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.

i just bought this a month ago and i beat the game in about 5 days. i had a good time playing as colton white(Tomas Jane). his voice was also in the punisher movie and game. he does a great job on acting in the punisher and he was good in this game. i loved all of the boss battles in this game...it was perfect. the graphics were good and the sound effects were my favorite! this game is almost as fun as narc the game is. i enjoyed it because it was not loaded with sexual themes or strong language. i did not even find it to be that gory. riding the horse has good control system as of all the other things you do. this game was perfect and me and my best friend Scott love western games and most of all the movies!!! there is a huge chance that you will love this game forever so if your a western fan then you have to get out there and BUY THIS!!!!!!!!!!! that is all so HAVE FUN!!!

One of the most didactic video game games I've ever played. The experience is very expressive, and made me understand much more than I thought about our legacy. Like the "Scarface" game, thid made me a little disturbed by everything I had to do if I wanted to move forward, like invading a place and fighting for that place as if it were mine. Of course, there are many teen games that also work with this argument, but the script much more serious, accompanied by a visual with "lifeless" colors, makes this an impactful work in all aspects. Technically, I can also talk about the sound: the dubbing and the original score give a spectacle, leaving a much greater immersion. A great thing for this type of game.

In this game, you play as Colton White, who's getting revenge for all the times he got screwed over. You can do the story missions. This is really fun. This game has one of the best story lines I've saw in a game. This has a better storyline than some movies. The story has many unexpected events, and the cut scenes are great. The story is short, but you don't have to do the missions if you don't want to. Eventually, you'll have to do the story mode missions if you want to advance to another area or unlock more side missions. Side missions are awesome! You can play poker, do bounty hunter missions, go hunting, and more! But you'll eventually run out of side missions that are cool, and be stuck delivering mail for a measly 10 dollars on the Pony Express. Not as exciting as traveling through the west on a random horse looking for a wanted group of men who have prices on their heads worth 30 dollars, is it? With the side missions, weapons, and great storyline, Gun is definitely one to buy. The only downside is that veteran gamers may think it's too easy and short. I'm not a veteran gamer, and I can't beat the final boss, so who cares? I liked this game. Rental for veterans, buy for medium gamers.

If Gun were two or three times larger and longer, it could have been truly great. It just seems to move way too fast. I wish the timing of the game was more like GTA or Mafia, and there was more to do. Even better would be a completely free-form western role-playing game. A Morrowind style game for the Wild West would be perfect.

They needed to do a little more research on the real Wild West, too. They did do research of course, but as they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Gun mixes elements from many historical eras of the American West with no concern for reality. It is set in 1880, but you have 1830s mountain men with percussion rifles and keelboats right alongside 1870s Colt Peacemakers and 1880s lever action shotguns. And 1850s Volcanic Repeating Pistols being presented as superb state of the art weapons in 1880 is laughable. The Volcanics were abandoned in 1860 as they were too underpowered. The basic design became the basis for the Henry & Winchester rifles. Also, Colton's arm tattooing is from the Eastern Woodlands Iroquois of New York and Ontario. Not the Apache of New Mexico.

Another thing that I HATE about Gun are the huge guiding words everywhere. For God's sake, let me find the wanted poster or the shopkeeper or the Marshall or Hoodoo Brown by myself. Don't show me huge words floating in the sky. If you really think most players are too impatient to search for themselves at least give me the option to turn the guide words off. The same goes for the constant prompting telling me what to do next. I can play my own game, thanks very much.

I love the blood and crsing myself, but I would also appreciate an option to turn off blood and profanity for when my kids play.

I also would prefer a primarily first person viewpoint with the ability to go third person as an option. Seeing my character on screen knocks me right out of the feeling that I am really there in the game world. Sure, it's nice to have third person for screenshots and checking out the costume, but playing first person is much more immersive.

Finally, making the renegades look like undead zombies was just stupid and probably meant to lure in kids who won't play a game that doesn't have fantasy or supernatural elements. I wish the renegades just looked like scummy desperadoes in tattered cavalry uniforms, and not like walking corpses.

But, all in all, having the chance to ride a horse and fight outlaws and wild Indians is worth putting up with all these problems. I really love Gun. I just wish it was bigger and you had more freedom and things to do.