical gun is crazy, it took me some time to realize how many settings it has lol
It's not even just multiple fire-modes on the MULE, it's mixing and matching - combine the "homing" with "mines", "grenade-launch" with "timer", etc. And in the worst case, just toss the rocket by hand like a grenade!
played this a few years ago and really liked it. The weapons really stood out and yeah the levels had very strong visuals to set them apart from eachother. Maybe its time to play it again
I got the Guman Chronicles CD back in the 90s in those big cardboard boxes. They actually sold it in Finland. Great game, was hooked from the opening cinematic
I recall playing this game as part of one of a large number of demo discs I got through old PC Gamer magazines from my grandma as a kid. At the time I always thought it felt weirdly similar to Half-Life.
@@guncanny Yeah I think I only found out by accident. They give you access to the odd ledge you otherwise couldn't get to, but nothing really significant, I don't think. If I remember correctly, I think I may have used ones out in the open to get away from scorpions.
Bro, you forgot to mention that chemical-pistol-thing you get in the last third of the game. Anyway, the review is great as well as the game. Greetings from Russia!
Gunman, I loved that thing, I really hope it makes it to Steam at some point, that thing's underrated. My personal headcannon, you're still playing as Gordon, that's what happens between HL1 and HL2, getting Gordon more experience to properly face the Combine. I like to call the Mainframe "Cheapos", because she's kind of a Glados prototype even before Portal 1 was conceptualized, I wouldn't be surprized if there was some inspiration there, probably not intentionally, just, Valve people seeing Gunman, forget details, and subtly getting influenced, kind of like How Street Fighter 2 ended up xith a Top Gun song in it.
I bought it (mom did lol) around 2001/2002. On way home I was reading the cover and manual on the bus. I found it exciting as a space western. Remember showing it to my classmate. I eventually finished it, but it took me more like 30 hours and not 3 lol. Shame it got forgotten. Whoever has the rights we need to petition them.
Picked this up at the discount games aisle some 15-20ish years ago, the price was really low, and it had been marked down 2-3 times so it seems they had trouble selling these
Always thought this was so underrated/undiscovered. Weapon customisation and sound design was amazing, and the Mainframe was like a pre-GLaDOS. My crappy PC could barely run it back in the day...
@@MrSnaetch Heavily inspired, but wouldn't say a copy. SHODAN was entirely an evil bitch with a god complex. Mainframe & GLaDOS were just abandoned AI left to go a bit nuts / sadistic sense of humour. If anything I'd say GLaDOS is closer to being a copy considering the temporary allying with the player & getting to carry / use to unlock stuff etc.
Its fairly easy to add to steam if you own Half life. I imagine valve not owning it and it being abandonware they dont care you adding it. Works fine too. I do also own the box. Although we had the yellow box in Ireland.
the development of this game was also fascinating with it starting as a multiplayer quake ii mod that was basically cowboys vs indians in space before becoming a simgleplayer title on that engine till they switched to goldsrc and it changed gears dramatically. the actual game was also really fun with an addon that adds the demo levels into the main campaign
Played it back in 2000 when it released. As a kid I really enjoyed it because it was Sci-Fi and also there was ship crashing sequence, which I really enjoyed role-playing back then (when it started from the first Unreal level) xD
The game itself was questionable but at least deserves a mark for trying a new genre: space-cowboy simulation a la Turok, but the sound track is awesome.
I remember this game. I played it back then, and I refresh my memory about it from time to time. And I don't understand what Valve has to do with it? They didn't make it, they don't own the rights to it
I explained this in another comment thread above: ruclips.net/video/hkU0K3dXoyM/видео.html&lc=UgwiDU5OiFHZLoQg3Fp4AaABAg TLDR is there's a page that lists Valve as the owner of publishing rights and I thought they just simply didn't care about it.
Man, I'm one of the original Action Half Life devs, and it was really nice to be included here. Thanks.
no way dude! small world, eh?
