Xbox Live on the Original Xbox | Xbox Overview

Xbox Live on the Original Xbox

Active 11/15/2002 - 4/14/2010

Xbox Live made its debut on November 15, 2002, exactly one year after the initial system launch. Microsoft were by no means the first to offer online functionality on a home gaming console, but there were several aspects about the service that they got right the first time around and later became industry standards.

Sony beat Microsoft to the punch by quite a bit, with the online service for the PlayStation 2 making its debut in Japan back in July 2001. North American users would receive online support for PS2 in August 2002, a good 3 months before Xbox users were playing online. There are some key differences between what the 2 companies were providing. The biggest difference that most will bring up immediately is the fact that Xbox Live was a paid subscription service while the Sony online broadband was free (as long as you had an existing internet connection). While Microsoft's online service was unified under Xbox Live and ran through official servers, the PlayStation 2 online offerings were completely left up to the third-party developers, meaning there was less consistency between online experiences. While the Xbox was built with an ethernet port from the beginning, those who owned the early fat PS2 models had to buy an adapter in order to hook up an internet cable. So while Sony's online was free, there were several aspects about Xbox Live that were ahead of the competition.

The online servers enjoyed almost a full 8 year life-span, which is longer than I think most people expected it to stick around. Many players hold fond memories of playing Xbox Live; An old friend of mine used to wax nostalgic about playing Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell online on his Xbox back in the day, telling stories that obviously left a lasting memory. Many people fondly recall playing Halo 2, which was likely the most popular game on the service. Personally, I had a PlayStation 2 back in this time so my memories of Xbox Live on the OG Xbox are very limited, though I do recall playing Capcom vs SNK 2 EO at a friend's place and being impressed by option to fight  an opponent online. While these days everybody knows and expects Xbox Live to be a primary feature of any Xbox console, t's interesting to think back about the times when online gaming was fresh and exciting for many.

Over the course of its active years, Xbox Live also allowed you to download new content for some games and even digital-only titles that could be downloaded via the Xbox Live Arcade. Xbox Live on the original Xbox helped pave the way for easy access to online gaming from your console, a feature that had been mostly limited to computer users in the '90s, and this is one of several reasons why the Xbox was such an important release in the history of game consoles.

Related Links:
Xbox Live Arcade on the Xbox - Xbox Overview

XBLA Origins | Xbox Overview

Xbox Live Arcade Origins

Since Xbox Live Arcade was so prominent on the Xbox 360, it's easy to make the mistake of thinking that the service began on that system. Originally announced at the E3 2004 press conference, XBLA would launch in November that same year. The service launched with a limited number of titles, with a few being added as time went on. By the time the console was reaching the end of its life cycle, there were 27 (as far as I could find) titles released for the platform.

On the 360, XBLA offered free trial versions for any of the games listed on the marketplace. The original XBLA offered this feature as well, allowing an Xbox Live subscriber to play a 30-minute trial of any of the titles on offer. Full versions of the games could be purchased as a digital download and as far as I can tell they ranged in price from $10-20. While there were some solid titles being offered on the service, the prices were a bit much considering how simple some of them were.

As you can see from the list below, there was a decent variety of games on offer. There were several titles aimed at casual gamers, like PopCap's  Bejeweled and Feeding Frenzy, but there were also some arcade classics for the older folks with titles like Ms. Pac-Man, Gauntlet, Smash TV and Robotron 2084. Many of these titles would make the transition over to XBLA on the Xbox 360, though there were also several that didn't, such as Atomaders, Fuzzee Fever and Hamsterball Gold. With the Xbox Live servers shut down, there's no way to play these unless you have a modded Xbox. It's interesting to look back at the list of games that helped kick off the Xbox Live Arcade service, which would become a huge part of what made the 360 so great.

Following is a list of all known titles released on the original XBLA with links to gameplay on YouTube (credit to uploader FEU3RSTURM). While much of the menu text is in German, you get to see these games in action without having to go through the trouble of modding an old Xbox. Here is a link to the menu where you would navigate your XBLA games.

