GUN GUN GUN

Life in the Old West must have been gritty, violent, and short if it was anything like Gun, a new Western-themed action adventure from Tony Hawk series developer Neversoft. Featuring an open-ended environment that you can traverse on foot or on horseback, plenty of gory shoot-outs, numerous optional side missions, and an interesting story, Gun initially seems like a 19th-century Grand Theft Auto. Unfortunately, the experience just doesn't last long enough to be savored. Gun's main story missions are exciting, but the main plot is over so quickly that the whole thing just ends up feeling rushed, and the various side missions aren't compelling enough to hold your interest after the end credits roll. So it turns out that a terse, simple title like "Gun" is really the perfect fit for what could have been a great game, if only it had more meat on its bones.




Colton White doesn't take long to exact his revenge on the unsavory customers who made his life difficult.
Gun is the tale of Colton White, a soft-spoken gunslinger raised by a resourceful old hunter named Ned, made instantly likable thanks to an excellent voice performance by Kris Kristofferson. One day Ned and Colton's hunt lands them on a steamboat carrying some sort of important artifact that Ned seems to know about. However, he's not alone in his knowledge, and as the ship is besieged, Colton barely escapes with his life. He makes his way to Dodge City at Ned's request, and from there embarks on a journey that will put him up against a greedy ex-military railroad mogul and his wicked cohorts. There's a strong cast of characters in Gun, and the 3D cinematic cutscenes are impressively motion-captured and choreographed, making each story mission worth looking forward to if only to see how Colton's misadventures will continue to pan out. Colton will find himself on both sides of the law, allying with a diverse array of different comrades in his efforts to find answers and seek vengeance.

Unfortunately, the story hurries along at a breakneck pace. Situations that seem intended to introduce entire chapters of gameplay tend to be resolved almost immediately. For example, at a certain point, Colton is deputized as a peacekeeper in Empire City, the game's largest town. You expect to then undertake a series of sheriff-style missions, but Colton's career path very quickly goes sour as the story jarringly goes in another direction. It blazes on like this until the end credits roll--maybe six hours after you first begin play, depending on how many side missions you opted to take on and depending on how much trouble you had with the final battle, which is one of the only tough fights at the normal difficulty setting. There's just no time to really get to like (or dislike) the main cast.

The mechanics of gameplay certainly are good, and even though there are only a few main story missions, they tend to be diverse and packed with intense action. Gun carefully walks the line between being a run-and-gun shoot-'em-up and more of a realistic, tactical shooter. You get to use all kinds of different authentic weapons, including pistols, rifles, shotguns, sharpshooters, bows, and dynamite in order to take on vastly superior odds, which Colton can overcome because of his excellent marksmanship and his ability to instantly recover all his health by drinking from his flask (what's in that thing?). Controlling Colton primarily from a third-person perspective, you'll also get to take on feroc

"Gun" Theft Auto?

Gun looked like a fun game with a decent storyline to back it up, so I decided to give it a try. As I quickly found out, Gun was a whole lot more than just a simple plot--it was like Grand Theft Auto only in the days of cowboys and injuns...I mean Native Americans.
The game itself is very fun for the most part, though some of the side missions can get extremely tedious, and most of the time, it's way too easy to mow everyone down with your guns. Just as GTA has the option to pay prostitutes for...stuff, Gun lets you scalp people and shoot off limbs and heads. Pretty gruesome stuff. I liked the ability to either do missions or go on with the story, or just ride around on your horse either trampling everything in your way or searching for gold.
However, every game has its negatives, too. Though Grand Theft Auto is easy to play over again because of the extremely large cities, Gun's environment is vast, but provides little to do. You can only ride through the same canyon so many times before you pray for outlaws to attack. Also, if you lack a horse, have fun spending the next 20 minutes jogging all over the place looking for one. To make matters worse, by the time you upgrade your guns and finally wield the double revolvers, killing becomes a hobby rather than a chore. No level is difficult enough to frustrate, and no side mission is exciting enough to impress.
All in all, Gun is an extremely fun game to play, especially by the time you pick up a certain weapon that may or may not shoot cannonballs. Just don't expect to take it back out of the box once you've beaten it.

