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Posted on July 24th, 2005 - 3572 Reads

Rated Mature Gun GameCube Preview

-- Written by Justin Joseph



 For those of you out there that are fans of Neversoft's work, be prepared for a little stray of the norm! For six straight years, they've done nothing but bring fans of Tony Hawk games that many have come to know and love. Whether it's the hardcore aspects of the sport, the cool licensed music that comes with it or the sheer entertainment of pulling off acrobatic maneuvers you wouldn't normally be able to in real life, Tony Hawk has been an extremely popular franchise. It's also in part that Tony Hawk himself is avidly involved in the development the games that bear his name, doing everything possible to ensure final quality.

But this time around, Neversoft has chosen to try something new! This time around they are going at it with full force, guns blazing in the once extremely dangerous Wild West!

Gun is obviously a western-based shooter that will take on the first and third-person perspectives. It is meant to be a very gory and gruesome take, capturing the crazy nature of the American Wild West in the late 19th century.

The story of Gun follows a mountain man that goes by the name Colton White. He lives in Montana, close to the headwaters of Missouri. He eventually accompanies his father, Ned White, to a steamboat so he can meet a friend of his. But something horrible happens in the process, causing a mayhem to ensue. Onboard this boat, a nasty fight breaks out and a preacher ends up killing your father's friend. Your father then gives you a mysterious medallion, and before the boat ends up exploding, he tosses you overboard saying, "I'm not your father." Wow, what a way to start what may have been a simple and clichéd storyline!

After that mind numbing event, you take your newly acquired medallion and head to Dodge City. Here you meet up with a prostitute by the name of Jenny and pretty much right then and there a massive gunfight occurs! In the fight seen in a demo, Colton executes a variety of maneuvers to protect himself and give himself an advantage against his enemies. Whether it's using cover, peeking, rolling out, shooting, getting into a groove using Quick Draw mode, or even hurling sticks of dynamite, he has a wide variety of tactics at his disposal!

Then you will witness a man-on-man fight that Colton himself starts which eventually turns into a massive upstairs and downstairs bar brawl! It involves around 30 or so people, with punching, shooting and people knocking people left and right! Tables will break, glass will shatter, people will fly across the tavern and it all comes complimented with a gruesome display of physical violence!

Now like you've probably guessed from all the talk of this "Wild West" lifestyle, Neversoft did indeed not shy away from making this game a violent one. This is actually accentuated by the very physics system that Neversoft created just for this game!

So for those of you violence junkies out there, Gun should not disappoint you whatsoever! You will see just how it might look to blow an adversary 5-10 feet off his horse with the use of a well placed shotgun blast. You can choose to be truly sadistic and nail a guy's neck with an arrow.....but with a stick of dynamite attached. You can even wield a tomahawk for close encounter combat, and while butchering your enemy to death, you can scalp him!

To bring the level of violence in this game even higher, you even have the option of collecting scalps just to prove you're not a force to be messed with! Did I mention this game was violent?

Next, unlike Red Dead Revolver, the only other likeable western-based shooter, Gun happens to be a completely free-roaming and open-ended affair! This virtually means that once you get Colton to town, you are free to do whatever you wish. There will be plenty of story-based missions to send Colton through, but it appears that all the ones "on the side" will end up being the most grabbing. These side missions will allow you to build up character points for Colton, which may include upgrades for your horse, gun handling, melee and various other aspects of his battle tactics.

So just what can you do in these side missions? Well they are actually quite diverse. You will end up clearing out opium dens, hunting wild animals, helping a sheriff find a stagecoach, panhandling for gold, defending horses from rustlers, setting up ambushes, gambling or even riding a train or canoe to develop certain skills! Did I mention side missions were diverse? The beauty of these side missions is you have the option of engaging them at any time that you please. You can choose to pursue the storyline first, or you can go after these if your heart so desires. The choice is all yours.

Gun seems to do a lot of things right when it comes to the overall adventure experience. It is indeed a third-person shooter while you're on foot or horseback, but switches to first-person perspective once you enter Quick Draw mode. Oh wait, Quick Draw, that was mentioned before wasn't it? Just what the heck is it you ask? Well it's rather simple really. If you take down enough enemies, execute enough headshots and build up a special meter, you are given the option of unleashing this deadly battle tactic! Quick Draw mode slows down time, enabling you to get a faster draw on an enemy or group of enemies.

Neversoft is actually still playing with how long this mode will last for your advantage, but right now they're toying with how you can keep the mode going as long as you continue stringing various combos together. With those combos, comes cruelty :) You can actually shoot the guns out of your enemies' hands, then shoot those guns across the screen! But why stop there? To make things more entertaining for yourself as well as any that might be watching around you, how about making your enemies do a little "dance?" Why not also try to be a little fancy with your trigger? Show off your skills by tagging people both infront and behind you just by flicking the analog stick!

While you're on horseback, Quick Draw supposedly works even better. A real time demo that was seen shows Colton using pinpoint accuracy to take down a group of enemies on horseback. Meaning they got hit, then they fell! Your horse will actually also have abilities of its own, which includes a "charging run" and the ability to stomp your enemies into the earth with its hooves!

So just what kinds of weapons can you use to accomplish everything that's been talked about here so far? Well, this game certainly isn't without what should make the shooting junkies happy either! .44 hand pistols for the standard gun combat. Rifles, shotguns, and tomahawks are commonly attainable. You can actually dual-wield handguns, use prebuilt gun turrets or cannons and once again, throw dynamite! There are also plenty of diverse areas for you to explore! Whether it's mines or forests, to canyons and dried out riverbeds, Gun will take you everywhere in the Wild West! You can choose to get to these places on foot, horseback, stagecoach, train or canoe!

Unfortunately this game will be without a multiplayer aspect. But Neversoft is actually doing that on purpose. With not even knowing how this game will do, they are already planning on how they can implement that into the next iteration of this newly born franchise! Gun is simply meant to lay down the foundation for future games, so let's hope that it turns out that way! But to make up for this, Neversoft is pushing every system iteration to its processing limits! Whether that means smooth, crisp character models and textures or very fluid movement with everything in your environment, they are making sure it looks AND plays beautifully!

So for those of you who were interested and enjoy Red Dead Revolver, or for those of you who've desired a western-themed game for quite some time, Gun heads to store shelves this November!

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