In Gun, you'll take on the role of Colton White, a hard-nosed cowboy out for revenge. You see, he recently lost his father in the hijacking of a steamboat, and is ready to extract retribution on the parties responsible. During his search for the killers, Colton meets friends along the way. These include Jenny, a prostitute at the local saloon, and Soapy, a safe-cracker who is every bit as slippery as his name suggests. These are just a couple of the characters you'll meet while playing Gun, most of which are pretty one-dimensional, yet effective in their roles in the storyline. Gun features a very good storyline, but it also has its share of problems, most of which stem from pacing. Gun's storyline is extremely fast paced, which at times can make the player feel left behind. Most of this storyline is told through elaborate cut-scenes which, while doing a great job of illustrating the story, cut you out of the action and remove any control you might've had to the direction of the plot (something that seriously hurts Gun's replay value - more on that later). One good thing about these cut scenes is that they are played within the engine, instead of being CGed, which does increase the feeling of immersion.

As you might have guessed by its name, Gun is first and foremost about high-intensity shoot-em'-up battles. In this area, Neversoft did a great job of creating some extremely fun and very addictive shootout action. Most of the gun fighting has a very "arcade" feel to it, but there is some strategy involved. For instance, bolting from behind your cover and running into a group of enemies can easily get you killed. You are always heavily outnumbered during these encounters with the enemy, so it's lucky Colton has some eerie powers to help you bend the odds. If you find you health low, you can always drink from your trusty flask, which contains lots of brown magical-healing liquid (which may or may not be whiskey). Colton also has the power to go into "quick-draw mode", which allows him to slow down time and take out huge numbers of enemies at once. This power may as well be called cheating while playing on the easier difficulty levels, but you cannot compete without it on the harder difficulty settings.

There is a large array of weapons you will acquire as you play through Gun. These include pistols, rifles, shot guns, sharpshooters (which are long-range, high-accuracy rifles) and even some fun stuff like whiskey bombs and TNT. Colton isn't just all about shootin' either. Sometimes he likes to get his hands dirty with melee weapons like the knife, the tomahawk and the cavalry sword. You can upgrade many of these weapons by visiting one of the shop keeps throughout the land, and these upgrades will make a significant difference during combat.

Gun has one feature I'm prepared to say has never been done better in a videogame, and that feature is horseback riding. Neversoft did a fantastic job with this aspect of the game. Riding your horse is incredibly fun, and while perhaps not being terribly realistic, it does do a great job of capturing that "cowboy" feel. While on horseback or on foot, you have a sizeable open-ended game world to explore - though at first will seem at lot larger than it really is. This world encompasses two towns and the mountains, hills and plains that surround them. There are a number of fun and fulfilling side-quests scattered throughout this world. These include Wanted Posters (straightforward seek and kill missions) and Pony Express missions which send you galloping across the countryside in an attempt to deliver messages within a time limit. Other types of missions include Ranch Hand, Deputy and Federal Marshal. There are even Poker missions that let you try your hand in a game of old-west Texas Hold Em'. Colton gains bonuses to his stats, or money for completing these missions, and you cannot fully enjoy the experience of Gun without exploring each of them.

Visually, Gun gets the job done with graphics that, while good enough, are hardly going to be described as impressive. Some of the textures are very bland, and some of the prop models are blocky to a ridiculous extent. Gun's presentation, however, makes up for that a lot. The game's user interface and menus all do a great job of maintaining the "old west" feel of the game. One of the strongest points of Gun is the absolutely superb score and voice acting in the game, both of which can honestly be described as Hollywood quality. The score features many instruments appropriate to the 1800s, and includes tracks that are both stirring and uplifting, as well as tracks that generate feelings of danger and foreboding. The voice acting cast is lead by none other than Kris Kristofferson of Lonestar and Blade fame. Other notable voice talent includes Tom Skerritt (Top Gun, Alien) and Ron Perlman (Blade, Hellboy). These elements are all put together by the game's terrific sound editing and composition team, and the results are undeniable in their excellence.

Once you start playing, Gun is a very hard game to put down. In fact, I'd expect most gamers to finish this game in less than a week. You see, this is the area where Gun suffers the most. Because of Gun's completely linear plot, there isn't much point to playing the game after you complete the main storyline. Thankfully, Neversoft included multiple difficulty modes for those of us who wanted to continue playing the game, but after completing the main plot you are still left with nothing to do. Gun doesn't feature online play of any kind, and it's too bad, because the game feels like it would have been a lot of fun to play, with or against other people. In the end, Gun makes me wonder what could have been? It also makes me wonder if the game may have been rushed out the door, perhaps so it could make the XBOX 360's launch lineup? In any event, Gun is a classic shooting game that is guaranteed to be fun for most gamers - just know that with Gun, the fun only lasts a few days.