GUN  Review for Gamecube

Friday, July 28, 2006

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Title: GUN .............................................. System: Gamecube .............................................. Genre: Shooter .............................................. Publisher: Activision .............................................. Developer: Neversoft Entertainment .............................................. Release: 11/08/2005 .............................................. Online: No .............................................. ESRB: Mature (M) .............................................. Neversoft, the company who rose to fame through their award-winning Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, has begun branching into other genres. Their first foray is Gun, a tale taking place in the days of the Wild West. With the popularity of Red Dead Revolver last year, did Gun live up to the expectations the fans of western shooters placed on it? Like the Tony Hawk series, Gun enjoyed a release across all of the platforms (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, and Xbox 360). The game plays the same on all of the consoles, with the only difference being the graphic output. The Game With a game based on the Wild West, you would hope that the story would be one that can draw you in. Red Dead Revolver accomplished this; Gun accomplishes this. However, while the story itself is good (Randall Jahnson—famous for Mask of Zorro—helped pen the story) it happens much too fast. You take control of Colton White, who was raised by an old miner named Ned. The story begins with Ned raising Colton in Montana. Colton is not his biological son, but Ned raises him all the same. However, Colton learns this as his father pushes him off of a boat during an explosion, so never gets a chance to learn more. When he awakes, he finds in his hand a coin for a saloon, and heads there. Through his actions, the mystery behind his father’s death, the steamboat’s explosion, and the token itself is unraveled. Like I said earlier, though, the story is too quick at times. There are instances when you look forward to something happening, or finding out an answer, only to have the tale turn a complete 180 on you and head off in the opposite direction. At times like these it can be frustrating. There are also instances when events which could have been spread out over chapters of the game end up resolved before anything happens. At times like that, you almost wish Neversoft would have taken an extra few months to add more to the plot of the game. The gameplay itself is good. The controls are simple to get used to, and the action is fast and brutal. As can be expected from the title, the emphasis of Gun is all about…well, shooting. You have the option of shooting your foes with pistols, rifles and bows, along with several other types of weaponry. Primarily, Gun is a third-person shooter, so the auto-aim is very generous when using the pistols. However, when you use a rifle and use the scope, the game switches to a first person mode, enabling you to get even better accuracy. Colton also has the option to use melee weapons such as knives and hatchets, which can also make quick work of enemies. However, the fighting in Gun is anything but realistic. The level of gore and blood is much more than in an average Western, and many of the gameplay elements serve either no purpose, or appear to just be thrown in. One example of something which appears to be thrown in is the quick draw mode, which is basically bullet time (albeit the way you build the meter is gaining headshots, so there is a new take on it). In this mode, time slows down enabling you to shoot several foes in quick succession—however; you never need to reload the weapon you’re using. In fact, you never need to reload. While reloading is normally a nuisance, it adds a level of realism to the games and usually more strategy, as you have to pay attention to ammunition. Another bizarre element in the game is the ability to scalp defeated enemies. Frankly, I have no idea why they included this. Scalping serves no purpose whatsoever. You can’t collect scalps, you can’t sell them, they don’t give you new unlockables, and you can’t even keep track of how many you’ve scalped. It’s in there for no reason other than to be in there, and it just doesn’t work out because of that. Another element of the gameplay is the free roaming ability, much like in GTA. While the world isn’t nearly as large, the ability allows you to pick which missions and side quests to do next, and when you get bored you can ride around on your horse and kill random people (which always alleviates boredom). However, if you kill the townspeople (who are amazingly realistic—they just walk around minding their own business) the town begins to lose its patience with you. If it gets too bad, watch out—there might be a lynch mob coming your way! Unfortunately, if you beat the mob nothing happens, and they go back to liking you again. It would have been better if you could make them so angry you become an outlaw…but maybe we’ll see that next time. One of my largest problems with Gun is the way the missions play out and the so-so side missions. The main missions themselves take you through the story, but they’re easy and usually very short (if you play the game doing only main missions, you can beat it around 6 hours). The side quests are nice (they give you boosts in stats) but ultimately aren’t needed, and because of their poor design you’ll find yourself skipping the majority of them, unless you absolutely want to keep playing the game. The boss fights, however, are a different story. Many of them you will fail the first couple times until you find out what to do. I’ve always loved challenging boss fights, and Gun has them. If you can’t stand fighting the same boss several times until you figure out his pattern, you won’t like them at all. However, if you’re a fan of the old-school boss fights from the old days, the boss fights in Gun will feel like an old friend to you. Graphics Like mentioned earlier, the only difference between the versions of Gun is the level of graphics. On the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube they’re average at best. The models are nicely done, as are the textures, but animations are clunky and awkward. The landscape and environments are also well done, but for the most part you’ll find yourself looking at the same scenery for long periods of time. You can only see so much well-done desert visuals before you get sick of them. Audio The audio in Gun is well done when it comes to voice acting. You’ll hear several voices you recognize (Ron Perlman, Thomas Jane, Lance Hendrickson, and Brad Dourif) and they do a great job of capturing the atmosphere. The music, though, makes no sense. Coming in, I expected to hear the spaghetti-western music. Instead, they have a soundtrack which sounds more like it’s from an epic movie, and it just doesn’t fit the game. The other sounds such as galloping, guns and other things all sound good. My only gripe with the sound is the horrible job they did trying to make the Apache’s sound realistic. Instead, they sound ridiculous. Overall Overall, Gun is a good game to rent...and that’s it. You won’t really want to play through it more than one or two times, at the most. While the game is fun, it does nothing new. On any of the systems (but especially the 360, where it was a launch title) there just isn’t enough content to warrant a purchase. At the most, you can probably play this game for three days before you get bored of it. After that, it seems more like a chore. If you’re looking for the western game to beat Red Dead Revolver, look elsewhere—Gun doesn’t quite live up to its own hype.   The Core Score Overall 7 Fun 7 Gameplay 7 Graphics 7 Audio 8.5 Replay 5   How we score games