GUN - Review
Added November 29th, 2005 by Serenity Now
Introduction:
The launch of a new system sometimes means getting games that were ported just for the heck of it. GUN for the original Xbox was a new franchise developed by Neversoft -- you know, the guys behind the Tony Hawk series. It was a game that had some unique elements, but its single-player campaign was just way too short to validate a purchase. GUN for the Xbox 360 is that same game you knew and loved for five hours, except now you are presented with some improved graphics and refined controls. Find out in our review if it’s worth the extra ten bucks.
Gameplay:
In GUN, you take on the role of Colton White, a western chap that’s a slinger of guns. The date is 1880, a time when greed and lust held the hearts of men captive. Ned, who Colton assumes is his father, is a risqué fellow. He earns his living by hunting wild animals and associating himself with some peculiar ‘’under the table’’ transactions. Nevertheless, he sets a good example for Colton, raising him to be a strict and stern man. During an ordinary day, you and Ned will make your way to a steamboat that’s home to some precious, and to put things vaguely and not give anything away, ‘’material.’’ The story makes you believe there was some kind of ‘’drop off’’ of some kind to a prostitute, and only she knows where this material is hidden. The narrative is a mature one, no question about it, but it’s a darn good one as well.
The launch of a new system sometimes means getting games that were ported just for the heck of it. GUN for the original Xbox was a new franchise developed by Neversoft -- you know, the guys behind the Tony Hawk series. It was a game that had some unique elements, but its single-player campaign was just way too short to validate a purchase. GUN for the Xbox 360 is that same game you knew and loved for five hours, except now you are presented with some improved graphics and refined controls. Find out in our review if it’s worth the extra ten bucks.
Gameplay:
In GUN, you take on the role of Colton White, a western chap that’s a slinger of guns. The date is 1880, a time when greed and lust held the hearts of men captive. Ned, who Colton assumes is his father, is a risqué fellow. He earns his living by hunting wild animals and associating himself with some peculiar ‘’under the table’’ transactions. Nevertheless, he sets a good example for Colton, raising him to be a strict and stern man. During an ordinary day, you and Ned will make your way to a steamboat that’s home to some precious, and to put things vaguely and not give anything away, ‘’material.’’ The story makes you believe there was some kind of ‘’drop off’’ of some kind to a prostitute, and only she knows where this material is hidden. The narrative is a mature one, no question about it, but it’s a darn good one as well.
The objectives present in GUN are rather fascinating. There are several side missions sprinkled throughout the environments in addition to the main quests you’ll have to complete. Here’s where things begin to get interesting. In order to have a fighting chance in the main ordeals, you’ll need to build up your stats via these amusing side missions prior to attempting to tackle them. This is a very nice attribute, and it adds some much needed depth to GUN’s gameplay. However, it’s dreadfully easy to max out your stats early on. Plus, there aren’t nearly enough side missions. When compared to a game like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which GUN tries to copy in every possible way, GUN’s quests begin to feel rather futile. They’re neither unique nor innovative.
By completing these side quests, you will be able to enhance your gunhand, quickdraw, melee, horse, and health. Improving your gunhand skills will enable you to reload quicker, as well as making your bullets more effective. Improving quickdraw, which is a feature you can enter by pressing RB, will give your bullets that extra ‘’oomph’’ they need to get the job done as well as giving your shot a greater distance in which you’ll be able to shoot an opponent. This is something that needs to be increased early on since without doing so you won’t be able to shoot your enemies from more than ten yards away. Strengthening your melee attributes will allow you to slice and dice enemies more proficiently. And just like cars in racing games, horses need care. You’ll be able to improve your horse’s speed, and how many slaps it can take before throwing in the towel. The last attribute, health, really doesn’t need any explanation -- magnify it and you’ll survive longer. And, incase you were wondering, some of the strange horse physics in attendance in the Xbox version, such as how your horse would slide bizarrely, have been ironed out for the Xbox 360 adaptation.
GUN brazenly combines gameplay elements from titles such as Darkwatch and Advent Rising into its recipe. It has Darkwatch’s thesis and ambiance and boasts Advent Rising’s targeting system with its quickdraw feature (‘’flick’’ targeting, anyone?). Flick targeting was a problem with Advent Rising, but it’s thankfully much better executed here. GUN certainly has a great deal going for it, but it doesn’t feel as if it’s its own game, rather an uninspiring offshoot of other trendy household names. However, that’s what GUN appears like on the outside. Inside you have a game with a compelling, original premise, and some extremely electrifying implemented facets.
