Dead Man's Hand

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $16.65

Features:

• First-person shooter set in the Wild West
• You are El Tejon, tough gunslinger
• Pursue a gang of outlaws known as, The Nine
• Use pistols, rifles and shotguns
• For 1 player

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Finally,a game worth more than the price!!!! [Posted on 2004-04-04]
Thank you , ATARI. Thank you for saving me 20 or 30 dollars on a game i would be o.k. with paying that much more for. Other than the linear paths you must take to get from point A to point B, this game is an absolute blast. Western fan or not. There are an incredible collection of backdrops and bad-guys to fill MANY hours of gameplay. The creative way that they have you earn ammo at the start of each level by playing a game of poker. You win, you get ammo. You lose, you lose it all. At the start of the game you are shown an overly-simplistic sequence where everything is still photos with dialogue over it. The first impression was that they put little time into the cut-scenes. Well, that was wrong. After that, the cut-scenes come alive with full animation and voiceovers. They are done in a grainy-style to give it a film-noir look. The weapons are very nice, each one having a distinct sound and feel.The missions are short, but there are a bunch of them. Including bonus missions, I've played through 19 so far and i see no end in sight. ATARI, I don't know why you did this, but, thank you. A game of this quality and price gives me hope that the future of PC gaming is bright. This is in the top 10 of the best shooters I've ever played. And I've been playing them since 1993. Great work, ATARI.

Another good use of the Unreal engine, but BAD save system.. [Posted on 2004-04-22]
Darn! Another good game that suffers from the "I'll never let you save where you want" programming syndrome. The gameplay is great; you are a wronged desperado betrayed by your ex-compadres, and you travel throughout the west, hunting them down.

I like the weapon selections, the game is easy to learn, the bonus points for "trick shots" is cool as well. The only drawback is the stupid save system - save at chapters only! What a rip-off. Fortunately, I enjoy repeating parts of the game but that won't last forever.

Buy Dead Man's Hand due to the low price vs. the high enjoyment value.

FUN but you might want to wait for RED DEAD REVOLVER [Posted on 2004-05-04]
I liked this game. And it is perfect for younger players...no gore/blood. It is violent....but not nasty. It is more like old cowboy movie violence instead of brutal carnage. A better game called RED DEAD REVOLVER is coming. Rockstar Games is releasing it for console but PC will follow. Rockstar made the Grand Theft Auto series, Max Payne and the new hit Manhunt!
I am glad to see them doing a western. I am betting it will blow away western fans or those looking for something new. I swear if I have to kill another Nazi or alien I am going to scream!!!

Dead Man's Hand was a nice change from the stupid and repetitive dark dungeons or abandoned space stations or lava pits we get thrown at us in every darn game! Game creators are so busy trying to make a gun look realistic that they forget to make a games environment ORIGINAL. Game companies need more artists to balance out the tunnel vision of the programming staff!

The games AI is crappy. The enemies move in predictable patterns. A harder setting does not increase their intelligence, it simply makes them shoot faster, the hits do more damage and the first aid kit value is lowered. The game play itself is rough and unpolished. Most games let you walk over fallen fences, etc. In this game, you catch on every damn corner, window, piece of wood on the ground!! Very frustrating when you need to dodge bullets quickly! This game has just been released and already it has a patch available. Not a good sign but that is how Atari does things!

The graphics are chunky and unimpressive. I think Atari just threw this out as an after thought to maybe bang out a quickie profit. Atari is becoming more and more disappointing. They have really gotten away with the legend of their "BRAND NAME" for too long now. Time to walk the walk and drop the talk!

Dead Man's Hand is long though. It will keep you busy. For $20, that is not a bad spend. There is a nice variety of weapons and missions. You are given the option of palying a few hands of poker before each mission. As you win, you get more ammunition and alternate weapon power. If you lose one hand,you lose it all. But you can always quit and restart to try again. lol I loved it. The poker was a nice diversion.

If you have $20 to blow, this game will be enjoyable. If you are budget conscious or spending yor money on several games like Far Cry and Manhunt...saving for RED DEAD REVOLVER can only be a good gamble. If the reviews are good, buy that game instead. If the reviews tank, Dead Man's Hand will only be cheaper in another month anyway! lol

Won't run. Crashes to desktop [Posted on 2004-06-25]
I have a fairly new computer, with display drivers that have run all other games I've loaded. Dead Man's Hand appeared to load properly, but then when I try to start the game, it crashes to the desktop. I've spent a lot of time with the ReadMe file, and with various online resources, including the manufacturer's troubleshooting web page, but still can't make the game work. If you are a computer whiz, you might risk buying this game, but if you are an average fellow who likes PC games but hasn't spent his life as a computer geek, you are advised to avoid this game.

Load your six-shooter [Posted on 2007-07-11]
During the game, you are tracking nine of your former colleagues and wreak vengeance on them, across 27 missions. It is a classic tale of payback and the designers have made it strong and dynamic by staging each storm of lead in a dramatically different locale, landscape or interior setting, including horseback shootouts, a classic train chase, dank abandoned mine shafts and a riverboat.

As you progress in your quest for revenge, you gain access to more and cooler Old West firearms, and you will have a grand time with them because everything on the screen reacts to being shot. This means you can sometimes kill bad guys not just by taking aim at them, but by shooting stuff that crushes, burns, of blows them up.

Dead Man's Hand is a budget title and it does have some soft spots here and there. The enemy AI is predictable and the collision detection needs some improvement. Those quibbles aside, I enjoyed every nearly every minute. It is not a perfect game by any means, but for fans looking for a shooter cast in a unique setting, it is a pretty decent offering for the money.

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