I played Action Half-Life for a while to make some footage but only with bots and it was so much fun.
I wish there were still servers, it would be a blast to play against other people :)
@@guncanny It really was. There was an active community into the late 2000's, but all good things come to an end. There have been a couple of attempts to bring a version to Source, but nothing really came together in a finished project. Back in the day though, it was a great thing. I worked on models, animations, and maps. Built a stand alone utility to manage replacement models called Armoury that worked with the big repository of the time, Haven O' Frags. I've got most of the original source kicking around on a backup somewhere still. Even my personal build with wildly crazy changes around weapons balance. Heck, I worked with Gooseman on Action Quake 2 as well, way back. He worked on the initial models for AHL before starting Counter Strike. That was a long time ago.
@@EvanPrenticeYou should archive the OG source and builds that you've got, I'm sure loads of GoldSRC fanatics would love to see what was in it
@@Vaximous It's backed up on a couple of cloud services. I don't think I'm in a position to release it without the rest of the team being good with that, and we've lost contact with each other many years ago.
Awesome! I loved Action Half-Life. Especially the soundtrack! Did you use free samples or was that produced by you too? I also liked The Opera which was like Action Half-Life on steroids
If you enter a valid, unused Gunman Chronicles CD Key into steam it unlocks every Goldscr game and places it in your library.
For those who have picked up a physical copy, It may not be the game but its proof that Valve still has its product information lurking in their database
I didn’t even know that!
Yeah, the photo I showed in the video is from a 2002 leak where Gabe had the game in his inventory :) so it’s definitely there, they just chose to ignore it :(
Interesting. I don't know why this vid was recommended to me but I played Gunman Chronicles & before Steam I'm pretty sure, and have the CD in my garage somewhere. Is "pre-Steam" considered used? I think I already have every Goldsrc game though in my library.
Yeah, its the pre-steam key that unlocks all of the Goldscr games ^_^
@@ezrimuldoon THIS! About 6 years ago I was going through my old stuff and found Gunmen cd. Then just out of curiousity entered that cdkey into steam and was very surprised when it gave me the whole goldsrc library.
I bought the big box version not long ago second hand because Gunman was a big part of my childhood.
I tried the key and can confirm that I unlocked what is called "Half-Life Platinum Pack"
Ah well, the big reason why is not on Steam. It's out of Valve hands. The current holder of Gunman Chronicles right now is Microsoft from a series of bought up. Sierra->Vivendi->Activison->Microsoft. Heck, Microsoft probably do not know that game exist on their basement of unused IP.
I thought Valve had the publishing rights but thanks for clarifying 🤔 I’m less hopeful if it’s up to Microsoft to do something with it
@@guncannySierra had the publishing rights.
@@KevDoy developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Gunman_Chronicles this is the page where I saw Valve, probably outdated info.
@@guncanny yeah it doesn’t have a footnote or source to that. Odd.
“Gunman Chronicles stole the show and Sierra approached Rewolf to make a standalone retail version.” This line is a bit more telling
@@KevDoy yeah I added that in the video too! I thought somehow Valve purchased the rights at some point or something since they helped with the development too.
It’s hard to track what’s going on with these older titles. 🤦♂️
So that's where that Halo leak picture came from
Yeah I had a soyjack face when I saw that cutscene
"... but is just flower backwards... I'm sorry to break it to you..."
Wdym that makes it even better.
that was the name of the founder guy haha Herb Flower I believe
@@guncanny That also makes it even better still
@@ChronoWarrior1996 ok you convinced me
@@guncanny There's no way that Mr and Mrs Flower were like "hey, lets name our kid Herb".
@@peacemaster8117 LOL 😂
I got this back in 2000 for £5, new. I only ever saw it being sold as a budget title.
