Much like western movies, the western videogame is missing in action. For every Gun, there is a Call of Duty, SOCOM, Brothers in Arms, Medal of Honor, America’s Army, Soldier of Fortune, and any number of Tom Clancy games. It’s almost criminal that the genre that defined American movies for decades doesn’t get decent treatment on home consoles. Of the western themed games over the past five years, only two of them were actual westerns (Dead Man’s Hand and Red Dead Revolver). The rest were either cross-genre tie-ins (Darkwatch) or just defy explanation (Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman). Does Gun redeem the western videogame much like Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven redeemed western movies?

I mention movies a lot, because you have a movie-quality story with top rated voice actors providing the talent. It’s rare indeed when a cast perfectly fits the story they play, and this is one of them. Thomas Jane (The Punisher) voices Colton White, who was raised by his father Ned (Kris Kristofferson, best known as Whistler from the Blade movies) to be a hunter for the steamboats along the Mississippi. One day while conducting some business on one such steamboat, a mysterious preacher named Reed (Brad Dourif, whose inspired casting may have something to do with his work as the doctor on Deadwood) raids the boat and starts killing everyone on board. Though Colton is loathe to abandon his father, he is forced to, as Ned gives him a token to a saloon, the name of a prostitute named Jenny, and shoves him overboard with the message: “I ain’t your father.” Colton’s adventures will eventually make him cross paths with vengeful Indians, a seemingly corrupt town sheriff named Hoodoo Brown (Ron Pearlman), a resistance leader named Clay Allison (Tom Skerrit) desperate to return freedom to the west, and a former confederate general (Lance Henriksen) who is greedy and insane.

With a name like Gun, you would expect epic battles, and this game doesn’t disappoint. Throughout Colton’s journey you will fight enemies on foot, from the top of a stagecoach, and from horseback. One thing you will notice is that Colton is an incredible shot. This is not doubt owned to the generous aiming system Gun gives you, combined with its Quickdraw feature. Essentially, this bullet-time style ability allows Colton to hit an enemy’s gun out of their hand, shoot out their kneecap, and hit them square between the eyes all within the space of a few seconds. There is a point to all this precision aiming, as each fancy hit builds more Quickdraw for Colton to use. Since you lose Quickdraw ability very fast, you need to hit these special shots to build it back. Still, you build it fast when not in Quickdraw mode, so you never really run out for very long.



The journey is epic, traversing all sides of the old west. Sometimes you’ll be putting on a badge and fighting for the law, sometimes you’ll be a renegade, and sometimes you will work for the Indians. If the story has a failing, it’s short. Way too short, as Colton’s journey could easily be extended another 5 or six hours without losing any steam. As it stands now though Gun is eight hours from beginning to end, though you will be hard pressed to find a more fun eight hours you spend anywhere.