[typing sounds]
Time to take a look back at one of the more forgotten, but intriguing Mechwarrior-likes from the mid-90s.
This is G-Nome, developed by Distant Thunder and published by 7th Level in 1997 for Windows PCs.
"G-Nome pushes real-time 3D simulation over the edge!"
"Actual screenshots", ooh!
Yeah, 7th Level were quite proud of this one. Prior to this, they were largely known for a variety of rather bizarre 2D adventures and
novelty desktop applications, stuff like Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time and Arcade America
But in 1995, 7th Level purchased the developer and the rights to G-Nome from the financially troubled Merit Software.
Who'd first teased it to the public in 1994?
At that point, G-Nome was only a conceptual demo, showing off Distant Thunder's new engine,
taking the form of an adventure game that allowed for
"cutting-edge comic-book style graphics and characters that look as though they've stepped out of the comic book and onto your screen."
They also boasted of it having an intricate artificial intelligence system
that was expertly created by engineers who formerly designed Command Control Communications and Intelligence (C3I) for the Defense Department.
Yeah, well that changed!
After several delays, what we got in 1997 is a mech game that superficially blends in with all the other mech games in 1997.
Inside the box, you get the game itself on a single CD-ROM,
a keyboard and joystick command reference sheet,
advertisements for things like the defunct Mplayer network
and a manual that goes into a lot more than it needs to.
While I appreciate that it delves into the specs and history of each in-game item,
in actuality this is almost completely inconsequential to the gameplay itself.
G-Nome begins with a G-Dang intro video showing a guy having intense monochrome flashbacks.
"... discovery of the middle rich uninhabited Phygos star system."
Say hello to your protagonist, retired sergeant Joshua Gantt,
who's been brought back into the action, due to an imminent threat in the year 2225.
"I'm sure you've heard of the discovery of the Phygos star system."
"Whoever controls this system controls the whole spiral arm."
Hmm, so we can easily travel between star systems on a whim,
but this one particular system is somehow the key to controlling the entire galactic arm?
K.
"Quick, strong, intelligent and designed for combat."
"Impervious to pain."
"Your mission sergeant, is to kill the G-Nome and destroy the facility where it's kept."
The catalyst for the war are creatures called G-Nomes, hence the name of the game.
Bit of an odd choice since you practically never see a G-Nome outside a couple of cutscenes, but whatever!
After this, you get the main menu, where you do menu things mainly, as well as aimlessly peruse the lab database, voiced by Jennifer Hale.
"Darken, darken, darken, darken,
union, union, union, union,
merc, merc, merc, merc,
scorp, scorp, scorp, scorp..."
"Developers, developers, developers, developers..."
Starting a new game gives you the option to play a single mission, play a training mission or begin at the beginning.
Sounds like the kind of redundant redundancy I would put in my script, but they went ahead and did it for me.
Thanks, 7th Level!
There's also a multiplayer mode but I'll just be showing single-player, because I'm the only person I know with a copy of this thing.
The campaign training mode is a nice place to start, because I mean that's why it exists.
But while I welcome its inclusion, it's not the best example of a tutorial that I've ever seen,
since it carelessly tosses you into the action and expects you to look up the controls on your own
as you fumble around and probably blow yourself up.
[explosion]
But if you're familiar with games like Mechwarrior 2, Earth Siege 2 or Shattered Steel, you'll be right at home.
Those aren't arbitrary examples either. It comes with control layouts that mimic those games exactly,
making it pretty obvious where their inspirations lie.
Those inspirations continue into the story missions, where you take charge from the cockpit of a giant walking mech.
Wait, sorry, 'Heavy Armored Weapons Chassis', or HAWC.
Oh, it's cute how all these BattleTech universe clones came up with their own unique 4 letter acronyms.
Anyway, as the lead HAWC pilot, it's your job to wander the landscape
and carry out objectives by following waypoints and addressing any resistance with a show of force.
Cannons, missiles, energy weapons, shields, turrets, you know the drill!
You'll also half the time find yourself with the expected wingman in tow,
who can be given broad commands to carry out, such as following, attacking, defending and riding along as a passenger.
But where G-Nome stands apart is with one key on the keyboard:
Backspace.
Pressing 'backspace' makes you eject from your HAWC, and take matters into your own hands at ground level.
