Armed and Dangerous®

in library

4.1/5

( 27 Reviews )

4.1

27 Reviews

English & 4 more

Posted on: February 2, 2021

Louard_le_Barbare

Verified owner

Games: 294 Reviews: 124

Fun, but promises more than it delivers

In Armed and Dangerous, you play as a freedom fighter trying to put an end to the tyranny of the king: the story is told through cutscenes, all of which are full of humor and improbable characters that give AaD a unique and wacky tone. Each level consists in a wide open space in which you have to complete one or several objectives with the help of your two teammates. And for the most part, it's a lot of fun! The environments are huge, the buildings are destructible, the movements are fast, the weapons powerful and crazy (even though the restrictions on ammo usually force you to stick to your SMG), and there's usually a lot of action happening on screen, as you try to avoid shots and explosions coming from all directions! And yet, while this game does not lack soul, it really feels like something holds it back from being great: there seems to be an accumulation of small issues and a global lack of things on offer that makes AaD feel kind of subpar and repetitive. For instance: the pre-rendered cutscenes look somehow uglier than the rest, there are only 3 or 4 types of objectives that are recycled throughout the campaign (blow something up, rescue hostages, take control of a gun turret...), your companions are mostly useless, and no new enemies or guns are to be seen in the second half of the game, making for somewhat tiresome gunplay. You're also likely to give up on the game on the stupidly hard 18th mission. As a lot of people have said, this game is very much a spiritual sequel to the developer's previous romp, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, which shares its graphic engine, huge levels, improbable weaponry and sense of humor, but overall has better and more varied gameplay. I would thus recommend checking out Giants first, and then buying Armed and Dangerous if you want more of the same and can handle a drop in quality. Otherwise, this is a decent and well-priced shooter, but not exactly a must-buy if you're not into weird late '90s / early 2000's third-person action.

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Posted on: April 22, 2017

webcelt

Verified owner

Games: 211 Reviews: 2

Worth it for the humor and soundtrack

Like other reviews have mentioned, it's a weird and funny game, with terrific NPCs that make you hope for more cutscenes. It also has a neat and varied soundtrack that fits in with the offbeat humor. It's a good third person shooter with some difficulty. I could wish for the ability to save in multiple places, since it's possible to accidentally save when health is low, and the only options are to somehow get through or restart the level, which is a pain if you're a long way in. Played just fine on an old PC.

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Posted on: July 28, 2020

Kraco55

Games: 776 Reviews: 27

Unique game

4 stars for gameplay, extra +1 star for the SharkGun(coolest gun ever in video games history imo) Own a old disc version.

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Posted on: May 18, 2023

StuntmanMikeL

Verified owner

Games: 303 Reviews: 52

Missed Opportunities and Technical Woes

If the original Xbox version was still available on the Microsoft Store, I would've chosen it over the PC version, which is messy and workarounds aren't very simple. Firstly, there's the baffling decision to force the gameplay into a letterbox format. Why was this even a thing? Widescreen monitors weren't exactly the norm in 2003. It must have been some misguided artistic choice, but in my opinion, it doesn't look very good and it's just distracting. Even if you manage to force a widescreen resolution, the black bars won't budge unless you mess around with the hex editor. Another thing is wonky mouse support or ear-splitting sound mixing that sounds like your speakers are about to explode but there aren't any fixes for that as far as I know. As for the game itself, it's not half bad, but it feels like the developers either rushed it due to time and budget constraints or simply didn't think things through. A&D was made by the same guys behind Giants: Citizen Kabuto, and it does bear a resemblance as a spiritual successor. However, it feels stripped down to the bone, offering only one playable character, even though it feels like others should've been playable as well. Or, at the very least, a co-op mode should've been included but that is also mysteriously absent. It's mostly just mindless running and gunning which, interestingly enough, is completely bloodless even though the characters frequently comment about flying guts that aren't there, so I see it as yet another feature that was cut for some reason. It's sorely lacking the variety that could have made the gameplay more engaging. It gets the job done, but after a while, you find yourself zoning out and becoming numb to all the chaos. That's why Giants had multiple factions to play as and a strategic element to spice things up. On the bright side, the story does its job, and the humor, while not everyone's cup of tea, did manage to elicit a few chuckles. The soundtrack is also pretty unique.

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Posted on: January 28, 2017

F4LL0UT

Verified owner

Games: 1579 Reviews: 28

Quite a letdown

As a fan of Planet Moon's previous game, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, I'm really sad to be among those to post a negative review for Armed and Dangerous on here. Armed and Dangerous is clearly a spiritual successor to Giants, being a third person shooter filled colourful characters, crazy ideas and comedy that ranges from simple slapstick to some really black humour. Sadly A&D also inherits Giants' problems and adds some of its own. As a shooter A&D is simply mediocre with no big original ideas to even out its shortcomings and at times barely functional. You can give orders to your two mates, which generally really isn't necessary or useful, and there are some turret defence missions where you protect towns from huge invading armies, which may sound fun on paper but is very underwhelming in practice. Also in terms of level design there's nothing interesting going on and there's some really frustrating moments, luckily saved by the ability save anywhere. Like with Giants A&D's big strength is its content. The wacky main characters and their antics are really original, as far as action games go, and there are a few really good laughs in there but I felt that the delivery and execution are quite botched most of the time and badly fit into the stuff actually going on during gameplay. There are weird skips even in the cutscenes themselves, and the timing is often so off that it ruins otherwise good jokes. And many cutscenes curiously miss music or even ambience to underline the hilarious events and conversations, feeling really unfinished. Speaking of unfinished, so does the game feel as a whole (curiously Giants suffered from the same thing). When the final cutscene played I just thought "wait, that's it?", leaving me quite unsatisfied, without a final bossfight or even fully wrapping up the story. And sadly there is no multiplayer this time. If you really REALLY love wacky black humour give the game a try but otherwise you don't miss anything.

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