G-pinions

The deeper I dig into the 360's launch library, the more pleasantly surprised I am. I just wrapped up GUN today (finishing up the straggling side missions now), and though it's riddled with flaws and very rugged game design, it's actually a pretty worthwhile experience. Neversoft got pretty lucky nailing Tony Hawk and it's popularity right off the bat, but they also pigeonholed themselves from then on, obviously. They branched out a bit here, and I'm actually glad that there's obviously room for improvement too. Yearly TH iterations got a bit stale since they perfected it by the second game, but GUN has a lot more potential since it's a much larger idea.

For starters, gunplay and horse riding are dead-on. When there is action, it's almost always fast, fun and visceral. I remember reading early previews which spoke of the potential for massive mounted gunfights in open fields, Indians and cowboys going nuts on one another. It's not quite as epic or dynamic as I was imagining, but there's certainly dozens of chaotic firefight scenarios to engage in. The game is best when it's throwing everything it has at you, and goes a long way towards solidifying the setting and the world it otherwise casually presents.

The mechanics of the gunplay are central to the game, and everything is thankfully built around them. You have Quickdraw, a slow-motion inducing, pistol-centric maneuver that allows for flick-targeting between all threats, and puts the headshot potential in your hands to adjust manually. You also have a regular first-person view you can click into for zoomed firing with rifles (your primary offense), and a third person reticle when you've exhausted the other two methods. Switching constantly between these three (and a melee attack) depending on the distance, position and type of threat never gets old, particularly because the headshots are gib-tacular and the slight ragdoll death animations, while archaic, are always satisfying. You can also pull off some more fancy maneuvers such as throwing a barrel of dynamite into a crowd and shooting it before it lands, but it's usually more impractical than you'd like.

You're only on a horse about a third of the game, if that, but it's always responsive and works well with the gun targeting. Not that it feels like you're riding an actual horse (see Shadow of the Colossus for conveying the grace and power of an actual equine), but it serves it's purpose well replacing a car (skateboard?) as the typical method of gaming conveyance. It also never gets old shooting someone's horse out from under them (sorry horsies).

Story and presentation? Eh. Kind of pointless hiring decent voice actors when the script is full of embarassing Western cliches and awkward dramatic timing. It's not awful, and it's better than most games, but such cinematic presentation can only stand poorly next to actual cinema.

The games' strongest and weakest point is in how it all comes together; as I said, when things are clicking and you're riding atop a stagecoach shooting guys who are stupid enough to ride up alongside you, the game is almost great. When you're left to your own devices to wander and "do side missions to increase your stats", you quickly realize not only is it a far cry from an Old West GTA, but that it should have been an entirely linear game altogether. The world isn't populated enough to feel vibrant, there aren't enough extra doodads to find to make the world worth exploring, and when it comes down to it it only takes about two minutes to get just about anywhere on the map.

(Also, and I wasn't planning on bringing this up but I guess I have to, the game is just downright ugly. Completing the quadfecta of untouched launch ports from Activision, it's pretty hard to stomach such muddy textures, out-of-place lighting mistakes and plain NPC models. There are some nice environmental moments simply by virtue of the setting, but Rockstar had a much better feel for the Old West aesthetic in Red Dead Revolver. Anyhow, don't buy this game for the graphics.)

I wouldn't recommend anyone go anywhere out of their way to obtain the game for keeps, but it's probably the perfect rental (as I did, via Gamefly). It showers you with achievements for the most minute of tasks, and can be pretty thoroughly vanquished in a good seven hours of your time (there are extra things to do afterwards, but it quickly gets old without any thread of a narritive to play towards or reasons to level up). Stay tuned for more inevitable feedback about games I'm nine months behind on.