Cool fact: If you put the CD key into steam, you get HL1, Opposing Force and Blue Shift added to your steam library :)
@@TristanSplunge yea I couldn’t find any info on the retail price but thanks for confirming that’s great to know. I’m considering getting a physical copy but it goes for around £25-30 on ebay.
it’s a big box tho so looks cool :D
@@guncanny If you are into gaming box collection, I wouldn´t think about it twice and snatch it :)
@@guncanny in what country are you, cuz i find the pc cds for like 3-5 bucks
@@Maxime-xr7er UK, but I ended up buying one today for £25 :) this is the big box version
@@guncanny ooh thats awesome!
2:57 HOLY SHIT! This cutscene is where all those "leaked Halo 4 screenshots" came from back in 2008. If anyone remembers that lol.
loool that’s hilarious 😂
I kind of love the American Civil War/Wild West aesthetic this game has going on, it might not make a ton of sense but it makes the game feel extremely unique. I'm a big fan of media blending antiquated elements from throughout real world history into sci-fi settings, it makes sci-fi settings feel very anachronistic, like history is repeating itself in odd ways due to how long humanity has existed for, it's really cool.
I remember becoming friends with one of the Gunman devs when I was in high school, sadly the games failure led him to leaving the industry and becoming a horse trainer/breeder.
no way! To be fair, working with horses is probably a lot less stressful than game development
I guess when asked if he'd stay in the gaming industry ' yay or nay' he said " neeiighhhhhh"
......
I'll see myself out...
Respect for having the right lighting settings for They Hunger. Lot of people have it way too bright and washed out versus the moody twilight shadows as intended in the readme.
Couldn't agree more! Gunman chronicles was an excellent game!! And one of my favourite games as a kid :). Id love to see it come back
i have hope🤞
congrats on becoming a partner dude!!!
Thanks dude, appreciate it!!
Fancy seeing you here on this corner of the universe.
Wild times this game was.
I used to play Gunman a long time ago. Around the year 2000, I guess. I don't remember, but the first time I saw it, I fell in love with the game. I never finished it and forgot about it for two decades. A few years ago I found Gunman at a flea market in Germany as a single copy on DVD. As soon as I saw it, all the memories came flooding back and I had to buy it. Of course I had to finish it and it was a good experience.
that’s awesome dude! you are the second person in the comments who found it at a flea… I should go to flea markets more often lol
8:45
That model prolly has the highest poly count in the game
lol 100%
Has a proper Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy feel to it
Ive got some halo vibes xd
first thing I thought when I saw the ancient ruins
i was thinking of Unreal gold personally
Its not a bad shooter romp for its time.
I like how the mainframe's robot body looks like G1 Megatron with huge knockers.
Underrated for sure, I really enjoyed this one back in the day, and especially liked the gun customisation!
Sad to hear it's not on Steam, but glad to hear it's on ModDB and people are still playing it.
Yeah tbh I’d happily buy this and feels a bit weird to get it for free on ModDB but it is what it is :(
It"s a true definition of "Forgotten Gem" but not completely forgotten, love this game too, thanks for covering it!
We’ll never forget it! :)
thanks for your comment! 🤝
"I can't belive my eyes to see another Gunman here."
Jim French was once of the voice actors in this game who later worked on valve with L4D2 and L4D, HL2 too
Wait…so this game wasnt a vivid dream I had? Because this might be the first time i have ever seen someone talk about Gunman
sure wasn’t!
I'd be really, really happy if Gunman came back. It was such a new and novel concept.
When I was in high school, when this game was new, I had a major operation. My dad bought me this game for me to play while I recovered. I actually liked it when I was a teenager.
@@stinghouseproductions8502 oh that’s a lovely story, such a nice chap 🥹🫡
Wholesome dad moment :)
I got some serious Unreal vibes watching the jungle planet scenes.
You are not wrong actually!
haven’t played Unreal in a while but will need to go back to it soon I feel like
I remember this game when i was younger. Always cranked the shotgun settings to maximum shells per shot and it was like a hand held howitzer
Love how the environments remind me of unreal or turok
oh dude, Turok was soooo good, I need to play that again!
