Gun
Developed by Neversoft Entertainment
Published by Activision
Released for Xbox 360 (11/16/2005) | Xbox (11/8/2005)
Also on Gamecube/PC/PS2/PSP
Before Red Dead Redemption, there was another open-world western game by the name of Gun, created by the designers of the earlier (and best) entries in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise. This is definitely an easy title to overlook thanks to an incredibly generic name, but it did manage to release on five different platforms. The Xbox 360 is the version played for this review, but the original Xbox release is the same game in every aspect but the visual department.
When you play Gun, it's best to bear in mind when the game came out, which was very early in the lifespan of the 360, so it's just a slightly better looking version of the PS2/Xbox game pretty much. That being said, I thought the character models looked good and were detailed for the time but they look mechanical when they talk. The environments are also relatively good-looking for the time. Gun tries to give you a bit of variety in your missions, particularly in the side missions, where you can go hunting, run back and forth for the pony express, ranching and even a little Texas hold 'em. Most of the other missions feel like you're just shooting dudes, which is luckily pretty fun but can start to feel a bit repetitive quick. Still, some of these are pretty fun and a few of them are quite memorable. The missions also tend to be short so it's easy to pop the game on for quick sessions and play just a mission or two.
The story in Gun does a good job setting up all kinds of nasty revenge scenarios, plus the voice acting is superb, featuring the incredible talents of Kris Kristofferson, Lance Henriksen and Tom Skerritt to name a few. Towards the beginning there's shootout at a bordello, complete with hookers and johns running down the halls to escape the gunfire! There's a few cool little moments like this sprinkled throughout the campaign.
The controls aren't too bad and the game is very generous with where you're aiming in regards to getting a hit, just shoot somewhere kind of near the enemy and you're good. You get a nice assortment of weapons as you progress through the campaign and you can upgrade them via shopkeepers found at the various towns. There is a quick shot feature, not unlike the bullet-time in Max Payne, where you can unload on a group of bad guys in slow-motion. There is a meter for this that you can refill by killing enemies. You eventually gain the ability to scalp your enemies after you down them, which doesn't do anything as far as I can tell besides raise the brutality up a notch which is cool I guess. Graphic violence is definitely here in bulk as heads explode when shot and body parts will go flying from explosions.
Remember that this is an early title for the 360, so the control schemes for genres were still being standardized. That being said there are some issues with the controls in that there is no run or sprint, changing weapons is clunky and unreliable sometimes (hold down B and select with the d-pad) and you have to use the d-pad to lean (essential for the harder difficulties). Grenades are mapped to left trigger so I found myself frequently throwing those on accident trying to aim down your sights (which is actually done by clicking the right stick).
During my play-through there were a few instances where after talking to an NPC or completing a mission where my horse would disappear and the game wouldn't spawn any around me, forcing me to either slowly walk to my next destination or reset the game. Also be aware the game doesn't auto-save, so remember to save frequently (learned this the hard way after a power spike erased several missions progress). It's also worth noting that apart from the side-missions, once you've completed the game there's really nothing to do other than start the game over from another difficulty, hurting the replay value a bit. Gun is obviously not as good as Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption, but for a game that came out five years before it I think it holds up pretty well. Red Dead Redemption would borrow and expand upon a lot of what Gun did, so if nothing else it definitely helped pave the way for Rockstar's future hit.
Final Verdict: If you're one of the many who loved and played
Red Dead Redemption to death and overlooked
Gun, this one's worth a play-through to see some of the inspiration for that title while also still being a fun game. Recommended for western fans in general as this is a genre we don't see a ton of games in.
Purchase Links:
Buy Gun (Xbox 360 - Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Gun (Xbox 360 - Disc) - eBay
Buy Gun (Xbox - Disc) - eBay
Related Links:
Activision - Official Site
Gun - Metacritic
Gun - GameFAQs
Gun Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Gun - True Achievements
