Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

Gun hit shelves for the Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, and PC in November of last year, and on October 11th, we get to see how Rebellion Software has improved the PSP version of the title for its handheld debut. 

As Gun Showdown features the same storyline as its console and PC counterparts, we are once again thrown into the Wild West of 1880.  Our story is that of Ned and Colton White, traveling hunters who sell their game and fur to local steamships that run up and down the rivers.  During their most recent outing, Ned and Colton meet up with a prostitute from Ned’s past on a steamer called Morning Star.  While talking in generalities about an item that Ned had stashed away, the steamboat is attacked and destroyed.  Before the boilers could explode, Ned hits you with some life-altering knowledge and hands you a token for the Alhambra saloon with some instructions to find a girl named Jenny.  He then pushes you over the side to save your life, thereby sacrificing his own.  Where will this token lead you?  Who is Jenny?  What is this item that Ned was hiding, and why did the people that attacked the steamboat want it?  The life of Colton White is about to get a whole lot more interesting.

Bringing the world of Gun alive on the console and PC platform is one thing, pulling off a rich and expansive representation of 1800s Montana is something else entirely.  The world of Gun is one that seems to stretch on forever – a seamless streaming world.  While you can’t get on your horse and ride forever, you can certainly travel some pretty wide open ranges.

Cut-scenes in the game are done with the in-game engine, other than the occasional CGI scene.  Those CGI scenes are excellent – Ned, Colton, Mayor Hoodoo, Jenny, and other characters are rendered to perfection.  Lines in their face, the prairie dust on their clothing, and the stubble on their chins – it brings life to the world and its characters.

The overall graphical look of Gun Showdown is almost exactly like the PS2 version of Gun.  There is a slight jaggedness overall, but the approximation of the console version is stunning.  Fantastic lighting and shadows help complete the landscape.  Overall, it is exactly what Rebellion was shooting for – a portable version that doesn’t have to cut corners, or completely invent the visual wheel.

Top notch quality games can easily be drummed into the ground with bad voice acting.  There are too many games to mention that fall into this category – Gun: Showdown is not one of them.  Keeping the stellar voice cast from the console and PC versions of the game, Gun Showdown features the fantastic voice work of Thomas Jane as Colton White, Kris Kristofferson as Ned White, Lance Henricksen as Magruder, and Brad Dourif as Reed.  The voice acting is superb, which helps make the storyline even better.  Put plainly, the voice work in Gun and Gun Showdown is some of the best I’ve ever heard.

There is a hitch in the sound effects for Gun Showdown.  Sometimes during play, the sound effects would desynch from the action, making bullet ricochets and horse hoof sounds rather strange.  While the sound effects are very well done, the sound desynch pulls some of the veneer off of the overall game. 

Without dual analog support, Gun’s control scheme had to be modified to fit the single analog setup of the PSP.  To this end, the face buttons (square, triangle, circle, and X) have been made into a sort of digital D-Pad to approximate a second analog.  These face buttons control where Colton aims his weapon.  The analog nub controls your character movement.  The D-Pad handles your quickdraw function, drinking from your flask, calling your horse, or switching weapons.  The left and right shoulder buttons handle jumping or drawing/firing a weapon.  The controls are similar when you are on a horse, with the left shoulder button causing your horse to jump or gallop, and the right shoulder button triggering a trample attack or firing your guns. 

If you have played the console or PC version of Gun, then you know about the HUD in the game.  On-screen prompts tell you what weapon you are using, how many bullets you have in the chamber, as well as in reserve, how much quickdraw you have stored, how much whiskey you have left to restore your health, as well as your compass/radar system.  The minimalist interface leaves the screen free to keep the action front and center.

A crucial component of any handheld title is the ability to save anywhere.  Gun Showdown doesn’t commit the sin of restricting this, allowing you to save anywhere that you need to stop.  You can always suspend the game using the PSP’s integrated functionality, but a full save is always better.

Just as it was in the console versions of the game, the horse mechanics never quite comes together.  Your horse sometimes feels like Pokey from the Gumby series – sliding around more than he should.  Most of the combat will involve your sidearm, but sliding your horse around to get a melee attack just looks funny, which I’m sure wasn’t the intention.

Did the controls translate to this mobile platform?  I’d say they did.  While the face buttons aren’t nearly as fast as a second analog stick, the pace of the game is slightly slowed, giving you time to compensate.  This is a great control port once you get used to it. 

When Ned pushed you over the side of the steamboat, the token for the Alahambra tucked away in your vest, he had no idea of the depth of the trouble you’d be encountering.  The game unfolds as you try to find out what was important enough to kill the dozens of people on the Morning Star to get it.  As you discover a subplot involving the gold of Cortez, your world is turned completely upside down.  Your story will start in Dodge City. 

Gun Showdown is a western themed shooter, as you might suspect from the title.  Using several variations of pistols, rifles, bows, knives, hatchets, and TNT, you’ll take missions for the various folks of the towns you visit.  Some missions are as simple as mining gold, while others might require you to hunt down a dangerous outlaw to bring him to justice.  These missions serve to not only extend the gameplay, but also allow you to upgrade Colton’s abilities.  Stats including your reload speed, accuracy, damage, and the like serve to help with the end-game’s difficulty.  While the game can be completed without taking a single side mission, these missions flesh out the world of Gun Showdown. 

Quickdraw makes a repeat performance in Gun Showdown, and serves as the equalizer for Colton’s lone-gunman adventure.  As you take out your enemies you fill the quickdraw meter.  You can use this meter to slow down time for a short while, allowing you a chance to take aimed headshots, shoot a pistol out of an enemy’s hands, or simply drop the hammer half a dozen times to exact your messy vengeance.  You can flick between targets and take them out in quick succession, evening the odds quickly.

The health system consists of a heath bar on top, and a flask of whiskey on the bottom.  Your health drops when you are shot, impaled, or otherwise injured.  Taking a quick tug on the whiskey bottle puts you right as rain. 

The whiskey, the cards (you can gamble for cash), the whores, the horses, the killing – it all adds up nicely to a game that is not meant for kids.  Keep that in mind when you take Gun Showdown on a bus, or in my case, a plane ride.  You never know just how far sound will travel, and how many times a family of two kids and their mother will be behind you, staring in disbelief. 

The big hitch with the original Gun was the length.  Granted, there were many side missions (as there are in Showdown) such as the Pony Express, Bounty, and even some Indian missions where you’ll use your bow, but overall the game can be completed in roughly a dozen hours.  On a comfy couch, that isn’t a long time, but when you think of it in terms of a portable game, that is a very long time.  The side missions serve to extend the game, and also add to your stats and equipment.  There is a down side to the side missions though, they do a great job in highlighting just how much dead space there is in the game.  Many areas are completely barren of content, stretching on for miles with nothing but sagebrush to keep you company.  There is just a lot of empty land out there that could have been put to use to raise the amount of overall content that went unused.  Perhaps in Gun II? If you missed out on the original release of Gun, this portable version will keep you tied up for a decent amount of time. With a compelling storyline, and load times that don’t keep you guessing when you’ll get to play, this is a great mature title in a time period that is often left neglected.

Gaming Trend Score

85

1. Graphics: 89
2. Audio: 85
3. Controls: 85
4. Gameplay: 85
5. Value/Replay: 80
6. OVERALL:85