Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2945 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2005-11-11
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Adults Only
• Platform: PlayStation2

Amazon.co.uk Review
In a nutshell:
It’s Grand Theft Auto in the Wild West as you take on every varmint in the state, battle cattle rustlers, outlaws, evil business men and figure out the conspiracy behind who your real father was. Simply put, this is an ultra violent tale of the old frontier.

The lowdown:
Swap the cars for horses, San Andreas for the big country and a Uzi for a good old six shooter and suddenly GTA becomes GUN. It’s not quite that exact a copy though: the story missions are much more important here, with the side quests proving to be fairly short lived, and there's relatively little reward available for exploring the game world. The actual business of gun fighting and horse riding looks and feels great, with accurate, intuitive controls and surprisingly violent showdowns. Grand Theft Auto is a better game and Red Dead Revolver is a better Western, but this is still a decent effort at navigating a path between the two.Most exciting moment:
Failing to take care of business in a horseback gunfight, then using your dead mount for cover!

Since you ask:
Developers Neversoft are the same studio behind the Tony Hawk’s games – as you might have guessed from the familiar looking combo messages.

The bottom line:
Doesn’t quite reach its full potential but a fun cowboy simulator all the same.
Harrison Dent

Manufacturer's Description
When life robs Colton White of all that matters, the only thing left he can trust is his GUN. From award-winning developer, Neversoft, and accomplished screenwriter, Randall Jahnson (The Mask of Zorro, The Doors), GUN follows Colton on his quest for discovery as he seeks to exact vengeful justice on those who have wronged him. GUN is a realistic epic action/adventure that lets gamers experience the brutality of the lawless West.

Key features:

New and savage ways to punish: Stealthily sneak up and attack your enemies, use them as cover, stab, shoot, or scalp them. Blast away and watch the aftermath, shoot guns out of enemy hands, or destroy with dynamite.

Extensive variety of missions and game play: Wage war on horseback, commandeer trains, protect whores, collect bounties, play poker, hunt buffalo, and more. Multiple game play styles include: precision shooting, stealth tactics, and use of explosives. Embark on numerous side missions that allow you to master gun slinging and horse riding. Unlock secret weapons and upgrade your skills and abilities to improve your weapon and equipment performance.

Brutal realism: Act as a gunslinger protecting righteousness, or seek retribution as you face corrupt lawmen, warring tribes, cold-blooded outlaws, and ruthless renegades. Encounter legendary gunfighters such as JJ Webb. Employ a multitude of authentic weapons including: Six shooters, shotguns, Gatling guns, flaming arrows, hatchets, dynamite, and more.

Expansive interactive world: Play an extensive variety of exciting missions as you journey west across the new frontier. Ride on horseback through the scenic, yet dangerous Western terrain of canyons, mountains, plains, forests, gold mines and towns.

Customer Reviews

Should have been..... bigger
The game is a free roaming Wild West adventure - a sort of cross between GTA:San Andreas and Red Dead Revolver. It's a brilliant idea for a game, but while the game has been enjoyable, I can't help but feel that it should have been...... bigger.

There's a land that you can roam over, with two cities, canyons, mines, Indians, herds of Bison - everything you would expect from the American West. Your movement across this land though is too restricted, with large expanses where you have to follow set paths through canyons for example. It's not free roaming in the GTA sense. The mountains and water are strictly off limits, and theres an invisible barrier that stops you leaving town. The result is a game that looks bigger than it feels.

The gameplay mainly consists of riding between places and blasting anybody who crosses your path, on foot or on horse back. This can become repetitive, especially when most of the side missions, such as the Wanted Posters, call for exactly the same thing instead of offering a change of action. There is in-game poker, but it doesn't give you the chance to wage money, and there's a limit to how many times you can play - once you've won 6 games that's it.

Despite the above, and the fact that the game can be can 100% completed on normal difficulty in about 15 hours easily, I should emphasise that I did enjoy playing the game. Graphically the game was good, much better than other free roaming games such as GTA. The game can also boast a decent score, very evocative of the Western setting, and the voice acting is also a strong point. There's a good cast behind the main characters, including Lance Henriksen and Kris Kristofferson, that helps to draw you in to an interesting story line.

