Hail to the Chief

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffSeptember 2, 2015This shoot-'em-up game costs nothing, but numerous issues keep us from giving it a more enthusiastic evaluation. There's no background story behind this bare-bones program, but your basic job is to blast away what appear to be aliens--why else would they bleed purple when you shoot them? The game gives you the ability to switch amongst a few weapons, but that's really the only user-customization option. You can't play in windowed mode, reconfigure the controls, or disable the mysterious music and rudimentary sound effects. The third-person graphics are extremely primitive, the overall gameboard is too dark, and both your character and your enemies are far too small. Since it is freeware, it won't hurt you to download Hail to the Chief, but only inexperienced gamers are likely to play for more than a few moments.