Gotcha! Extreme Paintball is a non-violent first-person shooter in which the characters play paintball. Its gameplay is inspired in particular by Counter-Strike. The game can be played alone or with others, through a local network or direct connection. The player can choose between 18 male and female top players, 12 different high-tech-markers and also colored grenades you can use and equip your team with. The scenario is the player playing Gotcha (a.k.a. Paintball) can play in a league with 28 teams and compete in 17 different locations. Multiplayer modes include Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Flag Elimination, Team Elimination, Last Man Standing, and Kill the King.[2] The character can crouch, lie down, or strafe. There are up to 12 fields around the Earth with realistic weather effects. For online play, players can play around the Internet, LAN matches and Xbox Live tournaments with up to 12 players.[3]
Weapons
Markers: Markers are high-tech air pressure weapons with paintball ammunition. Pure fun is guaranteed!
- From pistol to automatic gun
- Paintball pumpgun
- Sniper-marker with telescopic sight
- Paint and smoke grenades[4]
Gotcha! Extreme Paintball received mixed to average reviews.
For Xbox Gamer's Etienne Froment, the game "is ultimately a pretty good surprise" on Xbox. Unlike Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball, which "only offers fairly 'heavy' simulation", Gotcha! offers nervous gameplay and a terribly trippy atmosphere."[15]
Cyril Dupont of Joystick gives the Windows version a 2/10, criticizing the game for a "glaring lack of dynamism for an FPS", and assures that "it's guaranteed boredom" and that there is "nothing to save the title".[5]
Ludovic Bechtold of JeuxActu gives the score of 12/20 to the Windows version of the game, which he explains as follows: "We don't forget its shortcomings in artificial intelligence, its outdated graphics and its ridiculous animation, but I'm not ashamed to say yes, I had a great time on Gotcha! even if it only comes close to the great Counter-Strike. He points out as strong points the side "fun and fast to play" and the "numerous game modes".[9]
Jean-Marc Wallimann of Jeuxvideo.com, testing the Windows version, also gave it a score of 12/20. He finds the maps to be small but satisfying: "They are full of places to hide and to wait in deceit for the arrival of opponents. However, we would have liked more so-called secret passages, or detours to have the choice of rushing into the heap or taking the opposite team from behind."[13] Nicolas Charciarek, for his part, gives the Xbox version a score of 9/20. He makes a similar observation about the maps, but mentions "gameplay problems absent from the PC version which pollute the game", and judges the realization of the environments and the characters rude. He adds that "the solo mode is of limited interest, the bots being of a relative intelligence."[14]
Kévin Kuipers of Gamekult gives the Windows version a score of 3/10. He says that "paintball is obviously sorely lacking in interest when played virtually, and Gotcha! proves it once again. According to him, the game's gameplay and artificial intelligence are bad. However, he appreciates "the technical aspect [...] very correct with well-modeled sets and some nice effects".[12]
Thomas Weiss of PC Games gave a score of 5.2/10, stating that the game would have had a bigger appeal if it had the necessary technical requirements, such as spectacularly bursting projectiles. Graphically, the title "reminds of Counter-Strike instead: angular rooms, blurred textures, hardly any particle effects except for the pretty water". Gameplay isn't considered bad but just "ordinary".[8]
For Sébastien Delahaye of NoFrag, "the game is of little interest", because of the "maddeningly stupid" AI, the "failed" gameplay, the "titou technique [and the] sound to match". He concludes by describing the game as "very beautiful crap".[16]
The non-violent aspect of Gotcha! Extreme Paintball is praised by Kévin Kuipers, which makes it accessible to the little ones;[12] for Jean-Marc Wallimann, the title is not just another version of terrorists facing counter-terrorists, but it wants to be more good-natured by aligning itself with the culture of paintball.[13]
