Twin Caliber

Title: Twin Caliber
Developed by: Rage
Released: 2002

Twin Caliber is zombie apocalypse 3^rd person shooter featuring weird and interesting set of controls and camera angles.

Shortly before their defunct, Rage developed this twin-barrelled shooter in which you have a choice between two characters: Sheriff John T Fortman and his old adversary, Valdez; a maximum security prisoner.

The gameplay is high score and continue based, much like an arcade game, and features both characters on the same screen at all time. However, this game doesn’t really shine until a real-life person takes control of the second character. The bespoke control method is unorthodox to say the least. The characters progress on their own after all targets have been eliminated, much like time crisis, but the controller is split into two. The left analogue stick aims your avatar’s left arm, with L1 to fire that weapon and L2 to reload. The right analogue stick controls the right arm / weapon with R1 and R2 firing and reloading that side. The face buttons control other functions, such as locking arms so that only one stick can control both weapon aims; TNT throwing and auto reload. The schizophrenic controls take a little getting used to but work really well.

The Camera angle leaves a little to be desired. Occasionally you will find yourself shooting at the enemy who is off screen and the camera movement can disorientate you enough to the point where you will accidentally shoot your team mate. The slow motion death cameras are a nice touch but they can happen a little too often, so much that the novelty can wear off quickly. During the first mission especially, I found that even though my HUD was on the right, my character mostly stayed to the left of the action. This was a bit weird and a little disappointing that this wasn’t calculated or presented better.

This game can be found very cheap these days and is worth every penny if you pick the right person to play it with. You can surely laugh at the voice acting and the bizarre bosses together. The graphics may be a little dated but it’s fun as hell.

  6.1