Well, maybe the image I just painted for you isn’t quite what the game has to offer, but the atmosphere of this game really does capture the feeling of the old west. Well, I assume it catches the feeling of the old west, I’ve only ever had films to go by, but if the films are right, then this game is spot on.
You play as Colton White, a hunter who works with his father Ned. What begins as an innocent hunting trip soon turns into a disastrous tale of pain, death, deception, a little more pain, and scarce little love. Before long you’re up to your eyeballs in wild animals, Indians, cutthroats and horse dung and it’s only your guns that are going to keep you safe.
Ou-wee ou-wee oooo……Wah wah wah…
To be brief, this game is Grand Theft Auto on a horse. But you can’t really be brief because there’s so much to talk about with this game; the good, the bad and the downright ugly.
The first thing that grabs you by the vitals is the music. Gun has a really good sweeping score which fits the western atmosphere perfectly; it has a sense of reserved grandeur. What Gun also has is some very good cut-scenes. The voice acting is really well done and gives the game some really believable and loathsome characters, and the cinematic camerawork adds to the voiceovers to give a rather splendid and well rounded story.
The landscape has also been well chiseled out of the game engine. Don’t get me wrong, this won’t be the most astounding level design you’ve ever encountered but it’s been executed lovingly, and as a result it has a believable western ambiance.
This town ain’t big enough for the two of us…
There are two main towns in the game; Dodge City and Empire. Dodge is a pitiful ramshackle heap, basically just a road with some wooden shacks on either side, whilst Empire is more like the traditional town with several roads and many more buildings. You begin life in Dodge and it’s from here that your journey unfolds, like a pair of soiled pants after several weeks in the wash basket.
The two towns lie on opposite ends of the Badlands and it’s this stretch of land that accommodates some of the more hostile adversaries. Whilst traveling in this wilderness you will be set upon by bandits, chased by coyotes and even savaged by mountain lions if you’re not careful. But you will also find Buffalo grazing the fields and wild horses ready for the taking.
Go for your guns!
I like the shooting system in Gun. You have access to a limited range of weapons which you can upgrade as you progress through the game. A rifle, a shotgun, a bow and a sharpshooter. The bow is used for firing arrows silently into people’s heads which is very amusing, whereas the shotgun is a short-range blast-the-face-off-people-with-lots-of-noise weapon. But predominately you will be using your rifle, which is really quite satisfying.
There is another weapon which you carry, and it’s with you at all times – your pistol. Generally you won’t be using it to shoot too many people in normal circumstances, but if you find yourself surrounded by enemies you can quick draw! The quick draw mechanism is a time bar which you fill up as you go round killing people. When you activate it, the world will go into slow motion and you can flick between enemies and wipe out a small gang in no time at all. When the bar has run out, you go back to normal speed. It’s very amusing but also very necessary at certain points. If only the game had replays – you’d watch yourself pull out your gun and run down 10 men before they’d even blinked and that would be truly fabulous!
You also get 2 secondary weapons, Molotov cocktails and sticks of dynamite. You can throw these at people for some pyro-maniacal action. The dynamite is quite amusing though because you can throw it lit, or you can through it unlit. So you can through a stick of it to the ground, lure someone near it and then fire a rifle shot at it – boom!
Lastly, you have a melee weapon – a knife or and axe and you can viscously maim people with it, and blood does spurt forth!
Kill me Billy! I killed my granddaddy when I was your age!
As is standard in modern gaming – and the real world – if you shoot someone in the head then they die, and there is no difference in Gun. In fact if you shoot someone at point blank range in the head with your rifle, their head will most probably explode into tiny fragments – very satisfying! Body shots don’t inflict quite the same damage though and it’s probably best if you pop another couple of slugs in, just in case. The shotgun generally sends people flying through the air which is also pretty satisfying.
But what’s even better than all that is shooting the horse out from under a villain! If you have no horse you are a sitting duck for those on horse back and likely to be riddled with bullets. However, you can even up the odds by killing the horse. Yes, it’s evil and slightly sadistic but it’s great when someone’s galloping up to you and you put a bullet in the horse’s head and watch it collapse under them and leave the rider stranded on foot – then the honors are even.
The opposite is also true, and if your horse is shot from beneath you, you’d better hope and pray that you have some quick draw juice left or you’ll find yourself dead very quickly.
Ride ‘em cowboy!
Your horse is very useful, though ultimately expendable, because you can pick up any old nag and ride off on it, and there are plenty of horses to go around. You don’t actually have your own horse, any horse is yours for the taking. They’re rather well animated too. You can canter about the lands if you so wish or you can dig your heels in and gallop across the plains. You can ride your horse too hard though, and if you dig your heels in too many times, you will kill the poor beast. Many are the times I galloped into town and stylishly slid of my horse as it fell to the floor dead. (Which subsequently lead to some of the mini-mission cut-scenes having a dead horse in the background – very amusing!)
It’s always unfortunate to lose your horse in the wilderness and leaves you a long walk back to town. Luckily there are some wild horses you can find and you can ride them bare back, so all is not completely lost. But in general, your horse is your friend and a much needed companion if you don’t want to spend your life walking everywhere.
You can also fire your guns from the back of your horse and also use the horse itself to kill things with a special skid attack. Basically you cause the horse to skid so it lifts up its front feet and mashes whatever is in front of them. It’s quite useful for rushing into a gang or varmints and killing a few before whipping out your pistol. It’s also quite useful for senselessly maiming buffalo!
