Platform: PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360, PC
Genre: Action
Number of Players: 1

I can't understand why it's taken game developers so long to realize that titles set in the Old West are marketable. Back in the days of the NES, there were a few games, but these were usually happy, non-offensive games, not coming close to capturing the dark and violent history of America's west. Rockstar really changed that with Dead Red Revolver, but even still the amount of Western games are still rather slim. Activision and Neversoft however have finally released their long awaited Gun, a game that's sure to appease gamers looking for more adventures in the frontier land's of America's past.

Set in the late 1800's, the life of Colton White is about to change. Colton and his father Ned spend much of their time hunting to make a little extra cash, but tragedy is about to strike. Ned is gunned down and killed by a group of renegade soldiers led by an evil preacher, and with his dying breath, Ned instructs his "son" to get to Dodge. Colton begins to uncover a corrupt plot led by Thomas Magruder, a Civil War veteran who is obsessed with finding the pieces of a golden cross rumored to lead to a king's ransom in gold. As Colton begins to uncover the truth, he finds corruption abounds everything, murder is a way of life, and friends can quickly become enemies.

Gun had a lot of hype around it at this years E3, but Activision wasn't releasing too much information at the time, making everyone curious exactly what the game was all about. Gun really plays a lot of Grand Theft Auto, though set in the rough and tumble Wild West, but there's enough difference here to set it apart and not make it an exact GTA clone, though there are quite a few similarities.

You'll have a number of different weapons that you can obtain and there are four different types. There are pistols, rifles, bows, and sniper rifles. Completing different portions of the story will give you new weapons, each more powerful than the last and you will also have a handful of thrown weapons such as Molotov cocktails and dynamite. For close combat, you have knives and axes, and any of your weapons can be changed, though your more recent acquisitions are probably the best. Gun allows you to enter into Quick Draw mode, an option that zooms in on the action and slows it down. Here you can tap the right analog stick and move to the next target. You have a limited amount of time you can use this mode, so it's best in my opinion to save it for some of those difficult gun battles when you're overwhelmed with bandits. Certain weapons will allow you to zoom in and get in better shots and you will also be able to use corners are walls as an asset to hide behind.

Instead of stealing cars, you'll be hopping on horses, though it's not always theft, and often you're given a horse for certain missions. In order to increase your speed, you'll need to spur your horse, but if you do this too much, you may actually kill your faithful steed. You can also use weapons while on horseback, something that can be a little difficult at first, but becomes second nature very quickly. You can also kill horses of enemies you face with a well-placed shot, not that I'm advocating violence against animals, but there are times that it's the only choice. You can also use your horse as a weapon and trample enemies or even other animals.

Gun also has a bit of a role-playing aspect to it. By taking on side missions, you can improve your gun slinging abilities, your horse riding, and even your health. In Dodge you'll have the option to play some cards to earn some extra money or help you the local sheriff. In neighboring Empire, you can do some odd jobs for the Pony Express or assist the Federal Marshall. There are also bounty hunting missions to undertake, and the "Wanted: Dead or Alive" rules are often in play, but there are some villains that need to be brought in alive, and others are only wanted dead. You can even play ranch hand or try to do some hunting for rare animals in the Badlands. Jobs not only improve your stats, they earn you money which can be used to buy weapons improvements, further improve your stats, or buy some other weapons not available in the standard mission mode. Gun also has you on a quest for gold and mining is yet another of the many missions you'll undertake, though you will need to buy a pickaxe, and I'd advise that this be one of the first things your grab.

The missions themselves are where the real story plays out, and you'll find yourself on the right side of the law at first, though that will soon change. You'll then side with a group of gunmen trying to put a stop to Magruder. The missions you undertake will sometimes involve only you, other times you will be working with one or more people, and keeping them alive is part of the assignment. One thing I really like though is that if you bring up your map, you can move your cursor, highlight the next mission, and immediately go to it, saving time from riding around. You can also use your HUD display to locate your next mission, but there are times that just jumping there without wasting time is much easier. However, you cannot do the same for side missions or shop keeps; you'll need to get there on your own.

Gun looks very good and does extremely well at capturing the look of the West. It's gritty, dusty, devoid of bright colors. The towns tend to be a bit on the small side, but that's really to be expected, as it was common as settlers began to move west and towns were established. The rest of the game outside of the towns is rather large, so you have a lot of terrain to cover from rocky and hostile mountains to mines and forests. The animations are very good for most of the characters, and the enemies have good AI, but what I really enjoyed with Gun is some of the just gunning down criminals. You can get in head shots (and you will get exploding heads), you can wound them, and you can even get in weapon shots. Also, there are things that can be destroyed. You can shoot out windows or beer bottles, and I always appreciate it when designers add things like this into games; I hate bulletproof windows.

The thing about Gun that comes as a bit of a disappointment though is that the game is a little short. I would say it can be finished with around 10 hours, and that includes doing quite a few of the side missions (and these are very important) and the game could use more locations to visit. Only have two towns available isn't quite enough, but then again things were really spread out in the blossoming west, so it does make sense. Gun also could have benefited from having more interior locations or perhaps some other missions to take on, like maybe starting a ranch of your own or something along those lines.

Despite the short length though, Gun really is a captivating game and one where plans to play for a short time can result in a few hours passing without even realizing it. Gun will hopefully continuing on as a franchise with more features and more gameplay. Gun takes some of the best features of the GTA series, adds in new features, and creates a world that you won't want to simply be galloping out of any time soon. It's time for you to hit the dusty trail and get Gun for yourself.

-mike-