Its just that given the setting and the score, and the promise of a free roaming adventure in the American West, I can't help but feel that the game needed to be bigger to realise it's potential.

Authentic western fun
A quick browse over the reviews will make it clear that many people were disappointed with the length of Gun. The first time run-through, even including side-quests and extras can be completed in 8-10 hours. As long as you prepare yourself for the breivity of the game, then strap yourself in for a great time.

Gun is a fantastic and cinematic experience. The storyline really shines through, rising above so many other dire or bland plotlines in other games. The protaganist, Colton White, is a well-shaped character, believable and likeable. The game follows him on a quest to find out what the hell happened when his father and may others were killed aboard a beseiged steamliner.

The controls are very intuitive, the weapons are impressive and the action is brutal and bloody. Colton's enemies can literally be shot to pieces and blown apart by high caliber weapons and explosives. It's realistic and often shocking, and I have to admit, very cool. So sue me. The graphics are impressive, movement of the characters is fluid and realistic and the voice acting and sound is of the highest quality.

GTA comparisons are cheap and easy. As the father of free-roamers, any free roaming game suffers comparisons to GTA. But don't buy this game expecting anything like San Andreas. Gun is set across a good sized map, nowhere near as big as the massive San Andreas, with 3 or 4 main populated areas that you can frequent and find work as well as taking missions which advance the compelling storyline.

It is a huge game, with an epic feeling, but in a different way from any of the GTAs. Comparisons to Rockstar's Red Dead Revolver of a year earlier are inevitable, but where Red Dead Revolver has some comic-book enemies such as evil clowns and gatling gun weilding super fiends, Gun is a little more grounded, realistic, and authentic.

Gun gave me a week of unadulterated gaming bliss. Just be aware when you buy it that it is a short game, but it is compelling, impressive, lots of fun and very juicy. Play it on the hard setting for more of a challenge, as normal mode was pretty easy I have to say.

Gun is a real experience. Enthralling and above all cinematic. Pick it up cheap, love it, complete it, and complete it again.

Short, yes... sweet? Definitely. I adore this game. And I hope for a sequel.

V. Good Game
I bought this game quite a while back now when it first came out yet I can't help having fond memories whenever I catch a glimpse of the cover on my shelf, it really is an achievement. When you think of games there are not that many (not that i've played at least) that will spark off nostalgia but this one does, like another reviewer said it is like a cinematic experience. For a start I thought the voice acting was great with Kris Kristofferson (Whistler from Blade) playing the role of Colton White's dad at the beginning, the cut scenes are also much better than most shooter games out there. But for me the real acheivement is the map itself, it cannot boast the mass of say, San Andreas but it doesn't need to because of the lush landscapes, some of the sights you can witness are some of the best I've seen in a game (certainly on the playstation) there are large sunsets over rolling plains, clear blue skies above rivers and waterfalls and at night there's the cloudless sky with a truly massive moon! The storylines' good too, a short, sharp burst of bloody action through the west facing all the foes you'd expect too: cowboys, indians, bandits, murderous priests and greedy train barons, all these things could be seen to be stereotypical of the old west but GUN manages to avoid a feel of cliche I feel because of its authenticity. The towns look real and I think simply the whole game lacks the amount of exaggeration of real types of villains that other games tend to employ which definately works in its favour. The side missions I think are vital to adding a bit more of a sense of fun to the game and really help to break up the main storyline which otherwise could get a bit overwhelming, i thought the bounty hunting missions were good but the hunting missions could get a little frustrating (like when you have a wolf in your sights but then it gets scared and runs off). Yes it is a little short but for what it was I can find no real faults with it, bar one - I just wish it could have gone one step further, for example you can't customise Colton, his clothes change according to where you are in the storyline, you can't play poker whenever you want, and the side missions are just too few, and there's just something lacking here that I just can't put my finger on, play the game and you'll see what I mean, it is such a great game and the big things you want to be right are spot-on yet its the little things that it ever so slightly lets itself down on. Anyway lets just hope and pray that there's a GUN 2 one day and if there is it could really be one of the best games, ever!