Alien Sky
AstroPop
Atomaders
Bankshot Billiards
Bejeweled
Bookworm Deluxe
Dangerous Mines
Dino and Aliens
Feeding Frenzy
Fuzzee Fever
Gauntlet
Guardian
Hamsterball Gold
Hardwood Solitaire
Joust
Marble Blast
Ms. Pac-Man
Mutant Storm
Namco Vintage (Dig Dug, Galaga, Pole Position)
Orbz
Pipeline
Ricochet Lost Worlds
Robotron 2084
Smash TV
Super Collapse II
Think Tanks
Zuma Deluxe

Related Links:
Xbox Live on the Original Xbox - Xbox Overview
E3 2004 Complete Microsoft Press Conference - YouTube
Mark Plays Live Arcade on the Original Xbox - YouTube

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 (Xbox, 2002)

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2
Developed by Rainbow Studios
Published by Activision
Released for Xbox (8/12/2002)
Also on GBA/GC/PS2
Backwards Compatible on Xbox 360

Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 was released for the Xbox in August 2002, developed by Rainbow Studios and published by Activision. The first game in the series was released on a number of platforms, but made its debut on the original PlayStation back in May 2001. The series was a spin-off of the highly- successful Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise, which was created by another development team but featuring similar gameplay. The disc of this game will work in your Xbox 360, which if you're like me, you'll appreciate the upgrade in controller. Let's have a look at Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 and see if it's still worth a look almost 2 decades after its release.

The road trip mode is the equivalent of a story mode in Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2, featuring 8 levels spread out across the USA. Starting out in Oklahoma City, you'll pass through Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Hawaii just to name a few. Each location will feature a number of objectives that you'll have to complete in order to move on to the next location. The objectives are usually the type of stuff you'd expect from this type of game: do a certain trick at a certain spot, collect X number of objects, score a certain amount of points within a time limit; you get the idea. Road trip mode is decent but uninspired and should last you quite a while, so long as you can get a feel for the controls.

Contra Online (Xbox, Cancelled)

Contra Online
Pitched by Konami of America
Also Proposed for PC/PS2

Not much is known about Contra Online, making it one of the more mysterious entries in the franchise, probably because it didn't make it far in development. Exact dates for when the game was proposed and cancelled are unknown, but obviously it's sometime in the early 2000's with this being an Xbox/PS2 game. Contra Online was pitched by Konami of America, which is a bit foreboding when looking back at how the previous non-Japan developed entries in the franchise turned out, which to put it nicely was not up to the series standards.

An online Contra game sounds ambitious and the game was planned to support 4 player coop. Players would be split into teams of 2 and would fight separate missions before meeting up to face the boss. An online versus mode was also planned, which would take place in a virtual reality type of environment, which seems to be the only screenshot that exists for this game. In the end, Konami had internal disagreements between the Japanese and American divisions regarding the game, which ultimately led to its cancellation. Since it looks like Contra Online was going to take place from a third-person perspective rather than staying true to its 2D roots, it may very well be for the best that this game didn't release.

Related Links:
Contra Online - Unseen64

Skate or Die (Xbox, Cancelled)

Skate or Die
Developed by Criterion Studios
Published by Electronic Arts
Planned for Xbox/PS2
Announced 2002
Cancelled 2003

Skate or Die was a skateboarding game, originally developed by Electronic Arts and released for the Commodore 64 back in 1987. In 1988, the game was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System and the following year was released onto the Amstrad CPC, Spectrum and PC formats. I've heard quite a few of the younger folks trash the Skate or Die series, but this game was quite a big deal back in the day. At least in my household, this was one of the few NES carts we had so it got a lot of play and I have nothing but fond memories of the game. The series would get a few sequels in the following years with the final game in the franchise released for the Game Boy in 1991.

In 2002, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series was still going strong for Activision and Electronic Arts wanted something to compete with that series. They commissioned developer Criterion Games to develop a new Skate or Die game, set to be released for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. Criterion Games was mostly known for the Burnout games, but they had developed a few hover-board games with TrickStyle for the Dreamcast and AirBlade for the PS2, so developing a skateboarding game wasn't out of the question for these guys.

Criterion had proposed some cool ideas for the game, one of which was to allow the player to hop off the board and walk around on foot. There were going to be shops where you could purchase new boards/equipment and NPCs that you could interact with. This was all well before the Tony Hawk series was doing any of this, so Skate or Die had some very unique concepts for the time. As ambitious as all this was, Electronic Arts wanted even more from the game., requesting that Criterion create a full-blown open world title that could compete with the Grand Theft Auto series. Criterion Games knew EA was asking for too much out of the project and eventually quit. There were also rumors that EA considered trying to make this a Jackass or Dogtown and Z-Boys tie-in.

As you would expect, EA was not happy with Criterion walking out on the project. It looked bad for Criterion and a developer mentioned in an interview that the Need for Speed team told the guys they couldn't work with or talk to them anymore. Criterion and EA eventually worked things out and before long Criterion would go back to work on their Burnout series, with Burnout 3: Takedown coming out for Xbox and PlayStation 2 in 2004. It's great to see that this wasn't the end of the line for Criterion Games, but one can't help but wonder what could have been if Skate or Die made it to store shelves. A lone screenshot has surfaced which came from a UK-based video games magazine by the name of GamesTM, which ran a preview for Skate or Die in issue 100.