A Wild West flavored Slurpee.

Set in a fictional, Hollywood-style 'Wild Wild West,' Gun (by Neversoft, the developer of the Tony Hawk franchise) sets us in the spurs of loneman Colton White. His 'father' has been murdered and he's out for revenge against those responsible while simultaneously searching for the true nature of his past. As Colton makes his way in-between the game’s two cities, we are treated to a delicious atmosphere Slurpee. 'Made with landscapes rich with vibrancy, characters chalk full of awesome voice acting, all blended together in a sea of a time long past yet still deeply romanticized.' Mmm...tasty.

Taste is where Gun really shines. The game is brimming with sweet and simple satisfactions. A clichéd Wild West story is saved from mediocrity by careful voice actor casting, including Hollywood actors such as Thomas Jane (61*, Punisher) and Kris Kristofferson (Blade trilogy). All of the actors really bring the characters and story to the screen in a believable, enjoyable fashion. None of the characters involved in each cut scene feels miscast, overacted, or ridiculous; something many current generation games cannot boast. The score isn't bad either, but it is far from memorable.

Sprawling landscapes with rolling hills, gigantic mountain faces, dirty and crowded towns – all the staple Wild West environments are wonderfully recreated in digital form. Character models are obviously created from a Tony Hawk engine, with their decent, but far from award-winning visuals and animations. This really stands out when you talk to NPCs. Why the hell does everyone shrug when I talk to them?

That is not the only thing Neversoft carries over from its landmark series. Not unlike Tony Hawk, Gun has pick up and play controls. Silky smooth controls coupled with well-balanced missions keep the controlled game experience from becoming oversaturated, unnecessarily frustrating, or flat-out boring. There is really no situation where the controls do not handle with relative ease with the except of two: the roll, which should be a simple move to pull off but ultimately becomes too much work to be consistently useful, and the lack of a Solid Snake corner-look, where getting lit up after turning a blind corner shows how obviously useful it could have been.

Missions, both story-progressing and optional missions, have a great range, giving a taste test of everything. From shootouts to fetch quests, to herding and sneaking, nothing is left out. There are even some Texas Hold ‘em poker missions, but are unfortunately pathetic. Yahoo's version is more entertaining and graphically appealing. It’s a shame that nothing innovated was added to the mission mix, something involving a lasso perhaps. There are no mystery flavors here. At least the amount of missions is rather slim, keeping the redundant aftertaste to a minimum, but that’s the only plus the short game time garners.

I was rather let down that I finished the game at nearly 80% completed in less than 8 hours with very few optional missions left to finish. It was like the end of a Slurpee, when you are just left with the tasteless, white slush that isn’t worth finishing. But you want more, or at least what’s left to taste just as sweet as everything that has come before.

The way of the west

This game takes you back to the time when there was cowboys and indians. You get all the excitement of playing poker, hunting down outlaws, riding as part of the pony express, digging for gold, and fighting off bandits. I find games this exciting and authentic are hard to find now a days. Getting the hang of the controls are a little hard at first but once you get them you better hold on cause there is so much to do and a lot of land to cover. Be careful of shooting or running over innocent civilians with your horse because you will have a riot on your hands, they will come after you guns a blazing.

The only down side to this game is there is some bad language, wich means it may not be recomended for your young kids, I always thought they should make a game similar to this one but aimed towards the young ones or the whole family. Maybe in the future we will see something so great in that direction.

Good old fashoined fun!

I gave Gun a 4/5 because it's a really good game, but not one of my all time favorites. It is surely worth buying at some of the great prices it is available for.

I'm not a big western fan, but this game is plain and simple fun. It has a decent story with a gritty dialogue, fitting the genre. The gameplay is smooth, controls are easy to get used to, and graphics are well done.

You can ride a horse, travel on foot, shoot a cannon from a ferry, use knives, tomahowks, pistols, rifles, shotguns, whiskey bombs, bow and arrows, and more. There are main and side missions to increase your stats.

I would recommend this game for anyone looking for something a little out of the ordinary, that will provide some single player entertainment.