Gun

"Anyone up for some rootin-tootin shootin?"

Silver spurs, loaded rifles, fast horses and even faster women, who doesn't love the old West? It's a setting that has long been overlooked in gaming for no real reason other than no one had made a GOOD western game. Then along came Red Dead Revolver and Rockstar was able to generate success with it because someone had finally put together a quality title with an original western IP. Undeniably the biggest Western genre release since RDR, Gun has finally hit shelves and it's time to see if it will carry the torch and give us all another reason to wish we lived all those years ago.

If there is one thing that makes something stand out as a Western more than anything else, then it's got to be the music. Neversoft does an excellent job at composing a score that conveys the feelings and setting of their subject matter. The music relates perfectly to the action going on on screen, and helps transition from the heat of battle back to the hum drum of riding across the plains. I definitely give the music for Gun a 9/10. The only reason it didnt get a perfect score is because sometimes if you're riding around aimlessly too long, the music stops for awhile until something happens.

Lots of games have shown promise because of original stories or gimmicks, but have fallen short in the execution of engaging gameplay. Gun does a very good job of pulling you into the action and making you not want to pull yourself away. You're constantly getting into huge gunfights out in the desert of Kansas/New Mexico with bandits, renegades, Indians, and whatever else the West has to throw at you. Neversoft took a nod from other shooting titles and included a type of "bullet time" with a Western twist. It's called Quickdraw mode and features "flick targeting". When you enter Quickdraw, all you have to do to target your enemy is flick the joystick in the direction he is in. Flick, fire, flick fire...rinse and repeat. You can easily kill 8 people in just seconds with the proper execution of the Quickdraw. One aspect of Gun that just can't be ignored is the main mode of transportation: horseback riding. Neversoft did an amazing job when putting this aspect of the game together, as there are no glaring control issues, camera issues, or quirky glitches. Riding is smooth and easily controlled by spurring the horse for bursts of sustained speed. Of course, if you spur your horse too much he'll die. Be careful. May the 3 that I "learned" on rest in peace. Overall, Gun gets a 10/10 for game play.

Everything I've covered so far in this review are all things that really any game, not only a Western, must have. Now we get to what has long been the Holy Grail for developers of a Western IP: a good story. Long sought but never quite achieved, only a select few titles can even claim to have come close. Randall Jahnson did an excellent job of crafting a story true to the setting, but not so cliche like so many other titles. There are twists and turns at just about every corner, and the end result is you paying for your whole couch but only needing the edge. From the very beginning it's painfully obvious that no character's life is sacred, and you get those horrible flashbacks to Aeris and the single tear falls. Okay maybe it's not quite that bad, but you definetely aren't indifferent or apathetic to losing some of the people that you do. In fact, within the first few minutes of the game, you've already lost your father, and right before he died he tells you he's not your real Dad! Drama king. The game also sports a particularly evil and sadistic villain, who you have a particularly awesome boss battle with at the end. He knows how to get what he wants, and unless anyone will stand up to him he'll do what he needs to get what he wants. Other supporting characters also play a strong part in the game, and it's always very satisfying when you might get to take one out every now and then. I haven't played a game in awhile that sucked me in like Gun did, but there is one flaw: the length. The core story itself is probably about 4-5 hours long. Although there are dozens of side missions to fill your time with, by the end of the game you still feel like you should have gotten at least another day of play out of it. It doesn't ruin the whole experience though, because Gun happens to have a high replay value. All said and done, Gun gets a 9/10 for story.

Now we come to the graphics. The graphics in Gun are pretty spectacular, and I only played the Gamecube version. I can only imagine how nice they ended up being on the 360. As you ride across the plains the draw distance Gun provides really lets you feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere with no one around but the bandits and Indians. You see large plains sweep out across the land on one side, and on the other there can be a tall mountain too high to think about climbing represented in great detail. Rivers and waterfalls have nice particle effects to make them more detailed and realistic, and animals are all modeled nicely and animate well. There are a few collision problems, but not enough to really affect the experience during gameplay. All in all, Gun pulled together really well in the graphics department.

The one thing that saves Gun from losing all credibility because of it's short story length, is the side missions. Oh the side missions, there certainly are a lot of them. Lots of missions of lots of different variety, from being a ranch hand to being a Federal Marshall. They eat up lots of time, but you don't really notice because they really are fun. They offset the serious story nicely, and are a great diversion when you don't feel like making that ride all the way to Empire just yet. The Pony Express missions are of particular interest, and who doesn't love to beat all their buddies at Poker like you can also do? The side missions flesh out the rest of the setting to really make you feel like you're an Old West cowboy living day to day making ends meet best you can.

Gun really did a lot of things right, while only doing a few things wrong. Had the game been about 5-6 hours longer, it would have been a great game, instead of just a good one. Even so, what game that is there is extremely engaging, exciting, and just plain fun to play. I would rent this game if you don't really like the Old West, but if you are kind've partial to Westerns you may want to buy it. If you can stay interested in the setting, you can really get some good replay value out of it. All said and done, Gun gets an 8/10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/19/06