Gun Showdown

"Gun: Showdown, a western with Good, Bad, and (unfortuantely) Ugly elements"

Gun: Showdown is the long awaited PSP port of the excellent sandbox western, Gun. While most of the elements of it's console counterpart have been squeezed onto a UMD, Gun: Showdown is still not without its faults.

Graphics
The visuals in Gun: Showdown are impressive – I'll get that out of the way immediately. What Rebellion has done as far as recreating every familiar shack and boulder found in the original for a less powerful portable system is nothing short of impressive. While obvious sacrifices had to be made in terms of textures and polygon count, the overall result is a recreation of Neversoft's 1880-era Montana that is every bit as faithful to the console version as Rockstar's Liberty City was on the PSP.

The frame rate is generally pretty good, though noticeable drops occur when Colton is riding his horse Rogue or when the surrounding area gets a bit too populated with NPCs and enemies. Character models all animate well, though are of exceptionally low visual detail. This lack of texture detail is really only noticeable during sequences where an NPC is talking to Colton and the camera is zoomed in on that character. During the course of normal gameplay, however, all characters look remarkably close to their console counterparts.

The single opening CG sequence from the original is present without a shred of artifacting. All other cutscenes have been lifted from the console version and converted into FMVs. I commend Rebellion on this decision, as the low-res character models used in the PSP game would have really detracted from the drama of the story (some may not agree, but I find it hard to be moved by a character with a blurry face and manimal paws).

Sound
Again, no disappointments in the sound department. Every score, voice, and sound effect from the original is present. Also, in the few instances where additional dialogue had to be recorded (there are five extra story-mode missions after all), the original cast was brought in to reprise their roles.

The only real quibble with the sound is that occasionally the sound effects and voices will lose sinc with what's going on on screen. Also, during side mission intros and certain other sequences where there is spoken dialogue in-game, the sound will cut out towards the last few words. While it's a relatively superficial problem, it occurs with enough frequency that it should have been caught by either Rebellion's or Activision's quality assurance people.

Gameplay
Here is where it starts to get dicey. While the control for Colton is pretty solid – Rebellion did a good job of squeezing the controls of the console onto the PSP's fewer buttons and single analog nub – the control while riding his faithful steed Rogue suck with a capital S. Not only is the analog control overly sensitive (I found myself having to constantly fight with the controls to keep Rogue going in a straight line), but the collision detection stinks (expect to get hung up on boulders and other scenery quite often), and the double tap down in order to brake and dismount Rogue while going at a full sprint is dodgy and only works about 50-75% of the time.

These control issues don't detract much from the main game – but they can make the Pony Express missions a nightmare to play. I had to repeat the first Pony Express mission (which involves nothing more than riding from one end of Dodge to the other and back again) no fewer than six times. Other issues that contributed to my Pony Express woes were the fact that the camera is always oriented the wrong way whenever Colton remounts Rogue for a new leg of the mission, and the decision to position Colton slightly left of center (to aid in targeting enemies) makes it more difficult to steer Rogue. Since the camera angle does aid in steering your horse, having it constantly pointing slightly to the right can make it difficult to ride in the direction you wish to go for very long.

While some of this may seem like nitpicking, bare in mind that you're going to be spending a lot of time on your horse. The game could've just as easily been called Grand Theft Pinto.

Content
Most reviewers and players only major gripe with the original was that it was simply too short. And it's true, once you've achieved 100% completion there's literally nothing to do but wonder around aimlessly.

Well believe it or not, but the PSP version is actually larger than the console versions! Rebellion has addressed the brevity of the story mode to some extent by the addition of five new missions which, for various reasons, wound up on the editing room floor when the original was released last year. They've also included a single-player “quick play” mode which features a series of arcade-like challenges that are all based (to some extent) on missions found in the story mode.

A multiplayer mode rounds things out with variations on deathmatch and the poker games in the story mode. Sadly, the multiplayer component is ad-hoc only, further begging the question of why Sony even bothered to make the PSP infrastructure enabled in the first place. The deathmatch is playable with bots however, so those of you without PSP owning friends nearby need not be left out of the action.

The long and short of it is if, like me, you were left wishing there was something else to do besides start the story mode over again when you completed the original, then you'll be pleased to know that Rebellion has got you covered.

Buy or Rent?
Honestly, if sandbox games don't suit your tastes, or you simply don't like ones that involve a coherent plot and lack crude ethnic stereotypes, then Gun: Showdown may be best left as rental. If, however, you are any sort of fan of the original then you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy. It's not perfect, but it's still one of the most solid PSP efforts this year and worthy of the reputation of its bigger console brothers.

Closing Comments
While it may seem like I'm being unnecessarily harsh in spots, overall I like the game very much and would certainly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the console version. The sloppy horse controls due detract somewhat from the gameplay, and it would have been nice to see infrastructure support included for a change, but overall it's a fantastic effort from start to finish.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/13/06