The Wild West crashes onto the Xbox 360 with the arrival of GUN, a third person shooter from Neversoft the creators of the legendary Tony Hawk series. In GUN, you play a desperado called Colton. At the start of the game he and his father, Ned, go aboard a steamboat, however as soon as they step aboard, a massive gun fight kicks off. To save his son Ned throws Colton into the river, but before doing so he gives him a strange medallion and tells him he’s not really his father. As you go underwater the steamboat explodes. You’re left with a headache and a lot of questions that need answering. Thats what you call a start to a game! It’s got it all; explosions, blood and family secrets! Colton heads to Dodge City to try and find any info that can reveal his true family tree and to explain the strange medallion he’s holding in his hand.
Upon arriving at Dodge City he comes across a prostitute in a bar. Before introducing himself properly he’s interrupted by a gun fight kicking off. However this small one-on-one fight quickly erupts into an impressive 30 man brawl with punching and fighting being the order of the day. This is how the singleplayer game goes on as you try and uncover the truth while sorting out the locals. Sadly there’s no multiplayer support, which is a real let down. You can just imagine a deathmatch in the middle of a desert, everyone on horseback and armed with a Colt.45.
Nevertheless, the singleplayer part of the game more than makes up for the lack of multiplayer action. Neversoft has included some neat features to make sure your gaming pleasure is as enjoyable as possible in the gritty (and sometimes disturbing) times of the 19th Century. The most notable feature is being able to slow down time. This “quick fire” feature gives you more time to get good shots in and increases accuracy. To enable quick fire, you need to get a few stylish shots in; head shots work well for this.
If you’ve never heard of ragdoll physics then all you need to do is watch a demo of this game. It basically re-enacts what would happen if someone was shot at in real life. For example, if you shoot a man in the chest while he was riding his horse you would see the blood and bits of bones come screaming out of his back as well as seeing him being hurled 10 feet in the air before landing in a heap — dead. The game has buckets of blood thrown in, especially when you get a shot in the head. Blood is the thing you’ll see most of when your in the middle of a gun fight.
The graphics engine on the Xbox 360 version of this game is noticeably better than the other consoles. It looks like Neversoft have taken advantage of the next-gen consoles power, making this game look great. Unlike Red Dead Revolver, this game is free roaming, so once you arrive in town you can go in the bar and start a gun fight or you can go and have a ride on your pony.
Story driven missions are straight forward, but the sub-missions look the most interesting with tasks, that once complete, increases your points for stuff like horse riding, health, gun handling, “quickdraw”, and melee combat. This game has it all: Amazing graphics, attractive ladies and a whole load of gun fighting. If you want a game that’s different from all other games you’ve ever played then you’ll want this. It looks like Neversoft have managed to make a great game without any skateboards in site.
