Customer Reviews

The Gnome 7th Level (PC)

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played it a many years ago and wanted to see if I could locate it and play it again!! still love it!! game is a little limiting, but great for its age!! I last played it over 10 years ago!

This was the first game I ever played on a Windows computer after my family retired the Amiga Commodore 500 that I had learned to play games on. As such the game has a bit of a sentimental value to me that may cloud my judgment a little when it comes to reviewing, but I will do my best to sidestep that land mine.

G-nome is a mech game that was created for Windows 95 by a no longer existing company by the name of 7th Level. Since the game is over a decade old, there is no need for me to go into detail on the graphics, so I will skip right ahead to what counts with older games.

For starters, the story line is incredibly unique, even for a game of this genre. What's most noticeable is that it is its own original series, not a MechWarrior or BattleTech clone, though you can see traces of BattleTech influence in the game. There is a wide variety of different mechs and vehicles to use in the game and with the four different factions having specific mecks with their own unique abilities as well, you won't get bored trying out every vehicle in the game. Two unique features to the game is the ability to eject from your mech (and use certain weapons to force eject other pilots from their mechs) so as to capture other vehicles is a truly amazing feature for a game this old. The other notable feature is the "IFF" feature. Each faction on each mission has a randomly generated 4 digit number that functions as their "IFF" (Identify Friendly-Foe) code. If you manage to obtain this code on a mission and punch it into your mech's computer, you will be identified as a friendly on enemy radar. However, your AI friends will think you're an enemy unless it's a mission specific objective to be masquerading as an enemy. Not only are there mechs and other vehicles for you to man, but you can also use stationary weapon platforms of either rocket towers of gauss cannon towers.

Other notable features would be the use of draw bridges (and buildings that control them), the ability to change the weapon load out on your mech in game (as well as the weapon load out on your person).

I never had a chance to try this game online with other people because 7th Level was done for by the time I bought myself a copy, but you can still go into multiplayer missions against AI, which I found to be quite fun after beating the game. Of course, I was about 12 years old at the time too.

For the price you can get it on Amazon, you can't go wrong. I still have it installed on my (now Windows XP) computer and am amazed that, considering I can't play games like MechWarrior 3 and other 1999 - 2000 pre-XP titles without random crashes, that G-nome on Windows XP runs flawlessly, aside from the fact that the cut scenes/cinematics don't load right. This is of course on my system which is going to be more likely than not much different than your own, but it is still worth mentioning in my opinion.

If you like mech games or older/retro PC games, give this game a try. It should run on Windows XP without trouble, but I cannot make any promises to that. If you still have Windows 95 or 98, even on a partitioned hard drive, do yourself a favor and try this game if you haven't already.

GNOME is a game about a war between 4 factions. Union, Scorp, Mercs, Darken. It plays just like Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries so I felt at home playing this game. Good original story (not going to spoil it for you). I like the fact that you can get out and hijack HAWCs (Mechs) you want. I reccomend this for people who like mechwarrior style of game.