Tryzon?s Nostalgic Gaming Trips #30
Gun (PS2, 2005) (Also on GameCube, PC, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360)
Why is it that such a rich setting as the Wild West is so criminally underused in videogames, particularly during the last decade? That?s not to say that hardly any recent games use the theme, since titles like Red Dead Revolver, Dead Man?s Hand and even the more exaggerated Darkwatch are all fine examples of how it can be done well. Still, after that there aren?t too many others, and Lucky Luke might be cheating since it didn?t start as a gaming franchise.
Something else that?s tragically uncommon is games made by Neversoft that aren?t relating to skateboarding or plastic instruments. Not that either of those things are bad, but now that predictably awful motion-sensing versions of Tony Hawk?s have started coming out, it?s hard to deny that the series which made its developer famous is also cursing it to a soulless existence. This is a particular shame considering that the 2000 Spider-Man game for PS1, Dreamcast and numerous others is a quality action-adventurer that holds up somewhat a decade on, even if the Neversoft-free sequel is admittedly better.
Gun is possibly my favourite Neversoft game to date, and yet more evidence that the developer has the know-how to make high quality titles on the rare occasion that they stop spit-polishing Tony Hawk?s shoes. Once again I want to make it clear that I enjoy the original Tony Hawk?s games as much as any other average bloke, but I?m also bright enough to know that, much like Dynasty Warriors, there?s been a baffling lack of evolution over the course of countless games, and unless something is done what hardcore fans are left might move on. I?m getting carried away talking about Neversoft here, but in a minute you?ll see why I want them to consider branching out more, as I demonstrate how compelling the way of the gun can be.
Dances Without Reason chose a bad time to break out his latest groove.
Gun?s opening depicts a man of the cloth being ambushed and slaughtered by Native Americans, and though one?s initial reaction might be to raise an eyebrow, it soon becomes clear that very nearly everyone in the West is a backstabbing traitor, regardless of race, gender or wealth. You play as Cole, a regular guy who spends his days selling pelts for cash with his dear ol? Pa, whose patient tones and general air of a grizzled veteran suggest that he doesn?t live too long. This prediction proves to be accurate when a shifty priest (why always priests?) has the steamboat you?re on destroyed for reasons initially unknown. You survive, but your dad doesn?t, though he at least has time to reveal an Earth-shattering secret and outline your quest before being spectacularly kerploded.
Thus starts a journey for revenge and answers, as you ride across an open-ended world relying on a quick trigger finger and suspicious locals to piece together a plan of action, and a plot to uncover a bottomless fortune. The plot bumps shoulders with cliché here and there, but for the most part what you get is a well-done story with plenty of respect for the cowboy genre?s conventions. And this is nothing like Lucky Luke, oh no; Gun?s world is one of heavy violence, corruption and trickery. Though impossibly cool, it all starts to get a bit surreal before long when nearly every friendly person you meet either turns evil, dies or both, but it?s all awfully intriguing and would be worth putting up with some dodgy gameplay to experience. Fortunately, Gun delivers in that respect as well.
It seems at first that nobody likes you, and the few who do quickly pop their clogs. Just typical.
With a name as pretentious as Gun, you?d expect that firearms of sort variety play a significant part, and you?d be right; I spent 80% of my time using nothing other than my trusty revolver, and its implementation is nothing short of marvellous. It?s a good all-rounder, with some decent stopping power and a fast fire rate. It?s also the only weapon with infinite ammo, so you?re never left defenceless.
Great as the six-shooter is, some situations simply require more bang, and it?s at times like these that your secondary weapons come into the proceedings. The shotgun does what you?d imagine, the rifle is slow-firing but deadly and the sniper is for long-range battling. The bow never becomes particularly helpful until you find the dynamite arrows, at which point it takes on the role of a rocket launcher basically, and that?s fine by me.