@@guncanny it has the funnest swimming in an FPS I've played, it really flowed into the naturalistic environments so well too
Gunman Chonicles sure has aged well, the weapon system was unique for its time, and the textures/assets used made the game stick out really well. The entire experience was rather fun, and so were the online deathmatches. For those who don't know, there's actually a server on steam that is still running if you try running GC, if you ever want to play against other people :)
holy crap that’s great thanks for letting me know! I always wanted to try the multiplayer.
Someone else was asking about this in the comments, will let them know now :)
@@guncanny No problem! On that note, I haven't been able to find any Discord servers so I'm not sure when people are ever logging on, it happens at random, lol :)
@@Cybershroomit’d be nice if we could gather some people for this in the future!
One of my favorite forgotten games. Amazed it's as forgotten as it is!
I remember getting the game in around 2001 from one of my mom's friends who brought it over as one of those scene releases courtesy of the warez group Myth, that also brought out Star Trek Voyager Elite Force that I was unable to play due to a missing archive file. I was astounded as to how much it reminded me of Half-life and that it was running on the same engine, in which, like Half-life before it, also became one of my favourite FPS games.
hands down one of my absolute favorite games/mods for Halflife. My cousins had a physical CD for the game. so many great memories
Such a piece of nostalgia. Thanks for reminding me about this gem. I still have a cd of this game.
I’m surprised how many of you have a physical copy, awesome!
As someone who's into everything GoldSrc and Source, it baffles me that I've never heard of this game until now
now you know! 🤝
This game was one of my favourites back in the day. It's sad that so few people tried it, its quality was as good or even better than other AAA games of the time.
Dude your channel is a hidden gem. Your videos are incredibly engaging, keep it up
Thanks dude, I really appreciate it! 🤝
gunman was a hell of a game, there are tons of mod i played back at WON version of HL which i missed, even one which your hud was green and you could play multiplayer vs bots with a decent ai
I have a feeling JustinRPG would like elements of Gunman story.
"here i am, stuck in Xenomes stomach alone..."
So many gunmen in comment section! I found home! I still remember this game clearly, but more than 20 years passed since i played it. Nice to find this video!
@@MrNightXRay I’m glad! 🤝 you are not alone haha
Consider joining our Discord, I’m planning to organize some Gunman multiplayer in the future :) (link in description)
Gunman wasnt a mod. It was a standalone, retail game.
try watching the video first.
I kinda liked the game. Some sections more then others. My Favorite quote is still "Allow me to introduce myself - I am the mainframe in control of this facility, and you are DEAD!"
I subscribed because I have a special bond with Gunman.
thanks mate I really appreciate it! 🙏
I remember getting a gunman chronicles +SWAT 3 double pack from Sam’s club back like 1999-2001. Maybe 2002.
Saturday morning grocery trips were awesome. I was like ten years old but my grandparents always were buying me games.
Was psyched bc they somehow didn’t see the ESRB rating, usually couldn’t get m games. All I remember is the dinosaurs and the chemical gun that let you mix acid and base and a third one.
I played the hell out of Gunman Chronicles when it came out and kinda loved it for what it was.
My dad loved this game. I also remember that in this game, if you ran into a cactus in the desert planet, you would lose 1% health each time and I - a young boy of about 10 years - was cheering at him to ki** himself by running into a cactus repeatedly. He never did. Anyways, it was a great game because it ran good on our VooDoo2 and AMD K6-2 350 MHz machine (unlike e.g. CounterStrike which had no 3DFX support and thus ran only in Software mode with 5fps^^).
ah yeah I accidentally ran into a cactus too and I was like “damn they really thought of everything” lol
Cool. I used to see this at Hastings for sale and I always wondered what it was about.
I loved this game back then. Beat it so many times
Remember, if you ever get eaten, you still have the whole two escape routes.
