You play as Colton White, a hunter/trapper traveling the Kansas plains and New Mexico Badlands with father Ned, earning your living collecting meat and skin for trade in the local boom towns. During a typical day, just after a grizzly attack, a riverboat floats up to the bank near where you are hunting. After boarding, the boat is ambushed by renegades led by a twisted preacher. Everyone aboard dies, but you manage to escape and vow revenge. With a few allies by your side, your trusty horse and a variety of authentic pistols and rifles, Colton will blaze a trail through the old west to discover more about himself and his father than he ever knew.
Besides tackling the story arc, you can accept side missions to make cash for upgrades. Drop your chips in a poker tournament, collect on posted bounties, ride for the pony express and more. These side missions help to keep replayability decent, but the story will only hold an experienced player's attention for 6-8 hours. Xbox 360 owners can unlock achievements when they've completed an entire set of these side missions, as well as each chapter in the story.
Gameplay is solid, but mostly run and gun. As a gunfighter, you're able to shoot from the hip, but a quick draw mode is available, which slows time, steadies your aim and makes headshots, disarming and even dismemberments easier when firing. The environment is virtually seamless and expansive, though you'll quickly learn the best paths to mission areas or towns either through moutain passes or by following the railroad tracks.
Graphics likewise are well executed. Camera clipping is nowhere to be seen, which is impressive, but not surprising for Neversoft. Especially well done are the cut scenes. Use of the in-game models displaying surprisingly convincing facial expresses, down to quivering lips and Eastwood-esque squinting stares really helps sell the cinematic nature of the game. Even the game's soundtrack becomes its own character, as it changes depending on the mood of the scene or your health status. Expect to hear voices from Ron Perlman, Tom Skerrit, Tom Jane, Lance Henriksen, Kris Kristofferson and Brad Dourif (otherwise known as killer-doll Chucky).
Sadly, don't expect any multiplayer or online features. Gun plays more like an old west Spider-Man; large story arc with plenty of side missions, which makes for an excellent single player game but limits replayability in the end. Absolutely worth the rental, but falls just shy of buying power in our book.