The shooting doesn?t rely on a finicky GTA-style auto-aim, but rather something more reminiscent of the free-aim found in most of Pandemic?s games or Saints Row. Though this isn?t the best example of such a mechanic, it works mostly without problem and again reinforces that Rockstar would do well to finally give up and embrace the idea. You can run around while shooting, crouch behind things, take a human hostage or hop pointlessly, but what the game could really use is a dive move like the one found in Max Payne. Not for slow-motion, but merely to provide a means of dodging fire. The lack of this ability means that running in circles is the only option when the scenery is inadequate for hiding behind, and as such things don?t flow quite as smoothly as something like The Punisher. Wow, that makes?four different game series mentioned in one paragraph, and several more if you count the best Pandemic games. Regardless, Gun does feel like its own game during a shootout, even if some tweaks might have made it better. It?s quick, visceral and never tedious.
But by a good stretch what proves most memorable about Gun?s shooting is the glorious amount of pain you can inflict upon your adversaries. For a game with a mostly down-to-Earth style, the action can seem strangely arcadey in places, and the way that one man with a pistol can topple a large scheme is particularly odd. But you won?t care about this from the moment you first blow a man?s leg off to the last time you kill another git with a single bullet to the brain and hear the sweet sound of lead on bone, followed by a heavy thunk as he hits the floor. Corpses can be mutilated further, with the option of removing every visible extremity proving highly enjoyable, in an ?I shouldn?t be allowed to do this? kind of way. Not even Manhunt?s enemies scream so much when killed. Don?t even get me started on the carelessly placed TNT barrels that litter the landscape.
This image is representative of how useless the bow is for much of the game.
One cannot talk about the violence without mentioning the scalping knife, which is rivalled only by Urban Chaos: Riot Response?s fire-starting taser for the title of ?Most Unnecessarily OTT Tool of Death in a Game. Ever.? Here?s how it works: you spend some cash on buying the knife, and from then on anyone too wounded to fight but not quite dead can have their scalp forcibly removed, accompanied by all the screeching and subsequent death that you?d imagine. There is no purpose to this other than an extreme dose of Schadenfreude, and in fact it actually costs money to acquire the knife, which is a slight detriment. For these reasons, I love the scalping knife, and am well aware of how sick a person I must be as a result. Only one scene made me cringe in the whole game, and let?s just say that it involved some very unprofessional dentistry. *shudder*
A nifty feature is the quick-draw, wherein for a limited time you can go into first-person slow-mo and score accurate hits with your revolver until the power bar runs out. It fills up again after a few good kills, and works as a nice ?get out of jail free? card during a sticky situation. Not much more can be said about it, except that it?s both entertaining and handy without being overkill. You can even shoot arrows in mid-flight! Genius!
A few GTA comparisons have been made so far, and as per that series you?re given a means of getting around at speed, namely horses. Simply wander up to one and you can hop up with a mere button press if you?re in its general vicinity. No mess, no fuss, no frantic attempts at standing in just the right spot while an angry mountain lumbers towards you, as the horse-mounting works in Shadow of the Colossus. Of course, you never grow attached to any of the disposable steeds in the same manner as you do Agro, but in terms of mere convenience Gun is the clear victor. Anyway, once on a nag you can trot, gallop or canter, though going at top speed for too long will kill the poor beast. Best of all, firefights with opposing riders are frequent and great, and you can either be nice and just shoot the real enemy or pop a cap in their innocent mare?s behind. I always try to do the former, mainly because I get my kicks from abusing humans, but also since a spare ride is always handy.
There'll be no tears shed over the many dead horses; they're the only way to travel. Literally.
Some light RPG elements mean that an upgrade for your favourite weapon is never far away, and choosing between reload speed and capacity is accursedly tricky. Your best bet is to level up the revolver the most, since you?ll use it for nearly everything anyway, much like the Blades of Chaos in God of War. The cash for such luxuries mainly comes from finishing the side-missions, which range from the deputy or bounty hunter jobs to?er?herding cattle. Not too difficult a choice, really; who doesn?t love rounding up animals? There?s no depth to the extra bits, but they?re essential for completing the higher difficulties and diverting enough, although the story is definitely the main attraction, and during said story you occasionally get a better revolver, shotgun or whatever that replaces the original, though any upgrades you?ve purchased still apply.
