You are Roman, the leader of group of misfits called the Lionhearts. The cockney accented hero of the show is a master thief and weapons expert. His "crew" consists of Q, once an elite guard of King Forge, now a prissy sort with a nasty predilection for afternoon tea; Jonesy, Roman's oldest friend and a mole with a Scottish accent who loves bombs, has a horrible disposition and tongue to match; and Rexus, a filthy (a group of flies follows him around!), decrepit old man who was once a world famous seer - but is now quite insane due to a blow to the head he received many years ago. Oh, Rexus is blind and has telepathic powers to boot. How can you not laugh out loud with this cast of characters?

In case you're not keeping up... Roman appears to be a character blend of Ben, the chopper riding biker from LucasArts Full Throttle, and Han Solo from the Star Wars movies. Q is a mix of C-3PO and Boba Fett, with a dash of the Butler from Joe Millionaire. Jonesy gives me the impression to be a conglomeration of Austin Power's Fat Bastard and Star Trek's Scotty. Rexus seems to be a diabolical mix of Pig Pen from the Peanuts, Yoda and R2-D2's comedic repartee. Now, I say this because A&D is purposely chock full of subtle (and not so subtle) references and jokes based on popular culture, movies and the like.

You will lead your merry band of thieves into 21 missions across 5 massive and varied environments - through snow, over mountains, into forests and past rain-spattered cliffs. Oh, you'll also find pubs (hallelujah!) throughout the game where you can stop in for a pint of ale (figuratively speaking - or perhaps not - who knows with LucasArts!) and swap out weapons. The missions in A&D rotate between playing solo as Roman and being joined by your "crew"; from standard run-n-gun action to objective-based missions where you issue simple orders to Jonesy and Q to attack a specific target or lay down cover fire.

The storyline in A&D has the Lionhearts trying to pull off the "Ultimate Heist," by tracking down the Book of Rule, which consequently was lost by Rexus many years ago. However, along the way they get pulled into a peasant rebellion against the tyrannical King Forge. Roman and Company believe that if they can find this legendary item, they can overthrow Forge, become legends themselves - and get stinking rich along the way!
The many challenges will have you locating particular objects or checkpoints, performing rescue missions and defending villages - but in the end, A&D is all about causing as much destruction as possible, and the Lionhearts have a bevy of way cool weapons at their disposal. In fact, this could be the most original and creative array of firepower any game has sported in a very long time! There are seventeen weapons to choose from, three of which are fairly standard: a carbine, machine gun and sniper rifle. There's the one-shot Gurner Personal Mortar that looks like a tuba "but packs a punch like an angry, drunken sailor." The Vindaloo Rocket Launcher comes in two modes: two and four shot. The rockets not only lock on and seek out their target, but they'll split up and track multiple targets! An upgrade can be obtained later in the game that shoots all four rockets in one shot.

Beyond these, things really get entertaining! Perhaps the single funniest weapon at your disposal is the Land Shark Gun. It does exactly what its name suggests - it launches a baby land shark into the ground, dorsal fin riding high above the waves of dirt ala Jaws. As it approaches its victim, the shark erupts from the ground, grabs its victim and plummets back into the ground. What's more, it continues to "swim" around attacking all enemies in the area! The Topsy Turvy Bomb looks like a giant corkscrew and acts like one too! Drive it into the ground, hold on to the handles, and the entire world reverses gravity - making all nearby enemies "fall" into the sky! Give it a few seconds and the gravity shifts back to normal, dropping your enemies to Earth in a satisfying splat-fest! Then there's the World's Smallest Black Hole, which is a tiny, portable black hole that rips open reality, pulls in all nearby enemies and compresses them into sugar cubes! Last but not least, there's The Knockout Bomb, also known as the "Big Red Magic Boxing Glove." Put the glove on, wind up and enemies in your line of sight are automatically lobbed at you allowing you to punch them "into next week" - or in this case, to their deaths!

Obviously, the game is chock full of humor! The only fault I can find here is - no multiplay?! WHY? I want to play in the A&D universe with my friends! Anywho... with absolutely top-notch graphics; ingenious weaponry; hilarious characters; first-rate dialogue; well-directed cinematics and superb voice acting - Armed & Dangerous looks ready to take the world by storm!