A step towards Gun 2, litteraly!
Now i'm no huge fan boy of westerns but I've always had a craving for some gun slinging action and this game does deliver.
The story starts off with you, Colt and your father Ned. Hunters by trade you two are very adept to the outdoors and carry trustworthy arms. As the story unfolds the death of your father occurs and so starts the kick ass journey Colt goes on.
From the get go its obvious this game has a very Grand Theft Auto feel to it of freedom with missions from your wanted posters to the deputy. In any order you can do these missions to boost your skills in gunning, melee and many other personal traits. Also you can earn money on these missions which then lead to the purchasing of upgrades for your weaponry.
The graphics are rather decent for the open range (pun-ish) style the game adopts of one huge area that you can explore whenever you want - just like GTA. The voice acting is amazing and you do sound like a bad ass cowboy throughout the entire game.
The only downsides I can note are as follows:
1. Auto aim. Basically if your crosshair is anywhere near an enemy the computer will adjust your aim to be near enough perfect on the guy’s chest.
2. The 'hitboxes' on the enemies are off and it becomes very easy to sometimes not aim directly on the enemy yet still hit them.
3. The area the game is based is very small.
4. There seems to be no flow and 'nature' to the environment, yes there’s birds flying but the buffalo don’t move from a single spot.
Now although these things could dampen the greatness this game could achieve I really don’t see them as bad points but a 'step in the right direction' for the series, if there is to be one. What I mean is that with the small zone and the game mechanics I could see a sequel being very successful if the game area was large with more than just the towns of Empire and Dodge, better behaviors from wild animals and the removal of the auto aim adjust.
To conclude this review, I would say it’s very worth a rental or playing it at a friend’s house to see if you like it before thinking of forking over your money. The feel to the game is great and the voice acting and music really brings the West to life. If a sequel was to be made and the little 'annoyance' were to be corrected then my rating would be around the 9.9 mark!