You Just Come Try and Shoot Me...Pardner.

And, you'll probably succeed, but, whether you drop me or I drop you, or Ghin drops all of us simultaneously, you will have a lot of fun.

Let's get down to brass tacks for a moment. Win or lose, you will have fun. That is what gaming is about, having fun. This is competitive, tense, immersive, with lovingly handcrafted visual and audio ambiance; sometimes you will be overwhelmingly outmatched and other times you will have just about the optimal balance of play. At times, you will pull off the perfect set of moves, in the perfect rhythm and feel like you just entered the Matrix--so under control and automatic, not thinking, just doing, and it's utterly satisfying--"no mind". Other times you will enter freak-out mode, pumping buttons on your controls with all the deftness and poise of a hyperactive three year old, listening to the repetitive, panicky dry firing of the empty chamber of your gun, about as able to push the "Reload" button for your weapons as you are capable of doing calculus speedily on an abacus, because you have straight lost your cool. Probably multiple times in the same game.

In all cases, it will be fun.



You start off with a quick tutorial which acquaints you with the basic gameplay controls. There is enough variety of control here that you can truly develop skillful, strategic methods of play with the character(s) that you choose to play. Evading is as essential as attacking in order to win, as is taking cover, for protection as well as stealth, and for quicker stamina regeneration and reloading of your weapons (be careful just where you take cover, though). Each character has primary and secondary weapons, which are quickly switchable, to go along with special attacks.

In Practice, you can play with or without AI active, and you may choose to play any character. This is very useful for initially learning the basics and then later the timing and rhythm of the more advanced combinations you dream up and may wish to employ, first in a stress free environment and later under fire and on the move. Also, it's a great place to warm up before you jump into multiplayer matches.

While the basic controls are simple to learn, the more time you put into playing will reward you with greater adeptness in style and skill. You'll come to appreciate how thoughtfully tuned the game mechanics are. The quality responsiveness of the core skills will allow you to play creatively. As you master a character, and find the right combinations to counter your competitor's character and style of play, you'll smile at the versatility.



When you are ready, jump into multiplayer, make a character, and join Rookie mode or Ranked mode. In Rookie mode you can play 2v2 matches against other people of any rank, with and against low level AI, or a mix of both. Games can be played in many different environments and under a variety of game winning conditions. The environments and winning conditions can be chosen or left to randomly occur.

Matches consist of timed games, where death leads to a respawn and the relative death count determines the winning team, one-off death-matches, where the last team to have a member standing wins the round, needing two to three victorious rounds to win the game, and free-for-alls, where healing, stamina regeneration, and speed-boosts are available in limited but respawning supply, leading to the possibility for games of varying length depending upon the skills of those playing.

When you finish, you are awarded or deducted value to your character in the form of a bounty in dollars. Every match, you have something on the line, which increases the enjoyable tension. As you gain a higher bounty, you will reach higher ranks in your character, and be awarded skill points to distribute amongst a number of attributes affecting how your character plays. These skill points can be redistributed before every match, allowing you to greatly alter how your character performs. If you find yourself struggling against a particular type of opponent, tweaking your skills can absolutely turn the tide.

You can gain a bounty toward progressing in the lower ranks in Rookie matches, but after you reach "Outlaw", you will need to compete in ranked matches to further bounty progress.

Don't worry if you find yourself in matches against others of higher rank. The more of an underdog you are, the more bounty you can gain just for successfully doing damage, winning a round, or winning the match, whereas you will make much lower bounties against opponents lower than yourself. You may still gain some bounty in a loss to a higher ranked character, or you may gain a huge bounty should you win.

A lower ranked character can compete with much higher ranked characters if you have learned how to play in general and explore the different methods in which you can play a particular character. The more you play, the better you will get, and the more complex your style of play will become.

I cannot stress this enough. The control methods and mechanics are well thought out and masterfully executed. Both tactics and strategy are well rewarded because of this. Skillpoints matter, but skill at play matters more.

And everything counts.

Waste your stamina? You'll regret it and learn not to.

Don't reload that millisecond you have to gain a couple of bullets back in your chamber? You'll learn when you are one bullet short in an epic, game-ending, side-winding showdown, as both of you decide you've been forced to take cover just one too many times and it's time to put a round to bed.

Think you've figured out how to beat a certain type of character every time? You'll learn better. Don't be surprised to find different individuals playing a character very skillfully in completely different styles. And the synergies between player tandems that can be exploited add even more creativity to each character skillset and game.

Finally, Secret Ponchos is both KB/M and Gamepad controllable, with advantages to each. As you might expect with a twin stick shooter, KB/M enjoys a natural advantage in aiming precision, whereas character movement and control is innately more fluid with the controller. I am ready for my Steam controller to arrive. This should be the perfect game to demonstrate its capabilities.

Be you good, bad, or ugly, grab a fistful of dollars, and buy Secret Ponchos. For a few dollars more, order a Steam controller. It should lead to a uniquely enjoyable gaming experience.