Gun: Showdown
have you imagined yourself wearing a gunbelt with a shiny 6 shooter in its holster? or even getting into trouble in a saloon instead of having a drink of whiskey and a bar wench on your lap? getting an itch on that trigger finger? well here’s one for those who fancy the wild west and wants to become a cowboy for a few hours with the PSP. howdy, partner, here’s Gun: Showdown.
at first i thought this is just another Activision mistake after that Transformers: The Game foul up (sorry guys but that game really sucks). but then again i told myself to give it a try. anyway it won’t harm me. and it didn’t. because i was the one hurting those bastards in the game. shooting them, cutting them or even decapitating them using a cherokee tomahawk or a sabre, and blasting them to kingdom come using dynamite, or setting them on fire using a whiskey flask bomb.
the game starts with an introduction where a group of Spaniards and their priest journey to the westlands, in search of gold, and they found it. unfortunately they get hacked by a group of Indians for messing up with their land. then 300 years later you narrate the story to the gamer, you play as Colton White, a young gunslinger who travels the westlands with his father Ned White, hunting game and selling them to the rich people you come across in your journey, until that fateful day you discovered that your father Ned is not actually your father, worse, it was his dying words before he got blasted out to oblivion on a steamboat where you get to play a little gunfight with some raiders looking for an item which holds the secret to the Spanish gold lost for 300 years.
traditionally, shooting games have developed their own sense of style and gameplay, like some other titles out there, they have their own gimicks in store for gamers. i say, here you get to use a whole bunch of weird weapons, some of it you barely heard, and some, only existed during the 1800s. each weapon has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. like a peacemaker pistol for example, this 6 shooter is your standard weapon the game, it reloads normally, damages normally, and acts like real gun. but you can also enhance it to perform or kill better for a price. shotguns are good weapons up close range but horrible when your enemies are at a distance. rifles are good for mid-range attacks, but reloads a slow. for the ral long range shots you can use the snipes, but are really a pain when it come to reloading. you can also use other weapons like bows, fire bows, loco dynamite bows (a bow and arrow with dynamite attached to it), and even throwing knives. there are also dynamites and whiskey flasks bombs to throw on to enemies and structures too. you heal yourself by gulping a shot of whiskey, ain’t that nuts?
graphically this game’s been polished to the the core, making it look like your in a western film. or better yet, try the cut scenes, they look like your watching an old western movie. the sounds of guns blazing and ammo hitting on pavements sounds real and even looks real. but the real deal is the gore factor of the game. animated blood looks almost real enough for some, but the decapitations and dismembering baddies are a common in this game. the fun part of this game is the actual physics of things, things would react as to how they should in real life. mobs have one of the best AIs i’ve ever tried, reacting quick to simple gun shots to movement on the sand.
so i rate this game this way, graphics gets an 8/10 for the western movie feel, 8/10 for sound, and i give 8/10 for gameplay. it’s a real cool and fun game to play if you wanna feel like someone who came out during the wild west years, and you can even play against another player using Wlan on your PSP for a head to head gun showdown. do you feel so lucky, punk? go ahead, make my day.
