Review: Gun (Xbox 360)

Platform: Xbox 360 (also on: Xbox, PS2, GC, and PSP)
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Neversoft Entertainment
Release: November 2005

Sure, unexceptional visuals and the brief main-story won’t blow you away, but the well-done missions, impressive voice-acting and incredibly enjoyable game play make it worth a weekend play-through, especially for its new bargain price

When Gun was initially released at the Xbox 360 launch, it received both positive and negative reception, both honestly warranted. Praised for its fantastic story and fun game play but put down for being a lazy straight from last generation to 360 port and for being an incredibly brief play-through., Gun is still worthy of your time. However, it never quite reaches the level of potential that could have made it an amazing experience.

Set in the 1880’s Wild West, you play as Colton White, a gunslinger who sticks close to his father, Ned. After building an emotional bond with his pop and hunting with him for years, you soon learn in the story that Ned is not really White’s father. You will continue following the story and meeting many new characters. However, even though the characters found in this game are great, you probably won’t even remember most of their names after finishing this game. Unlike action games like Metal Gear Solid where the characters are memorable, Gun instead focuses on moving along the story instead of fully fleshing out the characters in this game, so don’t expect to really grow attached to any of them here.

And that brings us to Gun’s chief flaw: It speeds along way too quickly. While you’ll enjoy every minute of the story and the game play is supremely enjoyable, had the developers polished and lengthened up the story a bit it would have definitely benefited this title in the long run. You can tell Gun was a wee-bit rushed to make it out for the holiday season, and if you’re an experienced game player you’ll probably only clock in a mere seven hours for the main story mode. Fortunately, there’s an open-world to experience as well, and by completing side missions (such as hunting down wanted fugitives) you’ll upgrade your stats.

Even though Gun is a brief experience, there were many moments where I felt incredibly immersed into the game. The missions are well-planned and the game as a whole is incredibly well-done. You’ll stay glued to your controller from the beginning of the title until the credits roll. Then again, it won’t take that long to do so…

Unfortunately, Gun was obviously not developed with the Xbox 360’s power in mind. The visuals, while not abysmal, are just slightly touched up from the last-gen versions. When running this game on an HD-TV the visual flaws stick out greatly, and it seems like an HD-TV will only give this title a slight “shine” and not a large upgrade like most 360 titles. The achievements are not particularly well-thought out, either, as you’ll earn the vast majority of achievements by simply plodding through the title. However, the sound is fantastic and the voice acting is top-notch.

While Gun is definitely a flawed title (more so on the Xbox 360 due to its hardware strengths and higher expectations over last-gen consoles), the good definitely outweighs the bad. Sure, unexceptional visuals and the brief main-story won’t blow you away, but the well-done missions, impressive voice-acting and incredibly enjoyable game play make it worth a weekend play-through, especially for its new bargain price. After all, it’s not often that the Wild West gets justice in the video game world, and when it’s as spectacular as Gun you oughta really give it a try.

Rating: 8.6 (out of 10).