After spending last evening fighting the game’s servers, I finally got to play Lead and Gold today on the game’s free weekend on Steam. After a couple multiplayer rounds, it’s clear that this game isn’t going to supplant Team Fortress 2 as a multiplayer shooter, but then again it doesn’t have to.
Lead and Gold is different enough, with it’s wild west theme and basic game mechanics that it doesn’t really have to compete with TF2 for the same audience. It’s cartoony style resembles Valve’s shooter, but the gameplay is more deliberate. There are only four classes to pick from but they compliment each other well and you’re encouraged to band up with your allies by getting bonuses from the different classes being near each other. My biggest issue is that for all of the different modes, players seem to devolve them into mere death matches time and again. Other then that, it’s an intriguing spin on multiplayer shooters, especially for those with a penchant for the old American west.
