Previewed: October 18, 2005
Previewed by: Mat Houghton

Publisher
Activision

Developer
Neversoft

Release Date: Fall, 2005
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature

Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
You have to hand it to Neversoft. The first time I saw anything for GUN was at E3 this year, and to say I was under whelmed would be, well not only in-specific, but also just not visceral enough. In fairness the display was little more than a couple of booth babes in GUN tees passing out plastic ears on string. While I am as big a fan of trophy killing humans as the next guy, this is hardly illuminating as to what to expect from a game. Was it an FPS? Was it a strategy title? Was it… a Western?

As you are already no doubt aware by now, GUN is set to be the next big Western to come to your console, and from what I was able to play that assessment is hitting the nail on the head and driving it through the board.

Here would be a good place to digress a little and go into the story, characters, etc of the game; but I think you all have seen enough of that so we’ll skip it. You’re in the West, you have a gun, and you shoot people. Do you really need to know any more?

Alright, I’ll give you a little more than that. You start hunting game for river boats (hint, hint, tutorial) which gets a little hairy when a grizzly shows up looking for a piece of one of your kills, or you, it’s not picky really. GUN isn’t anything too different in the control department from most 3rd person shooters. You move with the left stick, aim with the right, use a trigger to shoot.

The first difference is quick draw mode, which is kind of like a first person bullet time. Triggering quick draw automatically brings you into a first person view, and as long as it lasts (there is a little bar in the lower right) what you are aiming at is slowed down. Even better than that though, aiming in quick draw mode is simple; all you have to do is tap the stick to the left or right and you’ll jump to the next target, making it easier than ever to plug a guy three or four times and then move on to another.

The other big difference is the horse riding, which is a very nice touch here. Instead of simply being a form of transportation for the main character (you know, walk to your horse, and that will take you instantly to the next town), horses are something you have to use strategically. You can run down and trample enemies; the horse takes damage instead of you, and if you aren’t on one and the enemy is, be prepared for a long fight.

Also, there is a great deal of strategy just in riding since you can dig spurs into your horse to get a burst of speed, but hold it too long and you’ll start killing the horse. I can already see the timed races where you have to kill your mount just to win.

While GUN doesn’t offer any real surprises as far as gameplay is concerned, that’s not really a bad thing. Instead of trying to come up with some new and interesting way of using the same buttons and sticks, Neversoft focused on telling an interesting story and making sure your part in it was fun.

Graphically GUN is gorgeous, pushing the PS2 as far as it can in order to try to make as little difference as possible between that and the 360. The current PS2 build does look rather jaggy around the edges and the water effects and close ups weren’t quite as polished as the 360, but otherwise this game looks fantastic; with colors that are rich and dusty, covering the range from arterial red to desert tan and highly detailed character models. GUN sizzles as soon as it hits the skillet, or perhaps your CD tray.

There is more to a game than looks and running around though, and in the interest of livening things up GUN delivers a whole range of side missions and free roaming game play. After finishing the initial training and story missions you gain access to a general store which will let you buy upgrades for your weapons, doing odd jobs for the locals, catching wanted criminals, running routes for the Pony Express, and gambling. While the gambling is restricted to poker, it is a fairly good Texas Hold’em mini-game, which you’ll probably end up spending more time trying to win than the regular game.

That’s pretty much the saga of GUN, nothing that you haven’t seen somewhere before, but not quite in this form and not all together at once. What sets GUN apart is that there is a great story behind it (even if I didn’t detail (or spoil) it here) with good voice acting from a star-studded cast.

Legendary actors include leading man Thomas Jane as vengeful gunslinger Colton White; Kris Kristofferson as Colton’s mountain man father, Ned; Tom Skerritt as Resistance Fighter Clay Allison; Brad Dourif as evil preacher Josiah Reed; Ron Perlman as Mayor Hoodoo Brown of Empire, New Mexico; and Lance Henriksen as the obsessive tyrant Thomas MacGruder.

Is GUN going to revolutionize the way we play games? Probably not, but it is a step in the right direction in revolutionizing the way we experience them.