A great game that hits the mark
Gameplay: The game follows a main story but you have side quests you can do as well. These include. Hunting, pony express, ranching, and hunting wanted criminals. All of which are completely optional. If you skip these it will put you at some what of a disadvantage. For the rewards of completing are cash to buy upgrades and stat upgrades. Upgrades can be purchased from store keepers. They consist of more health, quicker reload speeds, better fire power, longer quickshot, etc. (Quickshot is the ability to slow down time with pistol in hand and shoot with accuracy and speed.) If you skip these side quests the game is way to short. Probably complete it in 5 or less hours. But doing the side quests does increase the play time but not by much. And it does feel somewhat odd to ranch some cattle into the pen when you have so and so to go and kill in the main story. The side quests are very repetitive but luckily they don't take much time and still enjoyable to do. They offer a sand box to play around in. It does feel like you are in the west as you run around this world. It was done very well.
Graphics: The graphics are good for a xbox title. I couldn't really expect more from the system. The textures do feel washed out on some surfaces. But i do understand this was a crossplatform game so with that in mind the graphics were outstanding. Animations of horseback riding and character movements very good.
Sound: The music is great. Never feel like i'm hearing the same old songs repeated to my ear. It may have been repeating them but i was having to much fun to notice if it did. Guns, cannons and horse back riding all sounded real and believable. Best part about the sound is the voice acting. Its top notch. The characters are very believable with their great voice acting. They used profession actors for the voices. Which was a great thing to do.
Conclusion: I gave the game a 8.5 because it was short and quests and such felt like they could have used some more creativity. But Gun is still a great game and does what it does very well.