GUN Showdown

Last year’s GUN was a solid entry to the neglected Western genre. While the game had it’s problems (most people found it way too short), it stood as a refreshing take on the genre, presenting the Wild West as it’s never been shown in a game, as a cutthroat and brutal place. Now, the PSP version has been released, and the results are a pretty competent port of the game. GUN Showdown offers all of the gameplay of the original game, as well as a fair amount of mini-game extras and added missions.

Unfortunately, the PSP version is mired by the technical limitations of the system itself, namely the lack of a second thumbstick, making the game more of a frustrating endeavor to control than it should be. However, the game does offer the bells and whistles of the console version very accurately as well as the new elements, and stands as a great testament of how the PSP is a viable system to take a console-level experience on the go.

GUN Showdown presents the same story as GUN, putting you in the boots of Colton White, a man out to avenge the murder of his father. You get intertwined in a web of deception and intrigue along the way, meeting friends and making enemies, all in the conquest of revenge.

GUN Showdown is more than just a straight port of the original GUN. For starters, GUN Showdown adds five new missions to the game, which were omitted in some point of the original game’s development cycle. The new missions fit within the game’s story mode seamlessly, so unless you played through the original GUN, you wouldn’t even realize that they were initially cut out. These add a couple more hours onto the game’s storyline, so those unhappy with the length of the original should be somewhat satisfied.

Another addition to the gameplay comes in the form of new weapons. The stealth element has been extended from just bows and arrows to throwing knives that allow you to perform silent kills of a different manner.

Some of the more predominant additions to the game are the new mini-games. Given the portability of the PSP, this is a great idea, as it allows you to hop into a quick game of bear hunting or play a quick game of poker without getting caught up in the story.

The game also has pretty competent ad-hoc multiplayer modes. You can play in deathmatch and  capture the flag (referred to as “Golden Cross”) modes, as well as Texas Hold’em if poker’s your game.

Controlwise, GUN Showdown can be an exercise in frustration, at least at first. Granted, the developers didn’t have much to work with considering the PSP’s single thumbstick. Movement is controlled with the stick, while camera angles and aiming are done with the face buttons. The auto-aim system is pretty forgiving, but trying to control the camera and move around can be a pain.

GUN Showdown is an impressive looking game. Even though the textures are a bit more washed out than they were on the consoles, the game does a great job of emulating the look of the original.

The sound is pretty good. The top-notch voice acting from the original is fully featured in the PSP version, but the sound is generally more compressed and tinny sounding. The great soundtrack seems uncompromised, however.

GUN Showdown is an impressive feat, capturing the scope and most of the elements from the console version, albeit with plenty of extras. The controls do take some getting used to, but once over that hump, GUN Showdown is a solid game to take on the road with your PSP.

Gameplay: 8.0
GUN Showdown presents the scale and scope of the console iterations with some new missions and mini-games to keep it interesting. The controls take some getting used to, however.

Graphics: 8.5
GUN Showdown is a great looking game. Aside from the occasionally murky background, Showdown looks about on par with the console versions.

Sound: 8.0
The top-notch voice acting returns, but in compressed sounding form. The great soundtrack comes out unscathed fortunately.

Difficulty: Medium

Multiplayer: 8.0
GUN Showdown offers compelling multiplayer gameplay in the form of hairy ad hoc battles and poker matches.

Concept: 8.0
Even though it’s ported to a technologically inferior system, GUN Showdown offers all the action of it’s big brother and plenty of added features.

Overall: 8.0
More than just a ho-hum straight port, GUN Showdown offers up a heaping of extras and multiplayer missions that fans of last year’s game would enjoy checking out, as well as those who missed it.