Gun [PS2]

Gun is a third-person action game that blatantly and proudly takes its inspiration, violence, and visuals from classic westerns (particularly and obviously favoring Sergio Leone's so-called "spaghetti westerns"). At a recent Activision editor's day in San Francisco, we finally got uninterrupted time with Gun's free-roaming, objective-based gameplay... and for some of us, there went the whole day, right there; we kept playing until we were forced to stop.

Our first impressions of the game some months back left the words "Grand Theft Mustang" burning in our brains, and our hands-on session reinforced these impressions in promising ways. The action in Gun is both on foot and on horseback, with the occasional swap to first-person perspective when the combat requires some intense finesse.

To simulate the dead-shot accuracy of a seasoned gunslinger's cranked-up reflexes, the game allows players to switch from third-person into a first-person quick-draw mode wherein each successive flick of the analog stick instantly targets another enemy. If you've seen the Man With No Name movies starring Clint Eastwood, where Clint "fans" his revolver and takes down four or five separate foes in about two seconds, this is essentially what happens in the game. Time slows to a subjective crawl, and people start dying (violently). Gun allows for location-based hits to limbs, the groin, and even the weapons clutched in an enemy's hand! And obviously, headshots are real time-savers.

The weaponry we've seen spans the classic western arsenal, and includes revolvers, shotguns, range-rifles, bowie knives, and even the occasional hissing-fused stick of dynamite. The remaining-ammo gauge on the HUD takes a form appropriate to the currently selected weapon -- the arranged chambers of a six-shooter, say, or the lined-up shells of a rifle.

As we discovered early on (during a massive river-boat boarding action), players can also take occasional first-person control of fixed-mount super-weapons such as gatling guns or traditional cannons. After defending the river-boat from numerous waves of attackers clambering over the rails, we turned the cannon loose on a number of smaller boats, sometimes destroying them with a single, explosive hit.

Like Grand Theft Auto (to which Gun's free-roaming/mission-based gameplay must inevitably be compared), Gun is full of both on-foot and "vehicular" action. Specifically, we're talking horseback combat. While certain early parts of the game "artificially" require the player to become acquainted with riding horses, they're actually a constant, fluid aspect of the game.

Expect situations where you start a gunfight in a populated saloon, follow your prey outside, jump on your trusty steed, chase down your foes in a running, mounted gun-battle, and even use your four-hoofed friend as a weapon. Using your horse on enemies is surprisingly satisfying -- you can rear up and trample your opponents under your steed's hooves, but there's also a wicked slide/stop attack which can mow down groups of enemies like bowling pins.

Furthermore, we participated in a couple of stage-coach actions, sitting atop the carriage with a rifle and sniping groups of hostile Indians that closed in from all sides. The occasional blockage -- say, a rockslide -- would stop our progress, but a potshot at a few carefully placed kegs of TNT made that roadblock go away in short order. And needless to say, carelessly exposed TNT kegs on other people's wagons make for great critical-hit targets. Kaboom!

We also saw took part in longer, running battles involving multiple friends and foes on horseback, instances of animal hunting (wolves, deer, and even a badly tempered grizzly bear), a fort-raid with the help of local Indians, a "boss battle" ambush in a remote corral with lots of haystacks for cover (and horse obstacles), and even -- it wasn't such a huge mission, but it's just fun to say -- the escort of a "whore wagon" from one town to another.

The voicework and writing for the NPCs involved in the story missions seems to be mostly top-notch, even in the tutorial stages, and it makes it very easy to get drawn into Gun's overarching story... but even when you decide to take a break from all that, the game abounds in moneymaking side-missions. These include jobs for the local post office, part-time law-enforcement gigs, and of course some good old-fashioned, dead-or-alive bounty-hunting. Find a poster of somebody whose mug you don't like, and track them down at their favorite watering/whoring hole.

Gun is the most promising-looking thing to happen to western-based video games in a long time (not that there have been so many to begin with), and its look and performance are surprisingly smooth. We'll be ready on the range with a full review when the game hits the open plains next month.