I never heard about this game but I instantly recognize that the "Mainframe" in this game was the inspiration for GlaDOS in Portal.
That’s a good point actually!
Best GoldSrc game in my opinion. Absolute banger! And 4-shell shotgun is the actual weapon of the final war, it's sad that there's not many truly bulky and healthy enemies to use it on. Also really sad that there are no other gunmen that can fight alongside you - probably a leftover gamedesign decision from quake mod era where you couldn't have any allies, but still a bit sad.
Fun fact: those two gunman dudes in the credits cutscene will actually die very quickly to the infinite xenome spam on harder difficulties, so when i played this game for the first time, it was very funny to me how reinforcements that our command sent us to beat the arch nemesis of entire gunman force were two random dudes that died in about one minute of actual combat.
yeah it would have been much more immersive if we had teammates. Even a “barney-like” NPC approach woulda been nice I think.
lol that’s hilarious! 😂
I played on medium I believe so didn’t realise that.
This looks fun to play! Walve, please add it! I'll buy it!
I played a demo of this as a kid and had vague memories of it and always wanted to know what it was.
Now I do
time to play the full version 🤝
I have this game on CD. Loved it as a kid. Loved how you could drive the tank, showed it was possible in engine back in the day.
A very unique and beautiful game, the atmosphere and look of the Rust level gives me some strong nostalgia. played it back in the day numerous times over but never managed to play multiplayer, after seeing a number of youtubers covering GC I made a discord server in the hopes of getting some multiplayer games going. Also My channel has videos of the beta versions, with some more vids on the way. Great analysis, GunCanny 👍
Could you link that channel in here by any chance? I’m planning to organise some multiplayer games at some point if we’d have enough people. :)
So happy to see people talking about Gunman Chronicles in the modern day! This game deserves a remaster. I beat the game on hardest difficulty multiple times. My grandparents gave it to me as a gift around 2005. I remember enjoying how cinematic the opening mission in the base was. They also managed to put a tank in the game! Wish I still had a copy today but I am sure there are some floating around the net.
that was such a nice gift from them! :) just bought my copy like two days ago so you can definitely grab one!
The underlying tone of the video that this is game was like a insider tip. The games release was actually quite big with coverage in every print magazine back then. It wasn't like a hidden treasure. I played the demo.
Nice to see this game being covered. I played it as a 7 year old in 2000 before I tried Half-Life. I still have my big box PC copy. Huge nostalgia game for me. It's my number one pick for a Nightdive remaster.
I envy you! Really thinking of getting a big box copy too, just to have it in my collection haha
Holy fuck I just remembered playing this on a demo disk
the games looks actually sick
I played this a bit like 25 years ago on a second hand computer a cousin got, it stayed in my mind and 10 years ago i got it and finished.
I had a good time with it :D
nice! 🤝 10 years has passed again, time to replay it lol
I found a physical copy of gunman at an opp shop when i was 14 maybe and was obsessed for a while
Still have it im pretty sure
Hl invasion is such underrated mod
I played this game back in the day but never played half life. I remember liking it
the weapons alternate modes were awesome
I initially thought it was just a mod with few maps. What a suprise it was full blown game and I had a lot of fun!
same! Never thought it had such an interesting story and all that.
This game had it all ! DINOSAURS ! ROBOTS ! ALIENS !! I played it so many times ! Never boring !
yass! this is what every game needs, more dinos and robots 🦖
Honestly, I think this game is even better than They Hunger and many other HL1 mods I've played.
I wish there would be an option to reload weapons (for more immersion) and that the game would have bots for multiplayer (that no one plays), since the only fanmade bots that I've found just always stand where they spawn or run into a wall and immediately shoot you with 100% accuracy using only one weapon (laser piostol in beam mode - basically a railgun) as soon as you get into an uninterupted direct line of sight with them (direction at which they are looking also deosn't matter) and also so the settings you choose for different weapons would remain saved at least for the duration of one game session, one multiplayer game server or one map, and won't reset every time you die, as in Deathmatch mode you just don't have time to configure each gun the way you prefer to use it each time you pick that gun up after you get killed - and these configurations are the main "selling feature" of this game, IMO, so without it the game just turns into a clone of Deathmatch Classic (another Half-Life 1 engine based game), just with different weapons.
