Review: Gun

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Review: Gun

Postby Zep on Fri Dec 02, 2005 4:57 pm

I "got" this the other day for the PC and was reluctant about it because of mixed reviews on the internet. To my surprise though, I haven't been able to put it down since installing it as it's actualy pretty good. Well almost. Hmmm.

It's basicaly an adventure game where you roam around in the wild west trying to find clues about the mysterious death of your father. Without going into detail, the story is actualy one of the best parts of the game and is linked together nicely with violent cut scenes and some well known voices (i think). The game stays true to the western genre, so don't expect any aliens or big spider machines with rocket launchers. At one point in the game you even have to heard cattle!

Obviously your main weapon in the game is a gun. You have a selection of 6 shooter, rifles, shotguns, sharpshooters. You get various different ones throughout the game, but you will always end up using the most recent one you earned because that'll be the one with the best stats. Unfortunately there are no unique, or hidden guns in the game. What can do however is mod your weapons with money you have earned from bounty hunting or cattle hearding with items from shops to make them reload faster, have more power or hold more bullets. As well as guns you get a few melee weapons just incase of close combat, a bow for stealth/hunting missions, a scalping knife, dynamite and whiskey bombs. The scalping knife doesn't seem to have any real use and seems to be some kind of grim death move which adds to the violence.

The in game sound is great. I have a 5.1 surround setup and everything seems to be in the right place. There is old time piano when you walk into the bars, the horses wail if you accidently (!) shoot them etc etc. The music is good to and seems to fit whatever situation your in. It borrows a lot from old western movies but has a unique feel to it.

The graphics are pretty good to. Not up to standard with the latest FPS games like Quake 4 or F.E.A.R but it does have some neat subtle touches which make the game pretty to look at. Shadows in the dust in particuar look almost comic like but are really cool.

Ah the guns! There is quite an arcade feel to the shooting. Nothing flash here, just aim your cross air and send that apache to hell, reload and move on to the next target. There is a little meter next to your ammunition which is your "Quick Draw". Activating this makes the camera zoom in to FPS mode and automaticaly draw your pistol. Time has slown down (much like Max Payne) and it gives you time to take it lots of enemies "quickly". To refil the meter you have to pull of special kills like head shots, weapon shots, combos, explosive kills, burn kills and other violent fatalities. It can be quite fun chucking a stick of dynamite into a cave filled with TNT and bad guys and watching them trying to run away only to explode into little blood patches against the wall, or shoot off their limbs while they burn and scream for mercy.

Well there you go, Gun, the best game...... oh wait a minute. There are a few hicups. Quite a few actualy.It makes you wonder if the people who made it actualy played it through. There are some "bugs" which are unbelievable. For example, no matter where you go, you will always be sure that you can walk straight through people. Maybe the hero did some red indian +"noclip 1" dance before starting his quest but I don't think the programmers should have allowed it. This can be such a shame after riding cross country with horseback against a beautiful landscape (it's really impressive. Mountains, canyons etc) only to dismount and walk straight through an Indian. Another major bug which made me want to throw my mouse at the monitor as the in game loading. San Andreas was a giant world compared to this. Gun has 2 small towns with hardly any people you can interact with apart from gunning them down. The rest is just lovely lanscapes which you travel through most of the time on your own. Why then, for the love of God, does this game have the worst stutter probelm I have ever seen? It tries so hard to have "endless world" feeling but breaks down every time you enter a new area. This can be really annoying when you are fighting a boss who seems to appear on a giant train out of nowhere. Last of all, this game's story mode is short. Real short. Just when you want to be left with a crazy twist.... that's it. Go do the side missions and earn exp that you don't need anymore anyway. It may be nit picking, but it makes me dissapointed that if the people who made this put a bit more time into it, could have come up with something brilliant.

All the bad points aside, it's a wonderful game which I will definately play through again on Insane mode and can heartly reccomend to anybody to rent for their XBOX 360 or PS2.

Graphics 8/10
Sound 8.5/10
Gameplay 7/10

Overall 7.9/10

Nearly a classic. If there is a sequal, it will kick your ass. Or shoot it.
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Postby Silverhaze on Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:49 pm

Nice review Zep!

Seems to go along with the other reviews Ive read on the net. Has great potential but is let down by shortness, pointless weapons like the knife and other glaring bugs.

Might be worth a download now that I've read your reviews.
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Postby Zep on Mon Dec 05, 2005 1:12 pm

aye it only 1.5GB. A patch will probably be out soon to fix some of the minor bugs and the loading bug might be linked to my shite 512MB RAM.

By X-mas Ima update to 1024MB. I tried to run F.E.A.R last night and the fucker was so jittery. The detail in the graphics is fucking brilliant, but even if I play on the lower resolutions, the RAM isn't there to keep things smooth. Argh. crucialram.com is it??
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Postby Silverhaze on Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:39 pm

Yeah you definitely need a gig of ram to be playing FEAR. Its reccomended you have a 256mb dx9 gfx card too. It even stutters on my system too and I have to play it with vertical sync off because it runs better like that. I can cope with some tearing here and there.
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Postby Zep on Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:17 pm

I managed to solve a bit of the stuttering. I upped the minimum virtual memory on my system from 756 to 1000. I've only tested it on FEAR, and the loading is A LOT faster and the improvement boost was quite high, allowing me to up the resolution to 1024x768 and put most of the settings on high. Everybody up your VM now!
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Postby Silverhaze on Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:24 am

I have a gig of RAM already which does me fine although I would like to up that to 2gig sometime.

Doesnt upping your vm put more strain on your HD?
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Postby Zep on Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:06 pm

Silverhaze wrote:Doesnt upping your vm put more strain on your HD?


I don't really know the facts about VM, but I'm a do first worry later person.
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Postby Silverhaze on Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:58 pm

Good luck down at the clap clinic by the way mate ;) :lol:

Yeah I think VM used the hard drive as extra ram space so it will be accessing your HD a hell of a lot more if you up the capacity. In the end it will cause more wear and tear to your disk so its probably better to get on overclockers and grab some more. Its only cheap for 512mb these days anyway, treat yourself to an early xmas pressie :D
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