Related Links:
Skate or Die Reboot - Unseen64
Criterion's Lost Skate or Die Sequel - Game Informer
Skate or Die! - Wikipedia
Skate or Die Game Franchise - GameFAQs

Black (Xbox, 2006)

Black
Developed by Criterion Games
Published by EA Games
Released for Xbox (2/28/2006)
Also on PS2
Backwards Compatible on Xbox 360/Xbox One

Black was developed by Criterion Games, most known at the time for the Burnout series, and was released in February 2005, a few months after the new Microsoft system the Xbox 360 was released. It seemed like an odd choice for EA Games to put this out for the older system. Regardless, Black serves as a graphical showcase for what the aging Xbox and PlayStation 2 hardware were capable of. Black featured several aspects of the world that were destructible, awesome sound design and impressive particle effects.

Black consists only of a single-player campaign mode which contains 8 missions. There's a decent variety between the stages, featuring a town, asylum, dockyard and bridge to name a few. The levels themselves are detailed for the time and feature an admirable amount of destructible objects in them. Levels are linear but leave a little room for exploration, though the path forward is never really difficult to find. Black's stages have a decent flow to them, but they typically just consist of go to a checkpoint, kill waves of enemies that spawn and then move to next checkpoint to do it again. To be fair, this is the case in most first-person shooters and Black is no exception. While the overall stage design is a tad generic, there are a few standout levels like the bridge and the finale at the gulag as quite memorable.

There's some kind of story to follow along with in Black, but it's a bit convoluted and tough to keep up with. You play as a black ops operative in Chechnya, Russia. The story is revealed in cutscenes before each level, featuring full-motion video showing clips of the interrogation. Our character is a veteran who is being threatened with imprisonment unless he cooperates with the interrogator. There's some stuff about an arms smuggling/terrorist group called the Seventh Wave, which are the guys you'll be killing by the hundreds. While the story is a bit confusing, the cutscenes are well-produced and they don't get in the way of the action.

The weapon selection in Black is quite standard, but Criterion Games did a good job making each weapon feel different and fun to use. For handguns you have the G17 and the DC3 Elite, the only fictional gun in Black that is comparable to a Desert Eagle. For assault rifles, there's the AK47, G36C and M16. The M249 SAW sits as the only light machine gun in the game. Then for sub-machine guns you have the MP5, Uzi and P90. Rounding out the weapons cast are the two specialty guns, the sniper rifle (Walther 2000) and the RPG. You can only carry up to 2 guns at a time so there's a bit of strategy in deciding which weapons work best in certain scenarios, but unfortunately the game chooses which guns you start each level with, so the available arsenal is limited to what the enemies on that particular stage are carrying.

For the most part, the weapons feel good to fire. There's some nice, beefy gunfire sounds and the particle effects and damage when bullets hit surfaces is quite impressive. The recoil is a bit crazy on some of the automatic weapons, but once you get used to burst-firing it's not so bad. I wound up using the MP5 for the majority of the game, because ammo was plentiful due to most soldiers dropping it and the recoil is minimal compared to the other guns in the game. There are definitely situations suited for the shotguns and sniper rifles, providing a bit of variety to the weapons effectiveness. There's an effect where the camera focuses on your gun when you reload and the background blurs out while you insert a new clip. While I'm sure this was impressive at the time, it quickly became a bit annoying and was definitely not necessary. At the very least, an option to toggle the blur off would have been welcome.

Enemy design is not one of Black's strong points, but it gets the job done. You'll face off against countless grunts, most wielding SMGs but some will be equipped with an M249, sniper rifle or rocket launcher. There's the heavily-armored shotgun soldier, who will rush in to get close and will get back up again before dying. There's also riot-shield soldiers who can be a real pain, but can be taken out quick with a frag grenade. Enemies are often content with just ducking in and out of cover, but the shotgun and riot shield guys will close in on your position, adding some intensity to the firefights.

There's a bit of replay value in Black, with multiple difficulties and some unlockable modes. Playing on normal or up will reveal additional objectives for each level that aren't present on easy, similar to how games like Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark did. There's added objectives for the toughest difficulty for a nice boost in challenge. If you clear the game on normal or hard with all objectives completed you will unlock silver weapons, granting you unlimited ammo. Completing the game on hard will also unlock black ops mode for players who want an extra challenge.

