Gun does come
with one gameplay quirk that has a strange way of making everything MUCH
easier. When you feel overwhelmed and
cornered you can push the "Y" button and go into the quickdraw
mode. In this mode time slows down to a
crawl, you have an easier time switching from one character to the next, and
you never have to reload. This is a
great idea and really comes in handy … but since it's easy to refill the bar
that lets you do this super-cheap move you'll find yourself doing it all the
time, no matter how many characters there are on screen. In a lot of ways this makes the game almost
too easy, since there is a lot less skill involved with the actual shooting.
Now that I mention it, all of Gun is extremely easy … and not just because you can slow down time
and kill people before they even pull out their guns. One of the strangest aspects of the game's
difficulty is in the map, which not only points out where you need to go but
also offers a flashing meter that attempts to show you how far away you are
from it. Gun does not want you to get lost, not that you would with the
world being so tiny and all. And don't
worry about dying during a mission, Gun
likes to start you out right where you want to be with all the life you
need. Throughout the game I found myself
constantly questioning the game's easy difficulty; you may end up having to do
a mission more than once, but it will never be because you don't know what to
do. If San Andreas was too difficult for
you, then Gun is the game you've
been waiting for.
Gun is a good
looking game, even if you can tell that Neversoft cut some corners while making
the game. There isn't much variety to
the graphics, but for what there is you can't complain about the look too much. Gun
doesn't strive for new and unique graphical tricks, but what's there is good
for the most part. There are a few
effects I especially liked, including the way the blood looks and how the dust
goes flying as you and your horse run through the landscape. This won't win any awards for best looking
game of the year, but it manages to get the look and feel just right.
The voice acting, on the other hand, is extremely good,
filled with a number of famous names. People
like Lance Henriksen, Tom Skerritt, and Kris Kristofferson are all veterans of
the western genre and manage to deliver their lines with the kind of delivery
you would expect from this type of setting.
If you're too young to remember any of those famous names, Gun also features Thomas Jane (the
Punisher) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy, and just about every other game you've ever
played) giving commanding performances.
Some of the side characters get a little annoying, but no worse than
what you get in your normal western movie or TV show. The same goes for the music, which sounds
like it was lifted right out of all of the cheesy spaghetti westerns I saw as a
kid … but in a good way, I think.
While it lasts Gun
is great fun, full of fast action and a cool story … but it's over far too
early to recommend as a full price purchase.
Even if you're the type of gamer who wants to do and see everything,
getting 100% in this game won't take you more than an afternoon. But even though it's short this is still one
experience that is worth going through, especially if you're the type of person
that wishes there were more western titles to choose from. There's so much potential here that once can
only hope that Neversoft decides to take some time and give us a sequel with
enough meat on the bone to keep us interested for longer than six hours. This is a good try, but it's no Deadwood.
C-
Gun is a fun little game of Cowboys and Indians worth checking out if you're a fan of this era, but don't expect more than a few hours of gameplay!
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