Gun (video game)

This article is about the videogame. For the fictional organization, see Guardian Unit of Nations. For other uses of GUN and gun see Gun (disambiguation).

GUN is a video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision for the Xbox 360, Xbox, GameCube, PC, and PlayStation 2. It is set in the American Old West in the early 1880s. The protagonist, Colton White, is a hunter who turns into a gunslinger when his murdered father, Ned, instructs him to go to Dodge City. GUN features a free-roaming environment, including side-missions and other such touches. It was released in North America on November 8, 2005 and in mid-to late November in Europe.

Since October 13 2006, the game has also been available to buy on Valve's content delivery platform, Steam. This comes after an agreement with its publisher, Activision. Also available so far are: Call of Duty, the expansion, Call of Duty: United Offensive, and the sequel, Call of Duty 2.

A port of the game for PlayStation Portable, titled GUN Showdown, was released on October 10th, 2006. It features new side-missions, a multiplayer mode, and other additions to the console versions. According to Joystiq.com, publisher Activision has apparently hinted during a financial conference that a sequel may be in production. Taking note that sales were less than originally predicted, GUN sold the best among new game property leading some to believe that Activision will turn the title into a franchise.

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The story begins with our hero, Colton "Cole" White, hunting game with his father Ned along the Missouri River. After hunting elk, the two come across a steamer called the Morning Star. Upon boarding the steamer, Ned meets up with a prostitute named Sadie who leads him to a safe and shows him an item, hidden from view. Colton is then approached by a mysterious preacher named Reed, who follows Sadie after Ned approaches. Colton, suspicious of Reed, follows him and oversees him arguing with Sadie. Reed says "Give me the item and you will spare the lives of everyone on this ship!" Sadie instead slaps Reed, and Reed responds by exclaiming "Thy will be done" and then throwing a hatchet into Sadie's head. Suddenly, a group of soldiers attack the Morning Star, killing most of the passengers on board. Ned and Colton, with the few remaining passengers, hold off the attack until the boilers become unstable. Ned then gives Colton a token to a whorehouse in Dodge City and tells him to look for Jenny. Ned then tosses Colton off the ship, but not before revealing that he is not his birth father. The ship explodes, taking Ned and the rest of the passengers with it.

After Colton wakes up, he heads to Dodge City where he meets up with Jenny. After a brief kidnapping episode, the two head for Empire, a bustling new city in the New Mexico Territory. After they arrive, they meet up with Mayor "Hoodoo" Brown, who says that he can help find Reed. Brown deputizes White and sends him off to clean up the local resistance with two deputies, Rudabaugh & Webb. After following a resistance member by the name of Chavez to a local barn, White and the two deputies find an unarmed couple cowering in the barn. Rudabaugh and Webb kill the two, and Colton threatens to kill them. He does, but not before Rudabaugh reveals that Brown may know more than he is letting on. White heads back to Empire and confronts Brown, but is distracted when he hears Jenny's screams. He runs upstairs to find Reed just as he slits Jenny's throat. Hoodoo then sneaks up behind Cole and knocks him unconscious. When Cole awakens, he is face to face with a one-eyed man named Thomas Magruder, who claims he knows Ned White. He orders that Cole be hanged in the morning for the murder of Jenny. Cole is then tossed in jail overnight.

In jail, Cole meets Port, a wounded member of the resistance, and Soapy, an expert safecracker. After escaping Empire, Soapy parts ways and Port and Cole head to the resistance's base camp in the mountains. It is there Cole meets the head of the resistance, Clay Allison, and Cole resolves to kill Magruder and anyone working for him. After ambushing one of Hoodoo's trains, the group steals a gatling gun. In the celebration afterwards, Allison reveals several things to Cole. He says that he knew Ned White, and that Magruder was their commanding officer during the Civil War. Allison says that Magruder tried to convince the Confederate hierarchy that the war could be won if they found Quivira, an ancient city of gold. A group of Magruder's men, Ned and Clay among them, descend on a small Apache village looking for a cross that could lead them to Quivira. After an Indian backtalks Magruder, Magruder shoots him in the face. Ned takes exception, but Magruder responds by shooting Ned, though not killing him. Magruder then decapitates a white doctor. Allison finds the cross and tosses it to Magruder. An Apache woman shoots at Magruder shooting his eye our and blowing the cross apart in the process. The rest of the soldiers proceed to execute the Apaches. After Clay finishes the story, a group of Hoodoo's men attack the base. The resistance manages to hold them off, and capture a Howitzer in the process but Clay is caught by Hoodoo and taken back to Empire. The resistance stages a daring rescue, and Cole manages to free Clay, but only after he had been tortured by Hoodoo. After an extended gunfight, Cole shoots Hoodoo, sending him through a second story window.

