DESPERADOS: THE SHADOW OF EL DIABLO

Desperados: ist alles andere als eine billige – German title

赏金奇兵 – Chinese title

Desperados: Poszukiwany Żywy lub Martwy – Polish title

Взять живым или мертвым – Russian title

Death Valley – English title

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive – English title

Desperados: The Shadow of El Diablo – English title

A 2001 German video game [Spellbound Entertainment (Offenburg)]

Producers: Ralf C. Adam, Armin Gessert, Sascha Pieroth

Director: Jean-Marc Haessig

Script: Nicolas Papier

Dialogs: Ralf C. Adam

Video artwork: Serge Mandon, Eric Urocki, Fabrice Weiss [color]

Music: Michael Anarp, Serge Mandon, Giovanni Vindigni

Cast:

John Cooper – John Chancer, Torsten Lennie Münchow

Kate O’Hara - Denica Fairman, Frauke Poolmann

Mia – Elly Fairman, Antonietta Piccinni

Pablo Sánchez - John Guerrasio, Helge Heynold

Doc McCoy - Garrick Hagon, Michael Betz

Samuel ‘Sam’ Williams – Dean Hill, Olaf Renoldi

Additional voices: Javier Alcina, Peter Banks, Buffy Davis, James Goode, Alan Marriott, Mac McDonald, Eric Meyers, Stuart Milligan, Martin Arnhold, Klaus Bauer, Michael Deckner, Sonngard Dressler, Dieter Gring, Peter Heusch, Hans-Jörg Karrenbrock, Pierre Niemann, Peter Wenke

The game takes place in New Mexico, 1881. Many trains have been robbed the last few months by a mysterious and vicious bandit named El Diablo. The railroad company Twinnings & Co has offered $15,000 to the one who can stop El Diablo. Bounty hunter John Cooper accepts the task, despite the objections of bad-tempered and contemptous US Marshal Jackson, but soon learns the mission is not as simple as he first assumed. John intends to create a team of his old partners to aid him on his hunt for the train robbers, consisting of Sam, Doc and Kate. When he discovers that Sánchez is not in fact the leader of the raids, he releases him and enlists his help too. The team of 5 end up increasing by one more when Mia's father is killed at his outpost, and she vows to avenge his death.

In a surprising twist, El Diablo is revealed to be Marshal Jackson himself, who captures the characters and jails them in his secret cave headquarters. With the help of Mia, they successfully escape out of their cell. Cooper then chases El Diablo up to his office and kills him in the ensuing gunfight.

Game Description:

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive is a stealth-based real-time tactics computer game, developed by Spellbound Entertainment and released in 2001. In the game, the player controls up to six characters in a wild west setting. The protagonist is a worldy knife fighter and gunslinger, John Cooper. He takes on a bounty to capture a notorious train robber named "El Diablo". As Cooper sets off on his quest, he is aided by five other friends and they work together in a real-time, stealth based structure very similar to that introduced in Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, although an all-out gunfight is still highly possible in the game. A sequel called Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge was released in late March 2006. A second sequel, Helldorado, (announced as expansion pack Desperados 2: Conspiracy but made into a full game) was released in mid-2007 in Germany. The English version was released in some regions in November 2007.