THE HUB

OMG!!!

FEATURED GAME

FEATURED MEMBER

DoctorIrish

DoctorIrish

The Doctor is in.

QUICK POLL

Grand Theft Auto IV: does it live up to the hype?

ASK THE PROS

THE GAMEPROS

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Sign up now to receive weekly or daily updates on your favorite games, stories, and more!



Xbox 360 | Action | Gun

Boxart for Gun
Gun 24 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 4.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.5
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.2
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.1
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Gun

Review by Chris Morell | 11/11/2005 | 15:55:58 PM PST

The Xbox 360 review is in, and Neversoft's Gun is a blast!

For Neversoft, Gun is an ambitious adventure--a complete 180 for the Tony Hawk-famed developer. There are horses in place of skateboards, cowboy hats instead of goofy skate caps, and believable western characters take the place of Bam Margera and Wee Man. And there are guns...lots of guns. Even though Neversoft has been able to keep the Tony Hawk series relatively fresh over the last few years, the Activision owned company needed a new baby. Gun is the answer, and while it also releases simultaneously on current-generation consoles, make no mistake--the Xbox 360 version is the one you want to play. It is by no means the next-gen killer app (rest assured that you won't get one until 2006), but it does provide a robust, six-shootin' good time.

The Non-Archetypical Western
Story wise, Gun ain't your typical John Wayne gun-slinging Western. Yeah, there are horses, Indians, and buffalos to boot, but the actual plot takes influences from a plethora of cinematic genres including action films, thrillers, and even the Holy Grail-esque Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Gun begins innocently enough with the main character Colton White and his father Ned out for a little guiltless hunting. Here, the basic control mechanics are laid out including a bullet-timey, regenerative Quickdraw mode that lets Colton use one or two pistols with slow-motion precision.

Things turn ugly fast, as Colton and Ned are ambushed on a riverboat for the possession of a mysterious artifact. Long story short, the boat sinks, Ned bites the bullet (and pulls a reverse Vader--no spoilers here!), and the artifact goes under. From that point on, Colton's mission is two-fold: avenging the death of his father and discovering the function of the artifact in question.

Mandatory Upgrade
Where most present-day games tread lightly on the story path, Gun is a surprising treat. It draws you in with an authentic cast of characters that appear in more than an hour of finely crafted cut scenes. Neversoft upped the ante from Tony Hawk, as lip syncing and character emotion has a relatively strong presence here.

Gun's gameplay is laid out in both story and side mission events that can be accessed from any of several town hubs. Story missions follow Colton on his quest for the artifact and his father's killer, while side missions provide extra coinage and increase town loyalty toward Colton, making everything else in his journey a little bit easier.


Related Articles