Gun Review

Switching your weapons is done with left on the D-Pad, and you can set two different ones at once. Your revolvers are default so that can never be changed, but either of your shotguns, rifles, snipers or bows can be set on the other half. This is done by holding left on the pad and using the C Stick to choose which one you want. Reloading is done with right on the D-Pad, and revolvers can be infinitely reloaded. The rest of your weapons need ammo that can be found in various places throughout the world. Zooming is another important feature in shooting your weapons, and that is done with down on the pad. This is the other way to go into first person perspective, but it can only be done with your rifles. It seems natural to be that way though, as you would never really use any kind of scoped view on a shotgun. When in zoomed view, the usual targeting reticule is there, and you fire as you would normally.

There is another feature to playing the game, but it’s also the least interesting. This is your melee attacks and scalping. You eventually have access to bladed weapons to do this with. It’s all done using A, as Colton simply takes unexciting swipes at whatever your enemy may be. Let’s face it, the game is called Gun for a reason. You use guns, not petty sharp weapons. Some missions in the game do force you to use melee attacks, and you will quickly want to return to shooting afterwards. Scalping is also an available option during play after you take down your enemies. We’ll spare the gross details and simply end this with the fact that it’s a pointless thing to do because you get nothing out of it. Well, you hear screams for bloody murder or help in any form, but that’s just about it.

With your weapons and environments you experience a very authentic Old West, but what about the other stuff? Well, this is happens to be the music and audio. Like stated before, if you’ve ever seen any kind of western themed tv show or movie, you are bound to understand the dramatic and sometimes somber music. However, it’s not even the music that drives the concept of the Old West the most in the game here. It’s all the gun sounds and voice work. This was all excellently done, and Neversoft gets major props for it. Underneath a seemingly harmless era you have the sounds of guns blazing, dynamite exploding, blood shedding, victims screaming, horse hooves galloping and boot spurs jiggling.

These sounds are truly excellent and do a superb job emulating what the Old West may have really sounded like. Then we have the incredible voice acting. We learned before the release of the game that Neversoft was recruiting some top name acting talent to lend their voices to the characters. Thankfully this time around that money went to good use as the characters of Gun may be the liveliest on the GameCube. Now once again, be forewarned, this game is not for the children and this is a big reason why. The numerous characters of the Gun world spare no moment in dropping a curse word in almost every sentence they say. Surprisingly the ‘f word’ is never actually spoken, but everything else pretty much is. Sometimes it can seem a little overkill, but this was the Old West, and people probably did speak that way more often than not. So with the likes of Colton, Jenny and all the in-game villains, you hear true emotion and expression.

Gun also functions on a very easy-to-understand progression style. You have your main story, which sadly isn’t even more than ten missions long. This would be what puts off anyone from this game, as something just seems missing, even if it all makes sense at the end. To make matters worse, the many side missions Gun has to offer way overshadow what you do in the main missions. There are so many of them, and they are generally very enjoyable to go through. These are comprised of anything from the simple helping of the local sheriff in keeping the peace to running jobs for the Pony Express. You also have a chance at participating in six different Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments, so if you’re a fan of that card game, there’s additional fun to be had. Doing these missions is what nets you the money you need to buy what you can in the game as well. You get anything from $5 to $50 depending on what you’re doing. It’s rather odd though, because there are 44 total stashes of gold to mine in the world, and each only reward you with $10 each time. Wasn’t gold supposed to worth a bit more than that? Nevertheless, this cash will allow you to buy anything from weapon power upgrades to how many bullets in one sitting you can use. It is disappointing to only have a story last for about six or so hours, but if you take it upon yourself to do everything else available, you can easily double that length or more.

Gun was without a doubt a truly ambitious game concept from Neversoft Entertainment. To having only previously done skateboarding games to moving onto a game depicting the Old West takes some guts and finesse. Thankfully they played their cards just right enough so we got something that shooter fans could really enjoy. Yes the campaign itself is a little too short and some of the side missions might seem convoluted, but the overall experience may really make you think, “Wow, that was something different, and fun.” The risk was definitely there, but Neversoft capitalized on it, giving us a game really offering a feel of what the Old West was really like. The characters have vibrant personalities and the entire atmosphere is helped by that. It may not be entirely difficult to achieve 100% completion in the game, but in the end, you should end up satisfied.