All of this is just fine and dandy, but one thing the Xbox version was missing was multiplayer, and, sadly, the Xbox 360 version is missing this important aspect as well. GUN feels as if it would have made a superb multiplayer fixture, both online and off. The only ‘’online’’ features of GUN are its achievements gimmick that every Xbox 360 game supports. You’d think with a name like ‘’GUN’’ Neversoft would have run to the bank with the idea and enclosed some sort of cheap multiplayer. Simply put, it’s inexcusable that they didn’t at least employ a Deathmatch or Capture the Flag mode. What makes this even more a shame is that the possibilities are endless for this game’s multiplayer modes due to the foundation set by its unique campaign. How about a mini-game where you could race horses online? What about a little game where you could boost your single-player attributes by playing some type of ‘’shoot the most bottles down’’ game? Or better yet, how about some good old co-op? One can only dream. In return, GUN has a fantastic single-player experience, but it deeply suffers as a whole because of the nonexistence of any sort of multiplayer whatsoever. Not to mention it’s fundamentally the exact same game as its Xbox counterpart. For shame.
Graphics:
For an Xbox 360 game, this game looks terrible, especially in certain areas such as its textures. I thought I was playing the Xbox version, no joke. The character motions look stiff, and there’s a noticeable amount of pop-in. The animations have barely progressed making the game not seem next-gen at all. That’s not to say the visuals were left untouched. No sir, the particle effects look spectacular and the character models look vastly more polished.
By completing these side quests, you will be able to enhance your gunhand, quickdraw, melee, horse, and health. Improving your gunhand skills will enable you to reload quicker, as well as making your bullets more effective. Improving quickdraw, which is a feature you can enter by pressing RB, will give your bullets that extra ‘’oomph’’ they need to get the job done as well as giving your shot a greater distance in which you’ll be able to shoot an opponent. This is something that needs to be increased early on since without doing so you won’t be able to shoot your enemies from more than ten yards away. Strengthening your melee attributes will allow you to slice and dice enemies more proficiently. And just like cars in racing games, horses need care. You’ll be able to improve your horse’s speed, and how many slaps it can take before throwing in the towel. The last attribute, health, really doesn’t need any explanation -- magnify it and you’ll survive longer. And, incase you were wondering, some of the strange horse physics in attendance in the Xbox version, such as how your horse would slide bizarrely, have been ironed out for the Xbox 360 adaptation.
GUN brazenly combines gameplay elements from titles such as Darkwatch and Advent Rising into its recipe. It has Darkwatch’s thesis and ambiance and boasts Advent Rising’s targeting system with its quickdraw feature (‘’flick’’ targeting, anyone?). Flick targeting was a problem with Advent Rising, but it’s thankfully much better executed here. GUN certainly has a great deal going for it, but it doesn’t feel as if it’s its own game, rather an uninspiring offshoot of other trendy household names. However, that’s what GUN appears like on the outside. Inside you have a game with a compelling, original premise, and some extremely electrifying implemented facets.
All of this is just fine and dandy, but one thing the Xbox version was missing was multiplayer, and, sadly, the Xbox 360 version is missing this important aspect as well. GUN feels as if it would have made a superb multiplayer fixture, both online and off. The only ‘’online’’ features of GUN are its achievements gimmick that every Xbox 360 game supports. You’d think with a name like ‘’GUN’’ Neversoft would have run to the bank with the idea and enclosed some sort of cheap multiplayer. Simply put, it’s inexcusable that they didn’t at least employ a Deathmatch or Capture the Flag mode. What makes this even more a shame is that the possibilities are endless for this game’s multiplayer modes due to the foundation set by its unique campaign. How about a mini-game where you could race horses online? What about a little game where you could boost your single-player attributes by playing some type of ‘’shoot the most bottles down’’ game? Or better yet, how about some good old co-op? One can only dream. In return, GUN has a fantastic single-player experience, but it deeply suffers as a whole because of the nonexistence of any sort of multiplayer whatsoever. Not to mention it’s fundamentally the exact same game as its Xbox counterpart. For shame.
Graphics:
For an Xbox 360 game, this game looks terrible, especially in certain areas such as its textures. I thought I was playing the Xbox version, no joke. The character motions look stiff, and there’s a noticeable amount of pop-in. The animations have barely progressed making the game not seem next-gen at all. That’s not to say the visuals were left untouched. No sir, the particle effects look spectacular and the character models look vastly more polished.