Cole heads for Dodge to get Soapy to help him recover the piece of the cross stowed in the ship's safe. When he arrives, he finds out that Soapy is about to be lynched for cheating in a card game. With the help of Sheriff Denton, Cole frees Soapy and the two head for the ship, but find it guarded by the same soldiers who attacked the Morning Star. The two are captured and introduced to Sergeant Hollister, who runs the camp. Cole, Soapy, and several Indians escape the fort and return later with a band of Blackfeet Indians to take the fort. They succeed and kill all the soldiers, but Hollister manages to escape. Soapy, Cole and the Blackfeet chief head for the shore holding the steamboat and are confronted by Hollister, who wounds the Indian Chief. Colton and Hollister proceed to engage in an extended gunfight, in which Colton gains the upper hand. Nearing death, Hollister hides behind a rock and shoves several sticks of dynamite into his uniform and lights them. He makes a suicide run for Cole, but fails and blows up. Cole recovers Ned's rifle that Hollister stole and he and Soapy head for the steamer. Soapy opens the safe, and they find half of the cross, but they are confronted by Reed, who thanks them for saving him the trouble. Instead, Cole tosses the cross back into the safe and slams it shut. Cole battles Reed, and, after shooting him in the leg, jams Ned's rifle into his mouth, ignores his pleas for mercy, and kills him, saying "This is for Jenny."

Soapy and Cole then head for the Apache camp to reunite the pieces of the cross, only to find a gruesome ward made of men who had been skinned and hung upside down. They are captured by the Apaches and taken to their chief, Many Wounds. The Apache leader shows Cole some things and the story continues from where the village massacre left off. An Indian woman gives young Many Wounds a baby and tells him to hide. Meanwhile, the baby's father, Dr. Campbell, is decapitated and the rest of the village slaughtered. When everyone is dead, Many Wounds finds his dead father and states he will take revenge. Ned then shambles up and begs forgiveness. Many Wounds says that Ned will be forgiven if he takes the baby into his care. The baby is Colton.

Soapy, Cole, Many Wounds, and some other Apaches head to the spot where the cross can be placed to find Quivira. Cole notices that while Magruder did get the spot right, he was digging down when Quivira was right above his head. Magruder's bodyguard Dutchie sees the light shine off the cross and fires a cannon at the hillside. Soapy falls down the cliff and is captured by Dutchie. Cole fights his way down the mountain. He finds Soapy in the middle of the traintracks at the bottom of the hill, with two of his fingers shot off. He says he told Magruder where the mine was. Cole leaves Soapy behind and tells him to tell Allison and Many Wounds to meet him at the mine. He stops Magurder's train and kills Dutchie. After stealing the train, he and Allison begin stoking the fire in the engine and ram the steel doors of Magruder's mine. After a long battle pentrating deep into the mine, the roof starts caving in as a result of shoddy, quick mining. Cole tells Clay to pull back while he follows Magruder. Cole finds Magruder in the middle of Quivira, amazed by the beauty. However, they fight, and eventually Magruder starts tossing sticks of dynamite at Cole. Cole shoots the dynamite, causing a rock to collapse and crush Magruder's leg. Instead of torturing Magruder, the cave starts to collapse and Cole makes it out with Many Wounds' help. A large rock dislodges cutting off and crushing Magruder's top half of his torso. Many Wounds and Cole barely make it out and as they watch Quivira collapse within the mountain, Cole says to Many Wounds, "Now our fathers can rest in peace." Template:Endspoiler

GUN is played by controlling Colton from a third person perspective, playing much like a generic third-person shooter. Similar to elements from Max Payne and F.E.A.R, the player can engage a "Quickdraw" feature, which slows down the action going for a limited amount of time, aiding the player in shooting (technically, this is called bullet-time). Another feature is that Colton recovers health by drinking out of his flask. The player is also free to roam the game world on foot or riding a horse, taking optional missions as one pleases. Colton cannot swim.

