Game #965: GUN

  By the creators of Tony Hawk. The games, not the person(As far as I know).

 GUN took me by surprise, not only is it one of the few non-Tony Hawk non-Guitar Hero games from Neversoft but it's also an obscure gem by all accounts, as I doubt many people ever heard of it, much less played it. And that's criminal, because GUN is pretty darn good.

 The game is, believe it or not, an open-world cowboy game, with a strong narrative focus and very little of Neversoft's trademark immature humor. Well, there are a few immature jokes here and there("Protect the whore") but doesn't feel as punk as their Tony Hawk games of the era. Neversoft were clearly out of their element with this game, but boy, did they knock it out of the park. The game is made up of about 20 story missions and even more side-missions. I don't know how necessary it is to complete sidequests, but completing those is the only way to earn money and enhance your stats, and since I'm a completionist... my stats were up to par throughout most of the game, and no mission felt hard, heck, I'd say the game was pretty easy, sans the final boss who was incredibly cheap.

 As expected of a cowboy game, this is a third-person shooter. You start off the game with your unlimited-ammo six shooter, a knife and a rifle(With limited munitions!) but eventually your arsenal expands to include dynamite, molotovs, a sharp-shooter, a shotgun and a bow. And as you complete missions you'll be unlocking stronger versions of each, so you're constantly showered with rewards. If you decide to partake on side-content, you'll be getting money which you can then spend on upgrades.

 The shooting feels fairly tight, the game having some slight automated tracing when you aim to compensate for aiming with a joystick. With a few weapons, namely the rifle, the sharpshooter and the bow you can press R3 to aim in first person, and the directional pad can be used to lean left and right! Killing enemies refills your quickdraw gauge, which you can use to toggle a slowed down first person shooting with your six-shooter, which doesn't require you to reload for as long as it lasts! One big annoyance with the game is that after every NPC interaction and/or cutscene the game will default you to your big guns, which was super annoying since I like to conserve ammo and use the six-shooter. It always threw me off guard.

 Something that's more funny than flawed is the poor AI, as enemies won't react to other enemies getting sniped with the bow right in front of them! Another funny thing is that they removed the ability to sell enemy scalps at the last minute... but you can still purchase the upgrade. There's absolutely no point to scalping enemies. Yet you can still do it, and in order to do it you first have to buy an upgrade. Hilarious! You can ride horses, but as small as the game's world is, try not to get them murdered unless you want to make your way on foot.... could get super boring and drawn out. It would've been neat to have some way to instantly call a horse to your side or something.

 The narrative was interesting if a bit cliched, but I really liked the characters, both in looks and in personalities. In a way, the character models reminded me of something that could've come out of a Japanese game, since they were so distinct and memorable. And the narrative was well complimented by the great gameplay, shooting down criminals and Apache Indians felt great, and I appreciate how you are constantly upgrading your arsenal, making the game super rewarding and gets you chomping at the bit for what's coming next. All in all, GUN was a pleasant surprise.

 8.5