12/19/05 >> GUN (Xbox 360)
Genre: Action / Western
Ahhh... The Wild West, fisticuffs, burlesque houses, cards, whiskey and lots and lots of bloody gun fights. Gun is the newest game from Activision's Neversoft studio, most famous for the Tony Hawk games. In Gun you play a man named Colten, Colt for short, who begins a wild romp through the mountains, plains and desert towns of the Old West, after your father is murdered in front of you. Before he dies, he hands you a coin, tells you he is not your father and shoves you off of a steamboat before it explodes. The tale of Gun has you chasing down lead after lead to get to the person who killed your father, and anyone else associated with him.
Graphically, this game won't make you glad you just spent $300-$400 on a pretty new system, as Neversoft, because they are cheap, decided not to upgrade or update anything for Gun before they released it on the 360. This is unfortunate, as this game can tend to get dark in places that it shouldn't when displayed on an HDTV in 720p. Also there is something with objects that the characters carry that sometimes turns them bright yellow. And I have noticed that when someone points a gun in your face that is the same color as Big Bird, it just loses some of the scariness. This isn't just limited to guns, however, as it happens with whiskey bottles, cigars and umbrella's carried by women. The characters all look great, with equally great facial animations. The environments are also very flushed out with patches of grass, wild animals roaming and grazing and the occasional tumble weed. The cities, although there are only two of them, are also very good reproductions of what we have all seen in movies and books.
Neversoft also went out and got good talent for the sound production. Although it is orchestral, it fits the time period very well. It sounds exactly like a John Wayne western, but other parts, parts where the story is heating up, it gets very sincere and accommodates the on screen action nicely. Gun shot sounds are also perfect, from six shooters to rifles to shotguns to sticking a rag in a whiskey bottle to make a whiskey bomb, the sound effects in this game are top notch. Neversoft also did a great job bringing in some big name talent to voice their characters. Thomas Jane of Punisher fame, is the voice of Colten, the main character. Kris Kristopherson, the guy who played Whistler in Blade, voices Colten's father Ned. The voices fit very well with how the characters look.
There are a couple different ways to play this game. You can either just run through the main story missions, or you can do side missions to up your stats. The game tells you often to do side missions, and with good reason, as avoiding side missions means that the game will get really, really hard around half way through. The side missions are as fun as they are varied. So, avoiding them is not only bad for stat purposes, but you are missing out on some good Old West fun. Side missions include: playing poker, going after felons on wanted posters, doing ranching missions, hunting animals, supporting your local sheriff(anyone get that?) and the Pony Express. The poker in this game is the standard Texas Hold 'Em affair. You get two cards, you bet, you see the other five community cards, you bet. Nothing too interesting here, and winning whole tournaments doesn't net you much money. What Neversoft did to spice things up is give the player the ability to cheat. When you get your two face-down cards there is a third card that is faded, this card is "up your sleeve" and you can play it whenever you want, but beware, too much cheating will get you in trouble. Wanted posters are another fun source of income. You find a wanted poster on a wall, and after a brief description you can go after the felon. The player has the option of either just shooting the felon dead in his tracks, or nabbing the felon alive for, in most cases, a higher reward.
There are others, but I will let you discover them for yourself, these two were the most interesting. There are a number of guns and weapons in this game as well. Throughout the course of your game, you will acquire dual six shooters, rifles, shotguns, bows, and dynamite and whiskey bombs. Of course, what Wild West game would be complete without riding a horse? None and this game delivers here as well. Riding horseback is a must to get from place to place, without one you are going to be a while because of how expansive this game is. This game also has a bullet time feature that they call Quickdraw, you pull your six shooter and you have unlimited bullets until it runs out, and you can also auto-aim in this view. Kind of cheep, but it can get you out of a jam once in a while. Although you are strictly "good" in this game, you can kill townsfolk. Be careful though, kill too many (which is 4 or 5) and the Town's Patience bar will decline. If it goes to zero, you have to survive a showdown in which a posse of about 6 people will come after you and try to kill you. The more showdowns you have, the tougher and tougher the posse gets. What I liked the most is that there are no loading times, no pop-in and not really any clipping to mention. Maybe this is because it's the Xbox 360, maybe not, but it's nice to see a game this expansive, and being able to ride from East to West without even a drop in the frame rate.
Besides Neversoft charging $60 for a game that should be $50, my only couple of problems are that there no showdowns, one on one high noon style, and that Neversoft didn't add any Xbox 360 exclusive features, which is unacceptable for a LAUNCH title. I would also add a longer story for a sequel, as this game can be beaten in a weekend of solid playing, side missions and all.
Overall, this IS a good game. If you are a fan of the Western genre, or just want a solid action title, I definitely recommend this game. What I can not recommend, however, is buying this game on the 360 when you can get it for $10 cheaper on the current-gen consoles, and not miss anything. I am really hoping that this can be turned into a franchise for Neversoft, as I love the character Colten, and I have always been a sucker for a good western game. Decent first outing, but more can be improved upon to make an even greater sequel.
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Game Score: 7.4
Reviewed By: Contributed
