News

• Reviewed on: Xbox 360, viewed through a component connection at 720p on a Panasonic TH-42PX50U 42-inch Plasma Viera HDTV
• Also available for: PlayStation2, GameCube, Xbox, Windows PC
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• The Good: Great horse-riding and shooting controls; sandbox-style design lets you decide what to do and when to do it; some of the best voice talent I've heard in a game.
  
  
• The Bad: Sticking to just the story missions will result in a very short game; the explorable world is small compared to similarly designed games; the graphics are inferior to every other Xbox 360 game I've played.
• The Verdict: It's short and not particularly spectacular in appearance, but it's also one of the most entertaining, authentic, and open-ended western games around.
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REVIEW:

Members of the media have been affectionately referring to Activision and Neversoft's new Western-themed Gun as "Grand Theft Horse" for some time, and with good reason. Not only does it share the Grand Theft Auto franchise's sandbox style of game play that allows players to do pretty much whatever they want whenever they want, it also has several decidedly mature themes.

We take on the role of Colton White, a skilled marksman and hunter following in the footsteps of his father. When his dad is killed in a vicious attack on a steamboat led by a crazed preacher, Colton is forced to leave his simple life in the wilderness in order to follow his pa's dying request that he find a woman in Dodge City who is in possession of important information.

The cast of movie caliber stars — including Kris Kristofferson as Colton's dad, Lance Henrickson as an evil cattle baron, and Brad Dourif as the preacher — is terrific and goes a long way towards legitimizing the story. It helps that the cast is reading lines written by Hollywood writer Randall Jahnson, who penned The Mask of Zorro and The Doors.

The first few missions are designed to get players acquainted with the controls for shooting and horseback riding. These two activities compose the vast majority of the game, and both are a pleasure to engage in.

Players simply tap the B button to draw Colton's weapon (it could be a pistol, a rifle, or even a bow), use the control stick to hone in on a target, and pull the right trigger to take a shot. In more desperate situations, players can press the right bumper to enter quickdraw mode, which slows down time and seamlessly transitions us from a third-person view to a first-person perspective, providing enhanced accuracy that allows us to take down several enemies in a split second.

The slow motion effect also serves another purpose: it provides players with an opportunity to better examine the visual results of their handiwork. You'll see horses you've shot buckle and throw their riders over their heads; lengthy blood trails extending from your foes' bullet wounds, and even skulls blown open.

Needless to say, Gun isn't meant for kids.

We can steal pretty much any horse in the game at the tap of a button without anyone kicking up too much of a fuss. Once mounted, the act of shooting remains virtually unchanged. Movement on horse is much the same as movement on foot, except that horses can't strafe and we have the option of galloping (which quickly wears down our horse) by repeatedly pressing the left bumper.

Neversoft has done a bang up job on the game's equestrian animations. Several games in the last year have strived to give players a chance to hone their virtual riding skills, including Darkwatch and Red Dead Revolver, but none — save perhaps Shadow of the Colossus — have delivered such realistic results. I loved watching Colton pull on the reins to make his horse's head move in the direction he wants to go, then digging his spurs into the animal to get it to hunker down and start galloping at a faster clip.

Once you've learned the ropes of riding and gunslinging, Gun really starts to take off. Colton meets several interesting stereotypical western characters and indulges in a variety of missions befitting the western setting.

He'll hook up and have intimate relations with a spitfire prostitute clad in red and black lace (or, in more intimate moments, wearing nothing at all), join forces with the local lawmen to keep the peace, wrangle cattle for a farmer just outside of town, befriend a couple of minor hooligans to break out of jail, mine gold, and fight and eventually make a truce with the Blackfoot tribe.

Most of these activities are optional. They have to be found, and once you find them you can opt out if you think there is more fun to be had elsewhere in the game. However, players who choose to complete these side missions will be rewarded with cold, hard cash. Colton uses his money to improve his weapons, his stamina, and horses' abilities.

Unfortunately, a lot of the side missions start to feel repetitive fairly quickly. For example, few of the game's 20 or so bounty missions distinguish themselves from the rest other than specifying whether the bounty must be brought back dead or alive.

The most appealing aspect of the side missions is that they stretch out the game. Completing the story quests alone won't take most players more than six or seven hours, but finding and finishing all of the side missions may double or even triple the amount of time players can spend with Gun.

Another letdown is the size of the world. Consisting of two very small towns (one is just a main street), a fort, and an expanse of desert and canyons dotted with a few structures, players can gallop from one end of the world map to the other in just a few minutes. Compared to the environments we've seen in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Gun's world seems small and unpopulated.

And the environments don't have anything close to the kind of visual sparkle seen in other Xbox 360 games. Not only should the Xbox 360 have allowed the developers to create a larger continuous world, it should also have provided Neversoft the opportunity to add details and textures to objects and characters. Alas, it would seem Gun was built for a less powerful console (likely PlayStation2) and then ported to Xbox 360, the only significant distinguishing factor between the two being a slightly inflated price tag for the Xbox 360 version.

It's one of the most accessible and instantly entertaining games available for Microsoft's new console, but in light of the fact that the developers didn't enhance the graphics for the Xbox 360 version, you might as well save a few bucks and pick it up for a different platform. Or, better yet, wait until you have a free weekend and simply rent it and finish it in a day or two.