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Gun
By Chris Jozefowicz,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Violent, hollow Old West action game. Adults only.
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What’s It About?
In GUN, hard-drinking, hard-boiled loner Colton White seeks to understand and avenge the murder of a man who raised him from infancy, a man White just discovered was not his real father. Players blast off heads, blow people apart with dynamite, scalp victims, slit the throats of hostages, watch as a prostitute gets her throat slit, kill animals, kill innocent civilians, and so on in this Wild West story.
Is It Any Good?
While White's world can be quite striking -- leaves fall from trees in green valleys while frogs croak and crickets chirp in the background -- the Wild West presented here is underpopulated, and players soon realize they are in a small, sterile territory. Exploring it gets old fast. Ultimately, there is too little to do. Even side missions, such as hunting rare animals and capturing wanted criminals dead or alive, seem tacked-on and grow repetitive.
The 18 story missions in the game rush players along, and can easily be finished in five to six hours. In the end, the violence comes off as simply gratuitous. This is definitely not for kids.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why violence in video games is sometimes presented with such graphic detail. Are stories that contain violence more interesting? How do violence and gore sometimes cover up for missing elements in a game, like solid gameplay or a creative story? Can a game ever be good enough to justify heaps of violence?
Game Details
- Platforms: PlayStation 2 , Nintendo GameCube
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Activision
- Release date: January 12, 2006
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- ESRB rating: M for blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol
- Last updated: November 4, 2015
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