After seven years of skateboarding goodness, gamers were more than a little surprised to hear that NeverSoft is changing direction and galloping away into the sunset. Old West shooters have been a popular but misunderstood genre thus far, with gamers keen to get their hands on any instalment, recently with Rockstar's Red Dead Revolver leaving us eager for more. Neversoft have risen to the challenge and created GUN, a game that blends both first and third person shooting, set in the Wild West of the late 1800s.

Instead of choosing the obvious cowboys and Indians farce, with comedic bar room brawls for added effect, Neversoft roped in movie writer Randall Jahnson (Sunset Strip, The Doors, Mask of Zorro, Dude) to work closely with them in painting a strong, dark and gritty image of a violent Wild West, with a strong narrative. You're placed in an open ended (though very sparse) world that you can traverse on foot or horseback, as you make your way around the Wild West, completing both main and side missions to increase your stats. The feel of the game is very similar to Grand Theft Auto in its implementation, but it doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of content as the GTA series.

You play Coltan White, a young gunslinger who works alongside his father, Ned, as the two of them hunt for a living. After boarding a steamboat, it becomes clear that there is an unusual cargo aboard, which has drawn the attention of some very unpleasant folk. The boat is ambushed and you're thrown headfirst into the fight. During the siege, Ned confesses that he is not your real father and throws you overboard to save your life, leaving you with only a medallion and the name of a prostitute in Dodge City as clues to your true identity.

On his journey, Colt finds himself shooting his way through bandits, ex-military, railroad tycoons, apaches and a general array of misfits and psychos, set against a backdrop of revenge, greed and brutality. With the ability to play side missions along the way, whether it be taking the role of bounty hunter, sheriff, ranch hand or even delivery boy, they give you something to do for the first hour or two, but then soon lose their appeal and feel like a poor effort to boost the lifespan.

The game mechanics are brought together well and you will be knee deep in intense action soon enough. Luckily, it's easy enough changing between both first and third person camera viewpoints to deal with any unwanted company. You will travel through forests, to dusty towns and across long stretching deserts with wandering buffalo. At first you are taken in by the amount of scenery on offer, but soon you will get weary, as the textures could have been a lot better, both with interior locations and on open expanses of land. This issue is countered by the detail on characters and their animation, however, which is fluid and looks especially good as you fire, duck, reload and roll out of cover.

With an array of historically accurate weapons including pistols, rifles, sniper rifles, bows, molotov cocktails and dynamite, there are plenty of tools to deal with anyone that gets in your way. The weapon effects feel turned down though, and the tame bullet traces slightly ruin the intense shootouts; at least the explosions and fire effects look the part however, and when you see a group of bad guys engulfed and thrown against a wall all is forgiven!

You can also fight on horseback (with the horses looking as good as the characters and moving just as fluidly too) and you'll soon get hang of controlling and engaging multiple enemies at the same time, as it feels natural pretty much as soon as you saddle up for the first time. One extreme, but very effective, tactic (especially if you want to bring the bad guy in alive) is to shoot the horse and have it crashing down, throwing the rider off; beware though, as this can happen to you also if you're not careful.

Another cool feature is to use 'quick draw', which puts you into a first person view with your pistol and slows down time for a limited period; you can refill your meter with headshots or combos. This is a useful method to deal with a crowd of cannon fodder, and the ability to switch targets with the flick of your thumbstick means that you'll be taking out groups of bad guys in no time, although the system is a little too forgiving in that headshots and supposedly tricky shots are too easy to pull off.

The story and cut scenes are dark and gritty, which is no different to the in game content, especially with the quick draw feature, where you see chunks of a bad guy's head fly off when you make a head shot, or take limb off with a powerful rifle before walking up and finishing the job. Though the game is more violent and gory than you'd imagine, it doesn't glorify violence or take itself seriously enough to start the tabloids waving their fists in disgust; this is backed up when you see that the main villain travels along on a train with a giant skull stuck on the front, Dr. Evil style.

Gamers who are after a genre-defining Wild West game that sets the benchmark for all other contenders (like Half-Life for first person shooters), sadly GUN isn't it. There simply isn't enough in the game to make it the experience that we all want; after enough time of wandering and free roaming, you soon realise how empty and sparse the world is. Even in the towns, there are barely enough people around and the occupants seem intent on seeing who can win the 'pointlessly wandering around' contest, before picking a gunfight with each other at a two feet distance, after which you spend way too much time waiting for one to hit the other and win.

One major problem I have with the game is the length of the story. It is well written, containing some great and convincing dialogue, which pulls you in and drives you to see what will happen next (like any well written game should). However, you are barely immersed into this gritty world before half of the characters are dead and the story is in its closing stages - and you will definitely notice the lifeless character animation in many cut scenes, which ruins the storytelling.

A good point to bring up is the sound, from the brilliant voice acting, which is spot on for each character, to background music that puts you into the mood to ride off and tame the Wild West, creating just the right atmosphere. You also get pistols firing and explosions that sound the part, and you can almost feel the impact as you hear the meaty thud when your bullets hit home.

GUN is a good shot at making the perfect Western game in a genre that's difficult to make everyone happy. It has interesting features and plenty of action and intense shootouts to keep you entertained (especially when you get your grubby hands on the gatling gun) but between these parts you're left wandering around a dull environment with very little to keep you occupied. The story is well put together and one of the best I have seen in a while, but it's definitely too short and one of the main things that Neversoft should be looking at improving for the sequel is a story that lasts, with more to in the side missions. Unless you're totally crazy for all things Wild West, this one is better suited for a rental, rather than spending your hard earned cash on something that won't last much longer than a wagon passing through bandit territory.

Reviewed by Dan Allsop for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).