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Preview

White Gold

Format Xbox 360

Developer Unknown

Publisher Unknown

Genre First Person Shooter

10-Jul-2008 Sun, sea and role-playing elements: this is the thinking man's South American action game

1 Comments

Look at the screenshots: open environments, driving, shooting, flying. Stifle the immediate urge to dismiss this as just, well, a Just Cause clone, because White Gold is a much more serious proposition than that South American romp, with attention to realism in a way that none of the GTA-derived games have ever tried

For example, take the ever-popular activity of driving about and disobeying the Green Cross Code. Mostly, it's not just a case of diving in a car and taking off.

Some cars require you to use lock-picks to get in, while others need you to get the keys from their owners. Add vehicles with boots to store bits and pieces, tyres which can be blown out individually, and even a fuel tank and you've got something that's almost a simulation.

That may not immediately sound much fun, but the kick here owes as much to Oblivion or Deus Ex as the traditional free-roaming games. It's a little more serious. While deaths are common, they mean more as your actions will influence your standing with each of the games' seven factions, including characters as varied as Guerrillas, the Government and the CIA.

As well as being able to talk to random people walking around (including pick-pockets) there are some considerable role-playing aspects. For example, you have an inventory and a maximum-weight that must be managed, and as you progress through the game you level up.

While the combat-boosts are obvious, the ability to skin animals, increase your alcohol tolerance and even lie to guards if you're spotted, speaks volumes about the breadth the game offers.

Your body's health, meanwhile, is separated into each limb, allowing each to be disabled in turn. If your legs get hurt, you start walking with a limp. If arms catch a bullet, your aim may not be as steady. The solution? Well, a quick one is to hammer a syringe of painkillers into it. The more you take, though, the more you're at risk of addiction.

From a distance, White Gold looks like a million other games. But the closer you get, the more it seems to be a game of its own. A highly ambitious one at that.

OXM Staff