Trigger Man Preview

Tony Montagano is dead – that much is fact. Don Coladangelo has been blamed for the death of Tony, though he claims that it was Tony’s greed that killed him. But the Montagano family is looking for someone to blame and they have picked Don Coladangelo.

The Don needs help, and so he calls on The Trigger Man. The Trigger Man is asked to “reason” with the Montagano family and “convince” them to apologize for their slanderous remarks against the Don.

Ok, it doesn’t take a Smith & Wesson employee to figure out that there is only one way that someone named “The Trigger Man” would handle a situation like this.

Crave Entertainment and WNT Games have conspired for the pending PlayStation 2 release of Trigger Man, a tale of guns and bullets set against a background of a vendetta between two families engaged in organized crime.

The game is mission-based, with the opening scenario one of a theft, but not an ordinary one. The Montagano family is smuggling in diamonds to finance a new casino. But the diamonds will also finance the war with the Coladangelo family as well. The Trigger Man is tasked with stealing the diamonds from the vault of the Cesario Casino.

The casino security system, as it so happens, is offline for the night, even though the casino has its grand opening the next day. However, the building is filled with a good-sized security force.

The mission objects are simple: gain access to the high-level security area, open the vault using C4 and steal the diamonds.

Sounds simple enough. But the game is primarily a shooter title and has a few road bumps that may stop it from being a top shooter. While the environments are wonder to look at, like any shooter, so much rides on the controls and action.

The controls for this title are sluggish in the default setting, and in order to get any decent response from the, you will have to access the menu and jack up the aiming speed. The right thumbstick on the PS2 controller operates targeting, while the left thumbstick is the movement. You can use the environment for cover, and this in handy when the first guard manages to move off and brings back friends.

But the AI is not particularly smart. Some guards will use the environment to duck behind, unless you get an angle that stops that, then they will stand there and take round after round. A headshot will put the opposition down immediately. But hit them elsewhere and they will take several rounds before falling. One guard took 10 rounds in the lower abdomen and legs before going down. Hit them once in the head, though, and it’s lights out.

The game features a map to show you the layout in the area you are in as well as enemy locations, which is a nice touch but makes this way too easy. The gun the Trigger Man carries holds about 15 rounds before you reload. And yes, you will run out of ammunition, so just running through and blasting vicariously is not the answer.

There are 14 weapons you can acquire during the course of the game. The game has two difficulty settings – normal and deadly.

Graphically the game is solid. The environments are well done and the animation, while not exceptional, does convey the game’s mood. There are not a lot of control options (seemingly) in this title. You move, you aim, you shoot. As there was no manual provided with this title, stealth moves may not be available – as in no crouching, or skulking through an environment to sneak up on the guards and slit their throats with your knife. However, that is not to say you cannot move cautiously through an environment and leave a trail of carnage in your wake.

The sound in this preview version was negligible.

There are save points along the way.

Funny thing about that knife. It one-hits guards. Seems like hot lead ripping through the chest would do more damage than a knife slash, but it is not the case.

Trigger Man is not a bad game by any means. This is a straightforward game in which players are tasked to work through missions, battling impossible odds and yet accomplishing the tasks. After all, you are the Trigger Man, a specialist who gets things done. Looking for an action-packed game with solid challenge? Trigger Man may not have a lot of deep-thought storyline elements, but it does have a lot of action.