Review : Gun

I wish I was a wild west hero. Let's face it, who doesn't? That's what makes the old west such a perfect setting for a freeform RPG, and the fact that one wasn't made years ago remains something of a mystery to us all. Gun is really the first game to dip its toe into this genre, and hopefully there will be more to follow. At least a sequel is on the way.

You take on the role of freelance hunter Carlton Cole, who makes a living hunting game with his father Ned out in the wilderness. When Ned gets done in on a somewhat ill-fated steamboat ride, Cole swears revenge against a nefarious preacher who he deems responsible. It turns out it's all part of a grander scheme, and Cole gets led down a path he didn't quite expect, with a religious artifact, a search for an ancient city of gold and all manner of other wonderous encounters thrown into the mix.

The story itself is very linear, and there's really only one way you can complete it. You do, however, get to ride your horsey around the map as you please, killing bandits and completing a few limited sidequests in the process. The game map isn't huge, but it's quite well put together and the graphics make it all a very pleasant experience.

Gun is a truly open-world game, though not as immersive or detailed as the likes of Oblivion. Once you've completed the main story (which shouldn't take all that long), there's really not much else to do ... you can hunt down a few outlaws, dig up some gold, and do various other slightly repetitive sub-missions, but it feels very much as though these were added simply as an afterthought. Creating a freeform open world for you to explore was clearly not central to the concept of this game.

Having said that, it is a lot of fun while it lasts. It proves what I suspected all along, that the old west would be a fantastic setting for a huge open world game. Maybe the upcoming sequel will expand on this and deliver the game I was initially hoping for, but as of yet its all being kept very much under wraps.

There's not much wrong with the gameplay here, although it does come across as a bit cartoony at times and lacks the gritty realism of Deadwood or The Assassination of Jesse James ... the time of the fanciful daytime cowboy adventure show is long gone, and this just isn't how people see the old west any more. Ideally, the western computer game of today would be a little less John Wayne and a little more Ian McShane. For instance, if Rockstar had undertaken this project, it would have been a lot more fun.

It's also odd that in terms of combat and such, a fantasy game like Oblivion turns out to be more realistic than Gun, which is supposed to be in a historical setting. In the early stages of Oblivion you have no end of trouble dispatching of a single highway robber, whereas in Gun you can hold of an entire tribe of injuns armed with only your six-shooter. It's bizarre.

Gun probably is the best western game ever made (though lets face it, the only other real contender is Call of Juarez), but by no means is it definitive. There's still a lot of room for a realistic, immersive Oblivion-style open world game set in a larger, grittier expanse of the old west. But until that game comes along, Gun does make for a nice prelude.