Speaking of weapons - the Chemical Gun there has so many settings that alter its ammo type (projectiles) that it's barely possible to count (you can mix 3 chemical componments, setting the volume of each of them to 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, and also set the amount of pressure the gun will use to launch the resulting projectile (also from 0 to 5, I believe) and each mix will act differently.
Here is the manual for those who are interested, it lists some basic combinations for that weapon:
archive.org/stream/Gunman_Chronicles_Manual/Gunman_Chronicles_Manual_djvu.txt
Never had the chance to play multiplayer unfortunately. :(
Maybe we should do some community event at some point, that’d be huge!
Yeah the chemical gun is crazy, it took me some time to realize how many settings it has lol
btw someone just said in the comments that there’s a server still running
Amazing video, I've never heard of this mod but it looks really fun. I hope they can upload it to steam so it gets more attention
Thanks dude I really appreciate it! :)
I hope so, but doesn’t look like valve care about it at all :(
It's not even just multiple fire-modes on the MULE, it's mixing and matching - combine the "homing" with "mines", "grenade-launch" with "timer", etc. And in the worst case, just toss the rocket by hand like a grenade!
had the demo to this back in the day was fun
played this a few years ago and really liked it. The weapons really stood out and yeah the levels had very strong visuals to set them apart from eachother. Maybe its time to play it again
oh yeah, it’s never a bad time to play this game lol
Whoa... Totally forgot about this! Game was pretty decent, remember being able to switch between modes of weapons - was super cool
Hell yea, that was a great addition. Especially in 2000!
Same ! I was hyped about it, played the crap out of it and puf, out of my mind
I got the Guman Chronicles CD back in the 90s in those big cardboard boxes. They actually sold it in Finland. Great game, was hooked from the opening cinematic
that’s sick! I think we only got the normal CD version back in the days. But got me a big box edition this week! :)
"I can take him!"
*gets head blown off
I recall playing this game as part of one of a large number of demo discs I got through old PC Gamer magazines from my grandma as a kid. At the time I always thought it felt weirdly similar to Half-Life.
an underrated channel covering an underrated game !!!
thanks King I appreciate it 🤝
Fun fact: In the desert part of the game you can actually climb trees like a ladder! Also, a lot of the scenery is destructible in the tank segment.
oh I didn’t know about the tree thing!
@@guncanny Yeah I think I only found out by accident. They give you access to the odd ledge you otherwise couldn't get to, but nothing really significant, I don't think. If I remember correctly, I think I may have used ones out in the open to get away from scorpions.
Bro, you forgot to mention that chemical-pistol-thing you get in the last third of the game. Anyway, the review is great as well as the game. Greetings from Russia!
yea that thing is crazy complex! Thanks for the feedback I really appreciate it 🙏
Remember playing this back in the day. Enjoyed it 😊
Gunman, I loved that thing, I really hope it makes it to Steam at some point, that thing's underrated.
My personal headcannon, you're still playing as Gordon, that's what happens between HL1 and HL2, getting Gordon more experience to properly face the Combine.
I like to call the Mainframe "Cheapos", because she's kind of a Glados prototype even before Portal 1 was conceptualized, I wouldn't be surprized if there was some inspiration there, probably not intentionally, just, Valve people seeing Gunman, forget details, and subtly getting influenced, kind of like How Street Fighter 2 ended up xith a Top Gun song in it.
that’s actually a nice theory, I like it!
Thanks.
Confederate space soldiers plus dinosaurs set in the wild west (in space). This game is just something else! Glad I discovered it in 2006.
