Rango

As part of my Gamerscore push, I picked up a few easy games for the cheap. These included Rango which for some reason was imported from China and the case was written in Italian. It didn’t make a lot of sense as the postage was about as much as I paid for the game (not a lot).

I haven’t seen the Rango movie but if it’s anything based on the game, it would be truly bizarre. Rango is a chameleon sheriff is a desert town and the storyline of the game consists of him retelling a story about some strange rocks which have been causing people to disappear. He has a girlfriend called Beans, an iguana, who is also a bit weird but that’s in keeping with the theme of the game.

The whole storyline is a bit strange but then again it is designed for kids so that’s to be expected. However, I do have a criticism of this. The game is for seven plus and I tried this out on the kids around my house and I don’t think that they paid much attention to the storyline. The action on the levels is what keeps them entertained though.

In terms of the visual and sound quality, it has the same issues as all other games of its genre – visually unspectacular with lots of repetitive jingly tunes which drive you mad after about twenty minutes of play time.

The gameplay is actually its main strength which was a big surprise. It is a very clean game with hardly any glitches or gameplay errors. This was fantastic, especially as the game is geared more towards the kids which means they won’t be frustrated when things keep going wrong – something I’m becoming more used to!

Achievements – 46 Achievements – 1,000 Points

The majority of the achievements are story related and a simple playthrough will nail the majority and get you another if you do it in hard mode. Difficulties are stackable as well so no need for multiple playthroughs... for difficulty reasons anyway.

There are a few achievements for gathering Sherriff Stars, the in game currency and another for purchasing all upgrades for Rango. These two things do not tally up at all. I had to spend a lot of time at the end grinding out stars to get the last achievement.

There are a few others where you have to do specific things like killing enemies in a certain way or using the special weapons to kill a certain amount of enemies but these are all relatively straightforward.

And that’s pretty much it. The grind isn’t really that bad considering some others I’ve done recently and the total play time for the 1,000 points is probably around 10 hours max.

Downloadable Content – N/A

It’s most redeeming quality is the fact that it is an easy 1,000 points to add to the pile and not too time consuming. The visual and gameplay quality make it one on the best games I’ve played in the genre however it offers no adult replay value. The kids like it though.