Back in its day, Black was a rock-solid FPS game and a technical marvel for the aging consoles it released for. There were many times while playing this I could have easily mistaken the game for an early Xbox 360 title; it really looks that good. The gameplay hasn't aged as well as the graphics, unfortunately, and Black feels a bit more sluggish than your standard FPS. The already slow aiming and movement isn't helped by the fact that there's no sprint button, so movement in general just feels a bit slower when compared against other FPS titles. The cutscenes that play before each level are un-skippable the first time through, a minor annoyance but I thought it was worth mentioning. While the guns feel good to use, there is a  bit of a lack of variety when it comes to the enemy and stage design. Black is far from a perfect shooter and hasn't aged the most gracefully, but there's still some fun to be had running around blasting bad guys with the various weaponry.

Black would receive backwards-compatible support on both the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One. On the Xbox 360, it's one of the titles known to run more or less error-free, which is a bit rare for Xbox backwards-compatible games on that system. The game looks great running on an Xbox One X and I didn't experience any issues while playing through the game on that console. I did notice tears in destructible objects likely due to the resolution enhancement, but it was by no means a game-breaker.

A sequel to Black was planned and would have come out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but was cancelled due to differences between the developers and publisher EA Games. Bodycount, which was released for the Xbox 360 in 2011, is considered to be the spritiual successor to Black. Bodycount was developed by Guildford Studio, which  was made up of several of the developers that worked on Black. I don't have Bodycount yet, but I'd be interested in taking a look at that one on the site sometime.

Final Verdict: Black is a solid, action-packed single-player first-person shooter. While it hasn't necessarily aged the best and feels a bit slow at first, once you warm up to it Black is still a fun time.

Purchase Links:
Buy Black (Digital) - Microsoft Store
Buy Black (Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
Criterion Games - Xbox Overview
FPS Games - Xbox Overview
Criterion Games - Official Site
Electronic Arts - Official Site
Black - GameFAQs

Alternate EU/JP Cover

Star Wars: Republic Commando (Xbox, 2005)

Star Wars: Republic Commando
Developed/Published by LucasArts
Released for Xbox (2/2005)
Also on PC
Backwards Compatible on Xbox One/Xbox 360

There were a total of 14 Star Wars titles released on the original Xbox, making it hard not to overlook at least a few of them. I'm always a bit skeptical coming into any Star Wars game, as the license has a bit of a checkered past when it comes to quality, but I was pleasantly surprised by Republic Commando. The game was released for both the Xbox and PC in 2005, and is a squad based first-person shooter.

Developed and published by LucasArts, Republic Commando delivers some nice visuals for a 2005 release which are powered by the popular Unreal Engine 2. The menus are simple, easy to use and the game allows you to save at any point in addition to autosaving at designated checkpoints. The on-screen HUD does a good job keeping you aware of your squad's health status and ammunition is displayed on each weapon. All of the text used is easy to read and while the presentation is nothing special, you'd have a hard time finding much to complain about. The voice acting and sound effects are solid. The game does feature music, but a good majority of the time you'll only have the ambience. While the music is used sparsely, what is present here is similar to the stuff you would hear in the Star Wars prequel films of the time.

Kakuto Chojin: Back Alley Brutal (Xbox, 2002)

Kakuto Chojin
Developed by DreamFactory
Published by Microsoft Game Studios
Released for Xbox (11/2002)

My first reaction upon seeing Kakuto Chojin was that it was just another generic fighting game from a Western developer. I was surprised to discover that the Japan-based developer, DreamFactory, was founded by Seiichi Ishii, who was a designer for Virtua Fighter and one of the creators of Tekken. DreamFactory would go on to create the Tobal games on the original PlayStation and the arcade fighter Ehrgeiz, so they definitely do have some experience under their belt when it comes to fighting games. Kakuto Chojin was released exclusively for the Xbox console and has never received backward-compatibility support for either the 360 or the One, so it can only be played on Microsoft's original console.

Kakuto Chojin allows you to select from 12 different fighters, each represented by a different fighting style and from various countries. By this point in the timeline of fighting games, none of these characters really stand out and they all feel a bit cliche so while they do look nice, they're just not that memorable in the end. There's a decent range of fighting styles which include karate, jeet kune do (complete with Bruce Lee knock-off), capoeira, tae kwan do, a pit fighter, ninjitsu, hakkyoku-ken, pro wrestling, muay-thai and two fighters who use kung fu. Several of these have very odd countries of origin in regards to their fighting styles, for instance the capoeira chick is from Japan rather than Brazil like one would expect. When you complete the game with a fighter you unlock an alternate move set that can be selected at the character select screen. If you beat the game with all 12 characters you'll be able to select the boss character, making for a grand total of 13 characters to choose from.

