Gun review: The West that was … eh

Sorry folks, but it's

Geek time

It took me about a week and half to play through “Gun” (The straight up X-Box) version. And I can say why the average reaction from critics was that it was average.

The idea of a video game story is that it sets you up for the action and makes you give a damn about getting the character to the next, and then the next part. This can be done fairly simply with some basic plotlines that may ring cliché but get the job done. Or it can be some overwrought, “let’s hire Kris Kristofferson for a minor voice bit and completely overthink ourselves,” kind of thing where you spend half your time rolling your eyes.

Not only do you blow away half the Indians in the Montana territory, you understand their language and become good friends with all of them that you didn’t kill.

Which illustrates the problem behind this game -- and with most movies nowadays while were at it -- you spend one moment brutalizing anything that moves and the next spewing politically correct invective on the plight of the (fill in the blank).

Really, as I’ve said, it’s not that hard to do this right (Halo comes to mind). Set up a character, isolate him against a non-redemptive enemy that wants him dead, start shooting.

Here, your first big battle comes because you want to talk to prostitute. Other people aren’t trying to keep you from her, they just want to “talk” to her first. This is understandable, and quick bar fight could be expected. Instead, you end up shooting through about 40 people so that the conversation can go on like nothing happened. Boring.

The game is rated Mature for Tom Skerrit. Also, the creators decided that to get the 12-year-old demographic, (which should not be playing it), all violence should be over the top. Hence you don’t get to just shoot people and watch their head explode, you also get to scalp them.

I’ve got no problem with violence in games, that kind of steam release has always served a useful purpose to a lot of people. Here, though, the violence is just this random thing you do before moving on to the next plot point.

That said, the good parts of the game almost make up for it. This was a big time production that spent a lot of money on actors you recognize and music from some other big western movie or something.

The atmosphere of the west is charmingly displayed and it’s fun just to ride a horse around and explore the world (which is disappointingly small). The play is pretty clunky at first, but you eventually learn to get around it and enjoy such facets as a quick draw and the ability to knock people off their horses. The graphics are done well, and I can only imagine what it’d look like on the X-Box 360 (One day it will be mine).

Which I suppose is what makes the enterprise a disappointment. You see the potential with the acting and technical ability, but they were just too lazy or in too much of a hurry to pull it off right.