Although the original release of Gun on the consoles was several months back, it is still remembered fondly by many who played it. It wasn’t quite "Grand Theft Horse" like some expected it to be, but it was a solid Western-themed action title. Now developer Rebellion and publisher Activision have brought us Gun: Showdown for the PSP. Since the game is pretty much a straight port of the console version with a few extras thrown in, most of the good stuff from the other platforms is here too. The interesting story is intact, along with the top shelf voice acting. For those that haven’t played the other versions of Gun, your main character Colton starts out as a humble mountain-man who eventually gets wound up in an Old West web of revenge and intrigue while piecing together a jigsaw puzzle of past events.
While it is billed as a free-roaming genre game, it actually feels more linear than that as there’s not a whole lot of substance for those who wander off the beaten path. Still, while the small side missions are a bit light on content, they actually seem well suited to shorter play times which fits the portable format just fine, and the main missions seem to play at an enjoyable clip if you have a little bit more time on your hands.
"The goals are always clearly defined"
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The side missions let you earn money to buy items to buff your character’s weapons and stats, while the main missions advance the story. While the fun factor of each mission ranges from inventive ambush prep to pedestrian escort duty, the goals are always clearly defined. This is one free-roaming game where you will never be at a loss to know what the game expects of you next, which is a nice change of pace.
Aside from the controls, on a technical level this game has been ported fairly skillfully to the PSP. The character models and environments are crafted well for a portable title, even if the general look of the game is abandoned and dingy. Then again, it’s probably historically accurate even if it’s not the most aesthetically beautiful thing to behold. The developers definitely deserve praise for making the game load nimbly, especially when compared to other games on its platform. Aside from a few glitches in the cut-scenes where character dialogue is occasionally clipped, it’s more proof that a PS2 game can be ported to the PSP mostly intact, well, aside from one incredibly major department.
To put it bluntly, the controls in this game are an utter mess. While many other PS2 ports to the PSP were done without a hitch in the controls, if there was ever a poster child for the PSP’s need of a second analog stick, Gun would probably be it. The aiming of the gun was mapped to the second analog stick on other platforms, but here on the PSP they were forced to make the four face buttons work as the gun’s joystick, and it’s just plain awful to play with.
"The controls in this game are an utter mess"
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While they do allow you in the options to switch the gun to the analog stick and character movement to the buttons, it somehow manages to feel even worse: you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. On top of this, six to seven other important functions end up crammed into the directional pad, which is confusing and hard to access. Try holding down on the direction button and pressing triangle to reload while you’re attempting to ride a horse using the analog stick at the same time and you’ll quickly feel the pain. The result of all this is that aiming ends up being no fun and totally inaccurate, with the camera control suffering as well: good luck with looking where you leap in some of the jumping-oriented missions.
Which leads us to the real problem of the game: as expected from a game named Gun, so much of the fun depends on the feel of your firearm and the rhythm of aiming and shooting. The muddled controls make getting any natural grip on this focal point of the game nearly impossible, and you’re never able to enjoy the thrill of being a crack shot when you feel removed from the process at such a basic level.
"You feel little accomplishment from your successes in the game"
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The game seems to be aware of this and allows generous helpings of the Quickshot bullet-time mode to compensate, but it’s so automatically accurate that it’s unrewarding. Due to these problems, the sad fact is that you feel little accomplishment from your successes in the game; if you shoot well it feels more like the result of luck or computer assistance rather than skill.
With this in mind, it’s hard to recommend this game, because it’s difficult to think of who would benefit from playing it on this platform with these problems. Since it’s a straight port with control issues, those who wish to have the full experience of the game would be better served trying it on the consoles, whereas those looking for a portable experience will just end up frustrated with the controls and most likely give up on the title. Everything else on the porting checklist seems to pass muster just fine, but when a shooting-based game has faulty gun controls it ends up negating all the other successes, and that’s a shame.