Graphically Kakuto Chojin has some nice visuals for a game released in 2002. While the arenas are enclosed squares in design, they at least look nice and there is a unique stage for each character. There are some good details, like the rainy rooftop which features reflective surfaces. There are also a few stages that offer a chance to ring-out your opponents which does help add a little variety. While the stages and characters are both well-rendered, the characters have a strange shine to them which I suppose was intended to be perspiration but it ends up looking a bit cheesy. The game features some nifty particle effects on certain stages with rain or snow. The shading and lighting is also very well done for the time. There's even some battle damage depicted on the fighters as they take a beating, making for a very nice overall presentation.

The controls are a bit different when compared to your standard fighting game. You have low, medium and high attack buttons which works okay. There is a dedicated button for special moves, which when used will turn your health meter yellow. You are unable to use this move again until your meter fills back up and is completely red, which I assume was done in an effort to prevent you from spamming your special move. The triggers are used for blocking and running, which needlessly over-complicate things, especially considering you can dash by tapping forward twice. I've never been a fan of fighting games that have block assigned to a button and it feels just as awkward here as it does in any other game that does this. By holding block and pressing up you have the ability to jump, though you'll rarely need to use this to win.

In addition to the story mode, the Kakuto Chojin single player modes also include survival and practice mode. There are also a few multiplayer modes that allow up to four players to compete in battle royal, capture the crown or standard versus games. I've heard the game is quite enjoyable with up to four players but I never had four pads for my Xbox so I couldn't tell you personally, though it does sound like a good time with the right friends. There's not much else to say about the fighting in Kakuto Chojin other than you punch, kick, throw and occasionally use a special move to deplete the health bar of your opponent. Everything works fine, though the game just really doesn't do much to set itself apart from other fighting games of the time.

The main menu also has an option to access some game demos. There are interactive demos featured for NFL Fever 2003, Shenmue II and Quantum Redshift. There are also non-interactive movies for Xbox Live, Blinx the Time Sweeper, Fable, Tao Feng, Kung Fu Chaos and MechAssault.

Kakuto Chojin was met with some controversy, particularly in America, due to the Somalian character named Asad. The fighter is a Muslim which is apparent by his stage's theme, which contained phrases from Quran being chanted in the background. Bear in mind this game was released in 2002, not long after 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers, so Americans were still very sensitive to anything referencing Islam. Due to this the game was recalled by Microsoft in the United States and was only available for a very limited time in Japan and was never released at all in Europe.

In closing, Kakuto Chojin is a nice-looking game and the fighting is serviceable, though it's definitely not up to par with the heavy-hitters at the time. When it comes to 3D fighters of this era, the Soul Calibur, Tekken and Virtua Fighter franchises are still several steps ahead of this one. That's not to say it's a bad game, so if you're a fighting junkie just looking for something new for your old Xbox it's worth a look. The game never really picked up in value and is still quite easy to find despite being recalled from stores. The full title of the game on the cover is Kakuto Chojin: Back Alley Brutal but I honestly just didn't feel like typing that throughout the whole review.

Final Verdict: Kakuto Chojin definitely doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's a decent 3D fighter that remained exclusive to the original Xbox.

Purchase Links:
Buy Kakuto Chojin - eBay

Related Links:
Kakuto Chojin - GameFAQs
Kakuto Chojin - Wikipedia
Kakuto Chojin - Hardcore Gaming 101

Japanese Cover Artwork

Unplugged (XBLIG, 2010)

Unplugged
Developed by Murudai
Released for Xbox Live Indie Games (8/2010)

Unplugged is a twin-stick shooter game released to the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace in August 2010. I was instantly reminded of the old Midway arcade Bubbles, where you play as a bubble and clean up the sink. This game does not bear much resemblance to that game other than taking place in a sink however. You play as a sink-plug that for some reason can shoot bullets. There is a constant current that affects both player movement and bullets, sucking them all in whatever direction the swirl is going for that stage. This sounds like a cool idea perhaps but in execution it really makes the game a chore to play. Lining up your bullets to kill an enemy seems more like luck than skill. Unplugged features some original enemy designs in the form of a giant cheese boss, soap bars and vegetables, but any charm is lost as the game-play is literally sucked down the drain.

Final Verdict: You can safely skip Unplugged as there are much better twin-stick shooters far more deserving of your dollar on the XBLIG marketplace.

Related Links:
Unplugged - GameFAQs
Bubbles Arcade Gameplay - YouTube

Gun (Xbox 360, 2005)

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