Gun Review
From LoveToKnow VideoGames
Platform: Xbox, PS2, GameCube
Genre: Historic Action Shooter
Well, howdy pardner. Welcome to the Old West, Gun style. Get ready for some shootin’, some huntin’, some horseback ridin’ and some steamboat ridin’ because your yellow-bellied hide ain’t goin’ to make it too far there. Unless you know how to fire a six-shooter and a rifle and swing a knife. Then let’s try to be friends.
The Story
You play Colton White, a young hunter in the apprenticeship of Ned, a wise trapper/hunter man who sports fine beard. Being voiced by Kris Kristofferson also makes him the coolest Old West guy this side of Dodge City. Anyway, one day, after a good day of hunting, a steamboat arrives to take in their booty. Ned goes to take care of the bounty while Colton is left to trade some Old West trash talk to an arch-enemy of Ned’s. The crazy guy claims that Ned has some old artifact and that he wants it.
Well, come wild men, loyal to the crazy guy storm the boat and attempt to take it down, find the artifact and kill Ned. They succeed in killing Ned. Now, you have to make your way to Dodge City to track down this nemesis and find out what this artifact is and does.
From here the story nearly flies by you. While the story was interesting, there just wasn’t enough of it and that’s what really disappointed me about the game. There are a number of side missions you can take, but they don’t really matter to the main mission. All in all, I finished the game in under four hours with the normal difficulty setting.
The Gameplay
With your trusty shooter, rifle, and sharp knife, your journey in Gun begins almost immediately. In the beginning, Ned guides you through a tutorial of sorts of shooting your pistol and rifle and using your knife. Then, he is attack by a bear and you have to save him with the knowledge he just parted to you.
There are various ways you can take down attackers. One is good old fashioned gunslinging. Shoot, shoot, shoot. The pistol is my favorite, but the rifle has more power. When an enemy gets in close, slash him to death. Another way is to use the ‘Quickdraw’ mode. When entered, Colton enters a stage of slow-motion (similar to Bullettime in Max Payne) and a first-person view where he can target enemies quickly and take them down. Using the left analog quickens their demise since it locks-on to the next target. You can take down a gang of six or seven baddies within seconds. One last way you can kill is with your horse. If you’re on horseback, you can make your horse slide and trample bad guys. Now I know that sounds like fun to you.
I wasn’t too keen on the 3rd person view, opting to use Quickdraw whenever I had the chance, which was often. The action in Gun was nearly non-stop. Groups of enemies seem to really hate Colton, but with his excellent marksmanship, any overwhelming odds was whittled away to nothing. One interesting features was Colton’s flask. Whatever is in that thing has the ability to restore his health. And more of it was littered everywhere. Moonshine run anybody?
The Graphics
Gun's graphics are pretty average, now that the Xbox is probably in it’s final year or so. The faces of the characters had a lot of detail, but when you looked below, the clothes and accessories were lacking the same detail. While the graphics in Gun are adequate, the main issue I had with them were the landscapes. More specifically, the ground. The mountains and trees were nice, even slightly better than Halo, but the actual ground seemed flat. Grass had no dimension. Water didn’t flow and crest naturally. Besides those two negatives about the graphics, they were okay.
The Control
As I said before, I didn’t like the 3rd person perspective. Maybe it was because of all the 1st person games I was used to playing. Luckily, the tutorial ‘level’ in the beginning help shape my gameplay a little bit. You use both analog sticks to move and view, and you could invert the view horizontally and vertically, but I had a hard time finding a good balance. Players of Goldeneye 64 might recognize the look technique and I’ll be honest, I stunk at that game for some reason.
Controlling Colton on horseback was much easier. Riding the horse was smooth and turning was right on. Shooting from horseback was not only fun, but simple. I did notice Colton seemed to have a pretty limber torso to shoot backwards and a split second later shoot in the opposite direction like it was nothing. If you’re use to Halo, Doom, or the Unreal series, you might find yourself in my position. Use the tutorial level to get use to the controls.
Thompson’s Two Cents
If you want to compare this game with other FPS, then it’s average. On it’s own, Gun may surprise you. The action is frequent and the storyline—though a bit short—hooks you and keeps you guessing. I did want a little more story in the end. I didn’t play Gun for the graphics, but for the plot and the battles. After experiencing the first steamboat sequence (especially on the hardest difficulty), you will probably find yourself playing for the same reason.
Dodge City is calling young horseman.
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© 2006-2009 LoveToKnow Corp.
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