Serious Game Classification

Harms Way is a hybrid of racing and shooting. It was released for free on XBLA. In the Driver mode players steer armed cars over different courses with the aim of becoming first while firing at the competition. In the Shooter mode players control one of the many turrets surrounding the course, firing at the racing drivers and hopping from one stationary turret to another to follow the cars. In the single-player mode players choose one of either roles while the other is taken over by the AI, but in multiplayer it is possible to work together cooperatively as a team of driver and shooter, both offline and online.

As a driver there are four vehicles to choose from: Buggy, Pickup, Truck and Bus, each with different characteristics. The courses all take three laps to complete and largely have a desert theme with events such as sandstorms (also blinding the shooters, which can help the drivers) and shortcuts that are usually triggered by the shooters. During a race drivers can pick up bonuses such as nitro, shield and smoke. There are also power-ups that affect the turrets, upgrading your own (providing more weapons such as a sniper rifle, burst shot, air strike, missile launcher and mines) or downgrading the ones of opponents. The latter two power-ups can also be shot by the Shooter. In the race each driver has his own shooter and friendly fire cannot be disabled. The shooters shift around spaces to await the racers, but a spot can only be occupied by one shooter at all times. It is however possible to shoot another turret to take out the shooter. Shooters can aim for the engines or tires to get a different result. There are also three zoom levels. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : Xbox 360 (X360)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/harms-way/
• http://conflictinggamers.com/2010/12/08/everyones-a-winner-dorito [...]