To mark the arrival of a slew of games from the Interplay back catalogue on GOG are having a 50% off sale on all of the publisher’s stock. Among a lot of classics is one game I’d like to highlight: Giants: Citizen Kabuto.
The first game from Planet Moon Studios, formed of ex-Shiny staff, Giants’ DNA was clearly similar to Shiny’s earlier hit MDK but there was a perfect blend of experimental game design, colour, and writing that makes Giants the winner. Let me explain more fully:
Giants begins with your Meccaryn ship, loaded with sapce marines,crash landing on an alien planet while on their way to Planet Majorca for some much-needed shore leave. You’re soon caught up in a planetary revolution supporting the small, weak, and swear-spewing Smarties in their fight to take control away from the spellcasting Sea Reapers.
One of the things that will grab you immediately about Giants is the colour. The world is a lush blend of green and purples. Alien fauna dots the islands’ many tall peaks and spires making exploring a joy. Your Meccs are strapped into jump packs that let you fly about the island with ease. After a little getting used to the controls you can dart in and out of a fight witha crowd of sea reapers from above with ease, feeling like the worlds most awesomest person.
While the weapons aren’t too far from the norm of machine guns, grenades, and rocket launchers, there’s a hint of the bombastic that would appear in Planet Moon’s next game – Hidden and Dangerous. For instance, late in the game you’ll come across the Millenium Mortar, a cannon you can lug about that has a huge range and hits the target with a literally earth-bending explosion. The shockwave warps the earth flinging all your enemies into the air.
Giants is also extremely generous with its mechanics, characters, and story. While a good portion of the storyline is from the perspective of the Meccs, who are full of jokes and crude one-liners, you also play as a Sea Reaper queen – who has a whole new set of weapons and abilities – and also Citizen Kabuto, a giant King Kong-like monster that attacks with classic wrestling moves such asthe pile driver.
The latter part of the Mecc and Sea Reaper campaign break from the norm of the third-person combat and blend in an RTS overlay. You need to establish a base camp, collect Smartie workers, and build walls and turrests to defend your base from waves of assaulting enemies. This base level is the highlight of the Mecc campaign as for one level you get access to the bomb-toting gyrocopter – which I’ll hold up as one of the best vehicles in all of gaming.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto is available for $3 on GOG. Buy it now on impulse and within 20 minutes of playing you’ll realise it was one of the best impulse buys I’ve ever made you make.
If you still aren’t convinced, watch this: