Colors (video game)
| Colors | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Indie Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Gizmondo |
| Platform(s) | Gizmondo, iOS, Android |
| Release date(s) | Cancelled, mostly completed version circulated early 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Third-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Colors is a Gizmondo game that uses the console's GPS system to allow the player to play in the area where the player is located in real life, in the game. Colors was intended to be the world’s first GPS video game, but due to Gizmondo’s bankruptcy, it was never officially released.
There was a mostly complete version of Colors that was circulated on the Internet. When first playing Colors, it appears the multiplayer game, called TurfWar, is offline. After a player gains 30,000 dollars, it unlocks. Another unlockable is the tag editor which allows players to spraypaint custom tags around the city. It is unlocked after beating a certain mission in the game.
The multiplayer mode of the game does not function.
On November 30, 2015, Carl Freer announced plans to re-release the game for iOS and Google Play.[1]
Gameplay
Gameplay in Colors is very similar to many popular third person shooter games, like Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil 4, or Max Payne. Its targeting system is odd, in that you cannot manually target body parts like the head or arms, but instead, the reticle moves automatically, slowing down and becoming more precise depending on the player's movement. If he or she strafes or moves more while targeting, then the reticle wildly bobs around, becoming hard to aim and shoot accurately.
When you start the game, you are allowed to select a character. Other than differing in appearance, two stats are also presented, health, and stamina.
A button must be held to strafe, and due to the Gizmondo's lack of an analog stick, a button must also be pressed to activate running. It must only be pressed once though.
The game's weapon selection is split into different types. There are rifles, shotguns, pistols, and explosives, as well as some improvised weapons like nailguns. There are no melee weapons though, only ranged ones.
In the game, you can be caught by the police, which takes you to a prison cell with three people in it. Two of them offer to get you out at a price, while one will offer you to get out for free, but you must go through having sex with this prisoner. After that, you are transported to the hospital, and are allowed to leave.
Crimson City itself is mostly free roaming, but divided into several small areas with loading screens. The locales in the game include a train station( where the game begins and ends), a China Town, a Little Italy, a Little Mexico, a junk yard, some docks, and an area that doesn't stick with a particular theme, but has a man you can buy C4 explosives from. Some of the highest paying missions are also in this area.
Overall, there are about forty missions in the game, and no main story, so all of them are self-contained stories of the character's services to multiple people. Each boss has their own, small story that is uncovered more, such as one female Spanish boss who is being followed around by a junkyard worker, and finally gets kidnapped by the worker, leaving the character to save her and kill him.
Story
The game takes place in the fictional Crimson City. The game contains little to no story, the reason why the main character is in the city, nor are there any explanations as to why he begins to commit crimes. Your character is simply introduced by a vague CG intro arriving by train. The people you work for range from a pimp in the stereotypical purple suit and hat, a corrupt police officer, a gamut of gangsters, and many criminals fitting stereotypes of their race.
During the game's missions, you are given jobs such as hiding drugs for a cop, removing someone's life support plug, getting high on drugs and chasing a man in a rabbit suit through a maze-like building.
The game ends with the player leaving the city ambiguously as he came in. After beating the game, you are treated to being able to select a lot more character models to play as, including many of the denizens within Crimson City itself, such as the pizza seller, the drug rabbit, the gun dealer, Mr. Smith, who has some of the best stats in the game, and a medieval knight, which is never seen regularly in the game.