. Game Review

Gun. even the title sounds awesome. Basically, this game is True Crime, or GTA, or any of those 'Free-roaming-and-story-missions-as-well' type games. The only difference here is that its set in the 1800s Wild West. Everything else that we'd expect from this type of game in the modern setting is there. There's still crime, guns, explosions, greed, prostitutes, murder, drugs, gambling, corrupt police, theft, drinking, lynching, perpetuation of racial stereotypes, bandits, trains, and drive-bys; well... ride-bys, they're on horses rather than cars you see. Maybe they should call it Grand Theft Equestrian. Also, there's no Radio Stations- it's hard to find a place to stash the radio on a horse (well... it's not THAT hard to find a place as such. It's just hard to insatll it without getting kicked in the head, or ending up with a horse with a strange limp). Instead there's a nice, instrumental, westerny type soundtrack. If you get bored of this though, try 'Cowboys From Hell' by Pantera, or 'Run To The Hills' by Iron Maiden, or 'The Lonesome/Gregarious Cowboy' by Tripod. The good news about all this is that your horse won't blow up if it gets shot too much- it just dies.

This time you play as Colton White, heroic cowboy gunslinger extraordinaire who spends his time hunting with his father, (or is he) Ned. One day Ned and Colton are happily riding down the river on a steamboat. When suddenly it gets ambushed, and ransacked by raving renegade soldier-savages controlled by a raving renegade evil priest dude. Inevitably the boat blows up with Ned on board (not Colton though, or it'd be a pretty short, and kind of lame game). So Colton sets off to Dodge City in search of answers. Who was this freaky preacher man? Why does he like blowing up boats? Maybe he had a troubled childhood? What was his relationship with his father like? Maybe he's just evil? did he ever kill small animals for fun? (And the plot thickens). Also, what's the big conspiracy that got Ned killed? But thats more of a sub-plot.

The most noticable thing about this game is the environment; It's really original (mind you, I havent played Red Dead Revolver, or any other kind of western game), Also, it's very... grr, what's the word that means like it sucks you in and makes you feel like you're really in 1880s Kansas? I'll just call it insukansivating... So, anyway, the graphics, and the whole feel of the game is really insukansivating*.

Gameplay: the controls are fairly standard and won't take long to get used to. There's four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Insane. "OOOooo" I thought."Now there's a difficulty level I can relate to." So I completed 82% of the game in 2 days on Insane untill I got to this absolute bastard ****ing t*ss-w*nk of a boss: General Hollister. The main difference between difficulty levels that I can make out is the amount of health you lose when you get shot. so on insane mode, you usually lose about 80% of your health in one hit depending on the gun. But Hollister takes off about 120% in one shot. And he's a dead-eye. so you have to sneak around this arena, and shoot him in the head, then runaway and hide, about 30 times, without getting shot, and without letting him shoot your friends who are hiding very badly nearby. This is all but impossible. I hate Hollister. So, anyway, I gave up on insane mode and started again on medium mode, and completed above and beyond what took me 2 days on insane mode in four or five hours. You only lose about 7-10% of health for each shot on medium difficulty, this means you die less often (A lot less often. Hollister bit the dust in 30 seconds, first try) and so can move through the game a lot quicker if you get shot a lot though, its not the end of the world, you can just refill your health bar quickly by taking a swig of whiskey! it cures what ails ya ;D

Besides the storyline there's lots of stuff to do, side missions including, bounty hunting (from Wanted Posters), Federal Marshal, Local Deputy, Ranch Hand, Hunting, Pony Express delivering kind of missions and there's also a Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament (you can cheat in the easier modes, with an ace up your sleeve) there's no guide to playing poker that I've seen though, so its best to know how to play (like me :D) before you try in the game. Also true to the gold rush setting there's hunks of gold lying all over the place which you can mine for money, the Gun version of hidden packages, or gang tags in GTA. Lots of fun stuff. If you die during any mission, you just respawn back at the start of the objective, so its no hassle to get back to that tricky mission.

Final Verdict: Wickid Awesome. But fairly short. rent it, or buy it from EB and take it back within a week. 7-8 Scalped Skulls out of 10. (oh yes, you can scalp'em).


*ensukansivate. \in-'suk-KAN-siv-ayt\ vb: to engross, or suck one into a virtual environment (esp. of 1880 Kansas and New Mexico) and to make one feel as if they are really within that setting.
ensukansive adj; ensukansivation n.
(from The Official Gummy English Dictionary - Patent Pending)

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