Gun
How does Neversoft’s Western action game stack up on the Xbox 360?
Tags: Gun Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Dec 29th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gun (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Neversoft gained notoriety as “the house that Tony Hawk built” but that would be a mistake. There were other games before that the developer had worked on, such as converting the original MDK to the PlayStation, as well as the first of Activision’s Spider-Man titles. GUN is being seen by many as a “break” for Neversoft from the Tony Hawk games, but in reality, it is just another game – an ambitious one at that.
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The evocation of the “Wild West” can be a tricky one, as there are plenty of preconceived notions out there up for a variety of interpretations. From the landmark John Ford films many of which starred John Wayne where it was always clear who the bad guys were gritty films of Clint Eastwood to the feelgood television programs that starred Robert Conrad and James Garner (Wild Wild West and Maverick, respectively) the western genre is riddled with many ways to look at the past (just look at how many WWII games there are).
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What Neversoft does is attempt, and largely succeed, in finding a middle ground for the many differing notions of what the “Wild West” is. There are wide sweeping plains, dusty towns, brothels, restless Indians, handlebar mustaches, and more. The overall story takes place around an area that looks suspiciously like what would eventually become Yellowstone National Park. Colton, the main character, is out to avenge the death of the man that he thought was his father. A solid premise, no matter the setting.
I’ll say this, as it has a large part to do with the presentation – the voice acting is outstanding. Thomas Jane turns in a great performance at Colton, which only serves as the lead in a cast that doesn’t have one real weak link. The rest of the audio is also well done, with plenty of detailed sound effects that enhance the immersion.
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What does detract, however, at times, is the visuals. GUN looks good, but not like a game that belongs on the Xbox, or even the Xbox 360. Granted, we don’t have one of the new high definition televisions that cost a couple of thousand dollars, but then I’m suspecting that most of you don’t either. Regardless, there isn’t much difference in the visuals from the Xbox and Xbox 360 versions. For an extra $10 I want to have something to show for it.
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It would have been nice had the game been given more time to actually spiffy up the graphics. There are plenty of nice effects (fire, for example, is well done) but in general the character models are not as detailed and sharp as in other games that Activision has released for the Xbox and the environments are fairly standard. These aren’t bad things, but this is clearly an area of the game that suffered from being rushed out for the holiday season.
Story, audio, and graphics are only part of what makes up a game. There is the gameplay, and in GUN there is quite a bit of it. One would (naturally) assume that there be quite a lot of gunplay in a videogame with a weapon in the title. While it is a safe assumption, it isn’t wholly correct. Along with the expansive geographic area comes a lot of travel. With travel comes a number of opportunities.
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There are a number of characters that will have things for Colton to do (run errands, bring in criminals, etc.) that will extend the game time and bring up the stats for Colton. The side quests are good and appropriate for the setting, but not only detract from the urgency of the story, but the statistics (gunplay, horse riding, etc.) are somewhat pointless. It is possible to go through the game without performing any of the sidequests, but then the game gets rather short – less than 10 hours. Again, for the extra $10 for the Xbox 360 version, it seems that it’s just too much.
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One area where the Xbox 360 version shines over the Xbox version is in the controls. With the new configuration of the Xbox 360 controller, the button mapping is more similar to the PS2, a platform Neversoft has shown preference for over the years with its Tony Hawk games. Using the Xbox 360 controller can be unwieldy at times due to the number of commands that are in the game. This is only made worse by the layout of the Xbox controller.
The first couple of levels in the game are supposed to act as a tutorial, but don’t do a good job of familiarizing the player with the controls. The basics are there (shooting, using the quickdraw which slows down time momentarily) but takes longer than it should to introduce commands such as crouching.
GUN is a game that has more potential than what is offered. Something seems wrong about the game, as if stuff had been cut out in order to make it to the holiday buying season. It’s not a bad game, but one that will leave the player (especially on the Xbox 360) disappointed.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Story + Voice Acting + Gameplay variety |
6.9 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Short - For an extra $10 you get nothing - Graphically not up to speed - Controls are not streamlined |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Do not buy the Xbox 360 version. | |
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Tags: Gun
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Dec 29th, 2005 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