I bought it (mom did lol) around 2001/2002. On way home I was reading the cover and manual on the bus. I found it exciting as a space western. Remember showing it to my classmate. I eventually finished it, but it took me more like 30 hours and not 3 lol. Shame it got forgotten. Whoever has the rights we need to petition them.
that’s a wholesome story 🥹
@@guncanny i still have the case with the cd, i was maybe 12 at the time and happy my crappy gpu ran it like hl1 in software mode
Picked this up at the discount games aisle some 15-20ish years ago, the price was really low, and it had been marked down 2-3 times so it seems they had trouble selling these
Always thought this was so underrated/undiscovered. Weapon customisation and sound design was amazing, and the Mainframe was like a pre-GLaDOS. My crappy PC could barely run it back in the day...
pre-GLaDOS lol I like this
Actually the mainframe was a copy of SHODAN from System Shock.
@@MrSnaetch Heavily inspired, but wouldn't say a copy. SHODAN was entirely an evil bitch with a god complex. Mainframe & GLaDOS were just abandoned AI left to go a bit nuts / sadistic sense of humour. If anything I'd say GLaDOS is closer to being a copy considering the temporary allying with the player & getting to carry / use to unlock stuff etc.
I had great fun with Gunman back in 2000, The weapon modularity preceded Reoublic Commando by 5 years. Lot of missed potential not making sequels
"The Specialists" was the shit. Basically the matrix.
Haven’t tried that yet but will give it a try thanks!
Its fairly easy to add to steam if you own Half life. I imagine valve not owning it and it being abandonware they dont care you adding it. Works fine too. I do also own the box. Although we had the yellow box in Ireland.
the development of this game was also fascinating with it starting as a multiplayer quake ii mod that was basically cowboys vs indians in space before becoming a simgleplayer title on that engine till they switched to goldsrc and it changed gears dramatically. the actual game was also really fun with an addon that adds the demo levels into the main campaign
wow I need to check this too, thanks :)
@@guncanny I found that on ModDB awhile back looking for a Steam patch for it
Such a great video! Instant subscribe!
hey thanks! I appreciate it 🙏
Played it back in 2000 when it released. As a kid I really enjoyed it because it was Sci-Fi and also there was ship crashing sequence, which I really enjoyed role-playing back then (when it started from the first Unreal level) xD
I assumed this game was gonna be akin to the Gunman VR mod for half life alyx lol. They must’ve named it Gunman as an homage to this OG mod
It was very good game, the animals and machines and the environment, it was a mod way ahead of its time.
Good video, Great pacing.
thanks, I really appreciate it 🙏
Yooooo I loved this game, opened up a lot of
Memories!!
I’m glad 🤝
6:19 may be the original puzzle for Half Life Alyx's combine terminals puzzle
The game itself was questionable but at least deserves a mark for trying a new genre: space-cowboy simulation a la Turok, but the sound track is awesome.
love the soundtrack, been listening to it ever since I finished the game lol
Played this ALOT as a kid. Good times!
Damn, I completely forgot about Action Quake and Action Half-Life…… you just hit my nostalgia bone HARD 😂
I tried action HL for the footage but could only play against bots. It was super fun tho I wish there were servers still :(
@@guncanny it was basically Titanfall 😂
I remember this game. I played it back then, and I refresh my memory about it from time to time. And I don't understand what Valve has to do with it? They didn't make it, they don't own the rights to it
I explained this in another comment thread above: ruclips.net/video/hkU0K3dXoyM/видео.html&lc=UgwiDU5OiFHZLoQg3Fp4AaABAg
TLDR is there's a page that lists Valve as the owner of publishing rights and I thought they just simply didn't care about it.
I remember playing this really liking the world building and characters. It felt rushed and too short
Yeah it’s def way too short for a full game!
The Specialists!!!! Best HL mod ever!
Thanks for the suggestion, haven’t tried that yet! :)
Still have my physical copy that I got for Christmas in 2000