The gameplay is not limited to head-on action, however. Colton is able to upgrade the time he gets to use Quickdraw, the reload speed of his weapons, the speed of his horse, and so on (very much like a role-playing game) by buying items from stores. Money is obtained by playing Texas Hold-em', completing missions, side-missions, and finding gold.

Weapons in the game are obtained merely by making progress in the main storyline. There are a total of 20.

Pistols

• Colt Peacemaker
• Colt Navy Revolver
• Schofield
• Volcanic 10

Rifles

• Winchester 1866
• Ferguson

Shotguns

• Colt Double Barrel
• Shotgun Model 1887
• Nock gun
• Cannon Nock Gun

Sharpshooters

• Sharps 1874
• Remington

Melee

• Bowie Knife
• Quick Killer's Tomahawk
• Cavalry Sword/Sabre

Thrown

• Whiskey Bomb
• Dynamite

Bow

• Apache Bow
• Blackfoot Fire Bow
• Loco Dynamite Bow

The game sold a relatively disappointing 225,000 units across the four systems it was initially released for. [1] While this was less than expected, Activision has noted that GUN did sell the best among new video game properties and has hinted at the possibility of a sequel, which remains unconfirmed as of October 2006. Much information regarding the title should be taken as speculation.

Activision has responded to The Association for American Indian Development's petition, which demands a recall (and edit) of GUN on the grounds that the game inaccurately depicts the Apache people using degrading and harmful content. The publisher issued this brief statement:

"Activision does not condone or advocate any of the atrocities that occurred in the American West during the 1800s. GUN was designed to reflect the harshness of life on the American frontier at that time. It was not Activision’s intention to offend any race or ethnic group with GUN, and we apologize to any who might have been offended by the game’s depiction of historical events which have been conveyed not only through video games but through films, television programming, books and other media."

The content throughout GUN contains Graphic Violence, Strong Language, Sexual Themes/Humor, and Alcohol Usage. The most content of GUN is graphic violence and strong language through gameplay and cut scenes, sexual themes and humor is cautious through gameplay and cut scenes, and whiskey usage is for recovering your health.

• The game features a cast full of notable actors, including Ron Perlman, Lance Henriksen, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Skerritt, Brad Dourif and the lead played by Thomas Jane.
• The game features a number of characters whose names are taken from real-life Old West figures, including Clay Allison, Jose Chavez y Chavez, Hoodoo Brown, Dave Rudabaugh, John Joshua "J.J" Webb, Luke Short as well as Major Thomas Magruder who may have been based off of John B. Magruder, Soapy Jennings who was probably based on Soapy Smith, and Magruder's hulking personal bodyguard, Dutchie, who was possibly based on "Dutchy" Schunderberger, a member of the real-life Hoodoo Brown's Dodge City Gang.
• The name of the famous house of pleasure in the game "Alhambra" comes from a former pleasure-castle of the Moorish Nasriden royalty of Granada, named for the red bricks from which it is made.
• An Alternate Reality Game called "Last Call Poker" was used to promote GUN.
• Although stated as happening in 1880, that would make Colton only sixteen years old at that time (since he was just a baby during the end of the Civil War). Also, appearance of Winchester Model 1887/1901 as one of the characters weapons further puts this date into doubt. Similar problems appear throughout the game, including references by Clay, who saw Ned die 'ten years ago' when in fact the end of the civil war would have been 16 years ago by that time. And even if it were so, that would make Colton about ten years old.

• Colton White placed #7 on Game Informer's "Top 10 Heroes of 2005" list.

• Official site
• Gun Showdown.com
• Trailers and gameplay footage on GameTrailers
• Speed run video at Speed Demos Archive
• Last Call Poker The website of the Alternate Reality Game, used to promote the game.
• GUN at MobyGames