Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West is a multi-player third person shooter with a strong emphasis on teamwork. Almost every element of the game, from the level design to the character’s abilities to the way the respawn functions, is designed to make teamwork the road to victory. Some players will dislike the basic structure if only because it makes it difficult to play in the “I’m on the team, but I’m not really on the team” style that they may be used to getting away with in other games. There are also mechanics which push the players together geographically, like the mobile spawn-point and synergies.
Teamwork is what Lead and Gold is all about.
Pursuit
The first thing you might notice when joining a multi-player game is that there are many game modes to choose from. The basic team death-match is called “Shootout”. “Powder Keg” is a one-sided gametype with one team attempting to set a bomb in the other team’s base. The other one-sided type is “Robbery” in which one team attempts to steal all of the bags of gold from the other team. “Greed” is a capture the flag game in which one bag of gold sits in the middle of the map, and both teams try to capture it. In “Conquest” the teams are fighting a tug-of war over several flag-points on the map, which must be controlled in sequence. Finally, “Gold Fever” is a two-player vs. bots co-op in which the players try to survive as long as possible against an unending stream of baddies. Players can also choose to train alone against bots, which is a good way to get used to the controls and features before joining a live game.
Each of the four classes has their own traits and weapons to distinguish them from the other players, and to encourage more teamwork. Each class’s “synergy” can be spread to the players around them, rewarding them for staying close. The Gunslinger gets a nice pistol, and the ability to fan-fire it; His synergy gives others greater accuracy. The Blaster carries a shotgun, and slings sticks of dynamite; His synergy gives others a defense bonus. The Trapper carries a scoped rifle, suitable for sniping, and throws down bear traps that immobilize opponents; Her synergy causes more critical hits. The deputy has a repeater rifle, and can “mark” specific opponents, allowing his teammates to see them wherever they go; His synergy radiates damage bonuses. All the characters get basic six-shooters as side-arms.
Lots of differentiation among the classes makes for interesting combat.
Gimmicks
Synergies are the primary mechanic for keeping the teams working closely with one another. Since they don’t stack, the ideal fighting force is to have one of each, and for the team to break up into squads of four. Of course, without any good communication tools, it’s tough to coordinate that, and mostly the team just moves as a group. In addition, the synergies and other abilities, are made more powerful with Experience Points. Each time a player does something to help a teammate, they earn XP, and each level they advance makes them a better teammate. It’s a self-feeding cycle of teamwork encouragement, and it means that the win will usually go, not to the team with the most skilled players, but to the team with the best cohesion.
Symbols at the top of the display show a player which of the four synergies she is currently recieving from her teammates.
Possibly my favorite gimmick is the Knock-down (KD) state. One reason you want to stay close to your teammates is because any one of them could save your life. When a player’s health reaches zero, she does not immediately die (unless she got head-shot or exploded by dynamite, or something just as tragic), instead she enters KD state. In this state, the character is immobile, and automatically switches to her side-arm. The player may choose to immediately enter the respawn queue, or continue to shoot back at the enemies from the ground. If a teammate is close by, he can give the KDed player a hand back up to her feet, which also restores some of her health.
An Enemy in KD state can still shoot back.
One more aspect that keeps the teams stuck together is the spawn. Each level only has one spawn location, but one player on the team can grab the respawn stick, and strap it to her back. That player then becomes a rallying point for the whole team, and whenever a player dies, he can choose to either spawn back at the home base, or at the spawn stick (there might be a better name for it than that, but I couldn’t find one in the documentation). This can lead to very protracted shootouts, as both teams continue to spawn around the same location. It can also be a surprise for the enemies if they manage to corner the player with the stick, then suddenly she’s got all her friends with her.
The spawn stick makes it easy for the teams to stick together.
Panorama
The graphics are comparable to other modern team-based FPSes, like TF2. The colors are crisp, and the environments are visually distinctive, while remaining true to the theme.
The characters are designed to be distinctive, and easy to discern at a glance. You know what team a player is on, and which class they’ve chosen as soon as you see them, and you never lose track of your teammates because their names and outlines are always on the screen—showing you (even through buildings) where they are and what condition they are in. There is also the interesting addition of enemy names; if you can see an enemy on your screen, their name appears over the character’s head.
Players get to see their enemy's usernames.
There is no true first person mode, which was strange at first, but I soon got used to it. In some TPSs, the player’s character can get in the way of seeing the action effectively, but the way it’s done here never seems to be in the way. Sometimes I actually forget it’s there.
Your character is always on the screen, but never in the way of the action.
Reigns
The controls are completely customizable, so no worries there. Characters can tumble around to dodge enemy fire, which is difficult to master, but proves useful if you can get the hang of it. There are also controls for sprinting and walking if you need them.
Noise
The sound effects and music are all appropriate. The issue is that there is no in-game voice chat. Communication and team coordination would be better if this feature was added, but it really says something about the team dynamics, that the lack of voice chat does not make the game unplayable. However, I think the game will have a tough time recruiting players unless they work to implement this in the coming months. No word if it’s something they are working on or not.
Encoding
I haven’t run into any flaws or bugs during my time with the game.
Most levels have some stationary guns sitting around, which any player can use.
Last Word
Lead and Gold is the most well crafted multiplayer shooter since Team Fortress 2. Even without voice chat (the lack of which is the game’s only real drawback), it’s a great game for those who love team-based combat. With slick graphics and lots of maps and game-types, this game has a lot to offer. I love TF2, but if all my friends decide tomorrow that they’re dropping TF2 in favor of Lead and Gold, I will not be disappointed.
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