I like the health system that Gun uses; you have a bottle of whiskey that can be sipped from so many times to top up your life until it runs out. Refills can be found here and there and bigger bottles can be purchased, and in the end it works better than a magically regenerating bar would have.
Presentation-wise the game is nigh-on free of blemishes: a stirring score kicks in during skirmishes, but otherwise there?s often a long stretch of silence, and the sounds of hooves clacking and the winding whooshing create an atmosphere not dissimilar to Shadow of the Colossus; Though the music is marvellous and perfect for the setting, I don?t think it ever quite gets as good as TimeSplitters 2?s Wild West level theme, which is absolutely perfect; the characters are believable and either great to hate or charming to chat with. Plus most folk can actually defend themselves, so escort missions aren?t quite so horribly conceived as in most games; I said before that the conventions of the Western genre are treated as holy, and this is completely true. Train-robbing, crooked major-outing, gold-hoarding, bandit-wrangling and more all feature, and any even mild fan of cowboys will get their fill; finally, the gritty feel and ever-present eruptions of claret are just a whole new level of awesome, and the bar is set for whatever future Wild West games come along in terms of authenticity while not sacrificing fun. As a bonus, I swear that one of the voices sounds suspiciously like Crypto from Destroy All Humans!, which would make for some nice trivia if it?s true. For one last note, the in-game representation of Hoodoo Brown is pure style, and the source of one of the most simultaneously funny and cool moments I?ve ever seen in a game. Try and spot it. Go on, I dare you.
Where would the Wild West be without bar room brawls?
I did find that the boss fights aren?t too inspired, if not truly broken. They just rely on shooting and hoping for the best, though the very last one is a notch above that, even if it is by far the hardest as well.
The one major issue that folks always seem to bring up when discussing Gun is its length, since it?s rather short. Nothing shocking, but a bit below average, certainly if you stick to the essential levels. A notable flaw and one worthy of a finger-wagging, but much like Area 51 what you get is damned entertaining and more than a bit replayable. In particular, masochists will love the intimidatingly titled ?Insane mode?, and though I?m not man enough to attempt it, I can confirm beyond doubt that the endgame will be absolute Hell on that difficulty. Even without resorting to such extremes, I was truly satisfied just replaying on Medium (which is just a nice challenge without getting crazy) for the sake of this review, and aim to give Hard a go in time.
Slight lack of polish in places aside, if it?s a Western shooter you be wantin?, then Gun is pretty much as good as it gets. Darkwatch is a very close second, but loses points for being more fantasy-based, and Red Dead Revolver is just a poor man?s Gun, though I admire its focus on the cheesier side of the Wild West, and am curious about the upcoming sequel. Darkwatch may have the more awesomely original concept (vampire cowboys!), but Gun has more style in general.
I shall end today?s presentation with a plea to Neversoft, in the astronomically unlikely event that someone even vaguely involved with the company is reading this: you people are evidently more than capable of producing non-Tony Hawk?s games to a high standard, and the recent Tony Hawk: Ride debacle shows that the series has some good-sized chinks in its armour. Skate has become to Tony Hawk?s what the original Call of Duty was to Medal of Honor; a much more confidently made game that highlights how badly the older franchise needs either a reboot or total abandonment. Gun 2 has been rumoured for years now, and such a game would make me very happy. You?re already a minor joke due to your focus on one song over the years, and the sooner you turn yourself around, the better. Just some friendly advice courtesy of a fan who wants only the best for your soul.
Neversoft, I've got my eye on you. See what I did there?
P.S. If you?re trying to pick between the Xbox and 360 version, remember that the only difference is graphical, which isn?t worth a very considerable price increase. I say go 6th gen, but obviously any version of Gun is equally explosive. Well, except the crippled PSP one. One stick just doesn?t cut it for nine out of ten of third-person shooters.
P.P.S. All the Indians running about with their battle cries and talk of respecting the Earth reminded me so very much of Avatar. Can?t imagine why?*nudge, nudge*
