Gun

Gun has so much going for it, but it's such a short game that as soon are you build up your stats and really get going...there's no more of it to play. Which is quite annoying.

You play as Colton White (Thomas Jane) in a free-roaming western landscape. You can grab whatever horse you want, kill who you feel and take-on a fair amount of side-missions if you feel like taking a break from the main story, which is itself interesting but way too short.

The villains are all evil bastards but brilliantly acted by the likes of Brad Dourif, Ron Pearlman and Lance Henriksen. Other actors with cool voices like Kris Kristofferson and Tom Skerritt fill out supporting roles and the dialogue and cut-scenes are all pretty good and avoid the unnatural, forced feel that many video games have. Many of the characters and situations could have been fleshed out more but they merely conveniently contribute to the slight 'search for a hidden goldmine' plot.

The action of the game is brilliantly done (the controls take a little practice though), with great use of slow-motion when blowing large chunks of bad guy heads off. Weapons range from twin guns, rifles and shotguns to swords, bows, dynamite and whisky bombs. You can even scalp people, but it adds nothing to stats, so it's kind of pointless. Side missions can either be errand boy tasks, rounding up cattle or killing random bad guys. The destruction factor could have been higher, but you could say that about a lot of games.

The actual gameplay universe is quite small too. But it still feels superficially expansive. With loads of little valleys, railroad tracks and and coyote trails it can be fun exploring, but you'll get familiar with it too quickly.

My fave thing about this game however is the music. It's a shame it's not available on CD because it really is exciting and echoes John Barry's main theme to Dances With Wolves. With so many lesser video game scores getting CD releases these days I wouldn't be too surprised if the Gun score came out eventually.

Add it all up and you have a fun, if all too slight, game that is worth it if you can pick it up half price (like I did) but not a full RRP. If only they made it longer, we could have a classic.

This game, in my opinion, was incredible. As a kid i never got into cowboys and indians, but this game got me. it had an incredibly, smart, cool story that took you all over the wild west doing everything from barroom gunfights to assaulting a town with a cannon. the locales and environments are stunning and beautiful, from the wide open grazing plains, to the desert expanse, to the rocky mountains, it had it all, the map was a bit small, i would have preferred a much larger map, but what was there was amazing. tthe acting was top notch and Thomas Jane really nailed the vengeful vigilante gunslinger of the wild west, even the background characters had interesting things to say and said them well. the gameplay was fun, deep, easy, and had a strange ability to stay fresh and avoid repetitiveness. Now the few problems, length for one. While it had a great story and some interesting side missions, the story was far too short, as are the side missions, so after a few hours you are left with a wide open world and nothing to do. The side quests could really be improved on to the level of a gta game. Also the map, the map was far to small for my taste and after a few of the main missions was completely explored. it also only consisted of 2 towns and a tiny few side areas that are only active during missions coresponding with them. GTA is another great example for Gun to strive for, it needed a much larger map with a living world with animals, people, multiple towns and settlements and maybe more locales, perhaps forests, and snowy mountains, larger plains and just an all around bigger world. i thought this was an incredible game with great graphics, gameplay, story and just about everything else. just needed to be a bit longer and bigger but besides that, gold. i highly recommend this to anyone yet to play this game, go pick it up, its cheap by now and well worth it. im eagerly looking forward to Gun 2 and i pray it comes! Whoever was taking names for a petition for Gun 2 on the message boards, add mine!

I definitely agree that the music score in this game is unbelievable. I found myself playing the game just to hear it. Unfortunately the game is actually a lot shorter than I'd hoped. Although I enjoyed it a lot, there are really only a few main story missions while the rest are side missions made to build up Colton's (your character) attributes. I think that a lot more could have been done to make more story missions and ultimately make the game longer. Since the story and cast for the game was pretty amazing, I hope that a sequel is made for this game and that it is made much longer. Don't let my disappointment with the length discourage anyone from buying the game because I think it is definitely a worthy game. Let's face it, any western game is going to be awesome.

I'd heard many a rave opinion about this game, it's been sizzled by everyone I talked to who knew about it. Then again, they just happened to work at Gamestop and were trying to sell it to me. In any case, in a few words, great rental, not worth $50.

First off, this game is violent. I don't mean, guts coming out someone's mouth grotesque, but rather stylized violence in the cut-scenes. The intensity doesn't come in what they show you, there's worse in other games, it comes in the cinematic way its presented. For a more mature player, the scenes have a thrilling sense to them, not because there's murder, but rather it's done with style. Think Kill Bill: varying degrees of overdoing violence, so its not as believable. You have people get killed in the cut-scenes, and some of it is brutal, but it's the idea of a throat getting slashed that makes it intense, not actually showing it because the graphics engine isn't really that good.

I know I dwelt a lot on the cut-scenes, and that's because I find them the best part of the game. They're brilliantly written with an excellent cast. The dialog is natural, and feels natural coming out of the actors' mouths.

The plot, unfortunately, is very thin. Without giving anything away, the story could have been fleshed out much more. The first "twist" in the story isn't much of one because it happens within the first hour. By then, you're already 14% into the game. The game moves very VERY fast. It operates in the free roaming/mission manner made popular by Grand Theft Auto. It progresses the story along really quickly, a little too quickly in my opinion, but quickly nonetheless.

Along with the root story missions, you have several side quests you take to improve the character's stats and to make money to buy upgrades. These themselves are what make up a bulk of the game, and what bring it down. These side quests become repetitive after a while since you're doing the same thing over and over again: Find something and kill the bad guys; Get on a horse, kill someone; escort someone, kill everyone else. You pretty much become a murderous errand boy. Yeah, that's fun and all for the first hour, but the game play's shallowness becomes apparent.

In short, there's too much story that this game can hold. The characters are all interesting, the story is deep, there're twists and turns, and stuff shown at the beginning reappears later on for an "Ahhh, I see" moment for the player. Unfortunately, the game is just too short. It could have been a great epic with a little more polish. It felt like it needed a few more months in developing to really feel finished. Rent it Friday, play it, finish it, return it Monday, and you can go on with the rest of your week.

This is one of the finest and most entertaining Old West games out there. From fighting off Apaches to dispensing justice vigilante style, this game succeeds in providing all the joy one would expect in this kind of game. The graphics are decent, the fights are wicked fun, the voice acting is top-notch quality, and the storyline is unpredictable and exciting. The only drawback I can think of is the game's length. Yes, the side missions give the game more depth and longevity, but it seems you've only just got started when you beat this game. Consider a game like GTA:San Andreas. That game went on for hours. Side quests, hidden quests, and a very lengthy main quest made that game enjoyable and very replayable. Gun got it right, just not enough of it. Overall though, Gun was fantastic and a great buy. Perhaps better to rent, but great nonetheless.