GUN still has its unsurpassed atmosphere. I also have to give GUN credit for the expanse of its levels. Like I stated about the Xbox version’s areas, they’re absolutely mammoth. Its western theme is captured in its entirety using sultry visuals combined with a great sense of intensity in the many battles you will participate in. Still, I was dissatisfied with the graphics on the whole. Style and atmosphere are nice, but we’re in the next generation of video games, and to play with the big boys, you need more than just pizzazz to have a good-looking title.
Audio:
If you have young adolescents in the house, you may want to ask them to leave the room or put headphones on while you’re playing this game. GUN contains some awfully distasteful language. On the flipside, it’s actually done quite well. The acting cast is of superlative quality. Activision got one fine crew, and they deserve props for that. Another attractive mark in GUN’s audio that wasn’t relevant in the Xbox version is its custom soundtracks feature. True, every Xbox 360 has this, but it’s games like GUN that require it the most. Not because the music is bad, but because now it even feels more like a Grand Theft Auto title. Though they couldn’t quite nail the free-roaming gameplay of GTA, they at least the got the audio aspect of it.
Controls:
The control problems found in the Xbox version, for the most part, have been fixed and it’s all thanks to the newly designed controller. Remember those Black and White buttons? Well, they’re gone. Now you have LB and RB. This is utterly vital to GUN’s controls because now you can enter quickdraw mode and still have the same finger on the fire button. This pretty much clears up everything allowing you to carry out maneuvers less stressfully. Overall, the controls are perceptive and well thought-out by the developers making for a near-seamless third-person experience.
Replay:
The replay value in this version is identical in every possible characteristic to the Xbox version, which is a shame seeing as how the Xbox version’s was abysmal. The missions are short and to the point, and there is no multiplayer whatsoever. GUN for the Xbox wasn’t worth fifty, and raising the price ten dollars just makes matters worst. Unless you have money to burn on an approximately seven hour game, this game is a rental at the very most.
Audio:
If you have young adolescents in the house, you may want to ask them to leave the room or put headphones on while you’re playing this game. GUN contains some awfully distasteful language. On the flipside, it’s actually done quite well. The acting cast is of superlative quality. Activision got one fine crew, and they deserve props for that. Another attractive mark in GUN’s audio that wasn’t relevant in the Xbox version is its custom soundtracks feature. True, every Xbox 360 has this, but it’s games like GUN that require it the most. Not because the music is bad, but because now it even feels more like a Grand Theft Auto title. Though they couldn’t quite nail the free-roaming gameplay of GTA, they at least the got the audio aspect of it.
Controls:
The control problems found in the Xbox version, for the most part, have been fixed and it’s all thanks to the newly designed controller. Remember those Black and White buttons? Well, they’re gone. Now you have LB and RB. This is utterly vital to GUN’s controls because now you can enter quickdraw mode and still have the same finger on the fire button. This pretty much clears up everything allowing you to carry out maneuvers less stressfully. Overall, the controls are perceptive and well thought-out by the developers making for a near-seamless third-person experience.
Replay:
The replay value in this version is identical in every possible characteristic to the Xbox version, which is a shame seeing as how the Xbox version’s was abysmal. The missions are short and to the point, and there is no multiplayer whatsoever. GUN for the Xbox wasn’t worth fifty, and raising the price ten dollars just makes matters worst. Unless you have money to burn on an approximately seven hour game, this game is a rental at the very most.
Summary:
For $59.99, you get a petite, yet entertaining single-player campaign, decent production values, and a great deal of western style. Neversoft delivered a fun title, but why they didn’t incorporate multiplayer blows my mind. If you own, or rented GUN on the Xbox, there is no reason to look twice at this installment. The only thing it adds is custom soundtracks (which every Xbox 360 game has anyway) and slightly improved visuals. In a nutshell, that’s not nearly enough to justify a purchase. GUN is a must-rent because of its enjoyable campaign, but I’m afraid that’s all, due to its major deficiency in replay value.
For $59.99, you get a petite, yet entertaining single-player campaign, decent production values, and a great deal of western style. Neversoft delivered a fun title, but why they didn’t incorporate multiplayer blows my mind. If you own, or rented GUN on the Xbox, there is no reason to look twice at this installment. The only thing it adds is custom soundtracks (which every Xbox 360 game has anyway) and slightly improved visuals. In a nutshell, that’s not nearly enough to justify a purchase. GUN is a must-rent because of its enjoyable campaign, but I’m afraid that’s all, due to its major deficiency in replay value.
