Gun: Dodge City

You've read the previews, all 19 of them, and you pretty much decided on a few things. One of them might be buying Neversoft's Gun, which hits Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and PC next week, following with the Xbox 360 version the following week. We've got the final game and while we cannot pass a final judgment on the review code yet, there are many parts that have piqued our interests.

A linear game with open structure elements, Gun leads players through the Wild West of the 1800s, following a mysterious token that's fallen into the hands of lead character Colton White. After breezing through the tutorials, which teaches players to handle a horse, gun sling and quick draw, along with slashing a knife with enemies in up-close battles, players head off to Dodge City, the portal city from which most activities take place throughout the rest of the story.

The city if open for business day or night, and you happen to arrive when townspeople are moseying around, the bar is open, prostitutes are making money, and the poker tables are hot. A nest of missions avail themselves with arrow indicating type and location, and these range from quick, little side missions such as playing a hand of 21 or finding a low-down varmint whose wanted by the law. We tried both. Hunting down the outlaw was easy. We figured it was so easy because it was so early. Completing this little side mission required following a map to the X on the screen and then winning a simple shootout with a drunk cowboy. When I finished blasting bullets through his head and he lay in a bloody heap on the floor, I collected my bounty automatically through the menu screens, which conveyed my newly upgrade points in the shooting category.

Bloodless, filled with adrenaline, and satisfied with my kill and corresponding bounty, I then walked over to the poker table and played a few hands of Texas Hold 'Em. I won three out of three, pocketed some cash and strolled over to the bar, where an unnaturally giant triangle indicated I should speak with the barkeep. Gamers can play poker at any time in the bars that offer it, as long money is in hand. It's considered a side mission, and most appear free to enter. Win money and use it for items. What kinds of items? Well, when you walk outside and head toward the shop keep, he'll tell you a new shipment of goods has just come in. The first shipment of items includes pickaxes, extra health slots, shotgun speed loaders, cylinder boring kits, and pistol speed loaders with prices of $10-$25. Much like my desire to cause havoc and raise a fuss for the fun of it, I went into town and just started shooting the hell out of the townsfolk. Why not? You can, right? In real life I'm a mild-mannered videogame editor, but in videogames? I'm a low-down, rootin-tootin' sonuvabitch, and I wanted to pick a fight. You can shoot anybody, and if you feel like getting up close and personal, you can knife them, or grab them and use their body as a human shield. The town's patience is measured with a meter, and once you've killed a person or two -- I admit, I killed my own horse to see if I could, and man! Did he take a lot of shots! -- the meter runs over, and every ordinary person flees into nearby builds, houses, and saloons. Within seconds, a posse of men runs from behind a building to shoot you down. At this point, it's you versus as many as 10 guys all armed with revolvers, shotguns, and Schofields, and they'll surround you and slowly close in for the kill. The fighting ends, naturally, when somebody dies. I won, which left a field of dead corpses across the main road. I played it again and died just to see what would happen, and when you do, I started back at the saloon with the town patience set back to normal. Fun!

That pretty much wrapped up my first hour of gaming in Gun. I learned to ride a horse, shoot men dead, playa little poker, and cause a riot. Phew! What a day! While the graphics aren't the most spectacular on Earth, the game and the story are totally compelling. I was easily amused by the wealth of action, side missions, and cool stuff I could simply play with, so you'll be hearing from me more on this one. Oh yes, indeed.

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