Review: Bang! The Spaghetti Western Card Game
Score:
85%
Card games have long been a staple of computer game developers, which has always seemed a strange mix because the physical nature of the cards never translates well to the computer screen. But then neither does the mess or the space needed for a really good card game translate either, and that's a good thing! So here's another card game, converted over to Symbian. And the unusual thing here is that it's not based on the standard 52 playing cards. Bang! is a subtly different beast.
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Launched in the real world in 2002, Bang! has a string of awards behind it and, while it has a huge number of fans, I suspect it's going to be a bit of a mystery to those that come across it in the Ovi Store.
What sets it apart from something like Uno is that the victory conditions for each player are different, so everyone has a different strategy and is working towards a different goal. In the game, you take on the typical roles you would find in the mythical Wild West of story lore. There's the Sheriff and his Deputies, who need to kill all the outlaws and renegades; the Outlaws, who need to simply kill the sheriff; and the Renegade, who's looking to be the last person standing in a huge bloodbath of death.
You'll get dealt your role in one of the cards, and then as you look through the rest of the cards, you'll find cards marked "Bang!" which you can use to shoot other players and knocking off one of their lives; "Miss", which allows you to avoid the "Bang!", and various cards that can modify the game, heal you, target other players, or be able to play additional cards per turns (each turn is draw two cards from the stock in the middle, play as many cards as you can, following the rules, and then end the turn when you're ready).
That's a lot for a new player to get to grips with, and thankfully there's a comprehensive tutorial system that takes you, step by step, through your first game. Follow this and you'll at least have the mechanics of how to play the game, and you can then pick up the rest of the details from the help pages, which also lets you browse through the various cards.
As for playing the game, it should be clear that game theory is going to play a large part in any strategy, because while the identity of the Sherriff is known to all players, the roles of Deputy, Renegade and Outlaw roles remain hidden and part of the fun is working out who is playing what, who is bluffing roles, and of course if you guess wrong you could be helping them to victory!
So that's the game, and while it does take some time to play thorough a full game against your opponents (be it you versus a cast of computer controlled characters, or mixing that in with other human players where you pass your phone around for them to make a nod to a multiplayer game), it's a nice change from some of the faster paced games that have been released in the last few months. Sometimes you want a game you can sit down with and know you've got 20-30 minutes of playing time, which all counts towards the final result.
Actually playing the game on the touch screen is simple - when you want to draw a card, you slide it from the stock pile of cards in the middle to your hand, while playing a card is a matter of drawing it out from your hand to play in front of you (if it's an effect) or on an opponent (if it's a "Bang!" or other card that affects them). In that sense it's just like playing the game, moving the cards around, but with a bundle of sound effects, cartoon avatars popping around, atmospheric graphics and a certain style and swagger that feels instantly comfortable and in tune with the Wild West theme.
Make no mistake, the developers have spent as much time on the presentation and atmosphere of the game as to the mechanics and AI. Not only does it show, but it makes you want to explore the game to find out why they've spent all this time - and that's enough to get you through the tutorial and playing your first full game. Success!
Oh, and the piano music that seems lifted straight out of Carry on Cowboy? Loved it for the first two games, then it drove me to distraction. So that got turned off very quickly, but not before it had guided me to the mindset of the developers as to the style of Wild West that Bang! would provide. And the rest of the spot sound effects for cards being played, Bang sound effects, and others, are all crisp, clear, appropriate and feel fully integrated into the game.
Bang! is a tough one to pin down, if I'm honest. There's a great game in here, with some fantastic visuals that really make playing the game rewarding, but in moving away from a table top game with your friends to (let's be realistic) a solo challenge, it loses a touch of the frenzy and emotion - which of course is partly replaced by the graphics and presentation, but it's not a complete switch-out. At the same time, you'll never have to convince people to play this new game with you, your phone is going to say "sure" and away you go.
Ultimately, I'm glad games like this make it to any platform, especially one I like, because it rewards good game design and ensures a healthy return for developers and designers to make more unique games. This is a marmite game, you either love it, in which case you've probably downloaded it already, or you're not going to find the appeal. I suspect that most, given the chance, will be in the former group, but it's a tough ask to sell it to the latter. But it is worth it.
-- Ewan Spence, April 2011.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at