Armed & Dangerous Hands-On

Source: IGN
LucasArts' madcap new third-person shooter is in our hands.

May 14, 2003 - LucasArts may be best known for its Star Wars licensed games, but the company has put out a wealth of great games that have nothing to do with the world Lucas made. Armed & Dangerous hopes to join the ranks when it comes this winter for Xbox and PC.
As a band of rag-tag rebels, (you've got a robot, a lunatic, a mole (literally), and a criminal mastermind) your goal is to pull off the biggest heist of all time while a war rages around you.

The teaser as the game begins warns that this game is "Based on true events." Really, I thought, that's cool. Then, the game started and I found myself in control of a cantankerous Scotsman with a big machinegun running on the snow and blasting uglies. With a metal clad conquistador and a mole in your entourage, this game is based on anything but reality.

The good news is this game is a hell of a lot of fun. It feels link an old school twitch shooter in third-person (though you can force a first-person mode, that isn't as good). There are plenty of baddies to blast and some convenient explosive barrels all over the place. Chucking grenades results in many a dead man.

Your mates can be given general orders, but they were mainly useless in the few minutes I played the E3 demo. But they really were unnecessary as my Scottish slang-spouting commando tore the place up. The run and gun mission was a kick.

Visually, Armed & Dangerous is a bit raw. This one won't have your eyeballs popping out, but as long as the fun and speed can be maintained throughout the entire game, the lack of true visual punch will remain just a minor grievance.

A second demo level is available that promises to showcase a different gameplay aspect. IGN will definitely have impressions of this other mode soon.