This is not only helpful for making an escape when your HAWC is toast, but it's also a legit strategy.
It is entirely possible to reject during a firefight,
shoot your opponent with a grenade that forces them to eject from their vehicle,
then crouch down and snipe them before they can get back inside.
And hey, since they're not using it anymore, just jack their ride and proceed in disguise with your shiny new hardware!
That's right, say hello to Grand Theft Mech or Grand Theft HAWC.
You know what I mean, run around with your teammates, shooting people in the face,
infiltrate buildings and bases and jump inside any empty vessel to use it against them!
It reminds me a little bit of the game 'Corncob 3D' in this respect,
where you could hop out of your plane to blast aliens and carry out missions on-foot between flying.
Unlike that game though, the on-foot stuff in G-Nome isn't just a tertiary feature.
It's how you'll play a significant chunk of the game.
Many missions have you starting on-foot, sneaking into an enemy base,
disabling their defenses or opening new pathways and stealing one of their rides to proceed.
And I've got to say this is the entire reason that G-Nome is worth playing, because otherwise it's a bit mundane.
When you're not boosting mechs, tanks, sentries and hovercrafts, you are mostly just doing a lot of really slow cumbersome travel.
Don't get me wrong. I know that spending a lot of time getting from point A to point B is par for the course in games like this,
but G-Nome in particular manages to make piloting a 50-foot tall robot pretty boring and irksome most of the time.
For one thing, you can only traverse flat wide-open scenery.
Don't even think about walking on hills, or near hills, or through water, or anything that even looks a little bit strange.
You don't get any auto aiming either, so you're left with the fidgety joystick and keyboard controls for everything,
which half the time I found either too sensitive or confusingly unresponsive.
There's also very little in the way of systems management to attend to in your HAWC.
You have basic shields and a throttle, but nothing in the way of rerouting energy to other systems,
making minor repairs or customizing loadouts
HAWCs are all treated as disposable, which I can understand since you're meant to be hopping from one to another as needed,
but it prevented me from feeling any connection to my machine since I was never looking forward to earning my next upgrade,
or worrying about keeping it intact since there's always another HAWC right around the corner.
G-Nome is much more of an arcadey mech game in this respect and while there is nothing inherently wrong with that,
I felt that it made each mission feel isolated and left me feeling apathetic to the experience as a whole.
And the ending is pretty weak too with one of those annoying cliffhanger post-credit scenes
that makes you look forward to a direct sequel, that of course the developer never finished.
G-Nome ended up selling badly and received middling reviews at best,
with the intended real-time strategy spin-off 'Dominion' being sold off to Ion Storm before it was completed.
It was eventually finished and released by them as 'Dominion: Storm over Gift 3' in 1998,
while 7th Level burned itself alive with a merger gone wrong that same year.
Still, despite its average gameplay and non-existent legacy,
G-Nome has a charming sensibility to it that kept me curiously puttering about for a good handful of hours.
It's not just the mech jacking aspect,
I also love the mid-90s Sci-Fi atmosphere it provides with its low res texture mapping and muffled ambient sound effects.
[ambient sounds]
And I appreciate its occasional touch of humor, like when you're a passenger in a vehicle,
this relaxing muzak plays as the carnage rages on outside.
And finally, I simply enjoy any game with mechs or hercs or HAWCS or whatever it happens to call them to avoid a lawsuit.
Computer games with giant robots like this make me happy, even when they're pointy and low-res as G-Nome.
Admittedly it's not much to look at, even for 1997,
with its lack of hardware acceleration and limited 256-color graphics, but even in our time of copious retro gaming throwbacks,
very few seek to mimic this chunky software rendering, with its warping textures and dithered shadow blobs.
So while it's sold badly enough that running across a copy is highly unlikely, especially one complete in-box,
I'd still say G-Nome is worth checking out if you get the chance,
if only for the experience of forcing an enemy to bail,
stealing their mech and stomping them to bits with it as you admire its jagged aesthetic.
[sounds of pain]
And a big thank you to Joseph (aka FusionTron) for sending me this boxed copy of G-Nome years ago,
I've been meaning to cover it forever, just now getting around to it
so I hope you enjoyed and if you did, there's other videos coming every Monday and Friday here on LGR, and as always
thank you very much for watching!