Recent reviews by JhiL

The 2011 release 'CoJ:The Cartel' received lots of criticism.
Did Techland take notice and is this game any better?
In short: hell yeah!


*** THE STORY ***

It's the 19th century - The Wild West.
You take on the role of Silas Greaves. A bounty hunter.
The story is told by Silas himself (in exchange for some free whiskey) as he reflects on his journey.

Silas is on a quest for revenge. To right a wrong done to him. Hunting his archnemesis all throughout 'The Wild West' and meeting some notorious outlaws in the process. 'Billy: The Kid', 'Jesse James' and 'Butch Cassidy' to name a few. You'll actually get to duel them in a typical mexican standoff, but more on that later. In pursuit of your archnemesis, you''ll come across bank heists, train robberies, and what would a western be without some indians trying to scalp you.

Overall it's a pretty decent story. Nothing new, we all heard it before. Some plot twists and turns, but it's well executed. The voice acting is quite solid and the narrative style of storytelling contributes to the atmosphere of the game. I also liked the occasional story rewind of how things really went down. It seems our dear Mr. Silas Greaves tends to exaggerate a bit. Let's just contribute that to all the free whiskey he's been pouring down his throat in exchange for this story.


*** GRAPHICS ***

Graphics are great. It's a cel shaded style, which really fits the setting in this case. Some features include sun shafts, water ripples, weather effects and destructible objects. You have the ocassional low resolution textures, but nothing really disturbing. I'm usually to busy shooting people in the face anyways. Overall it looks really stunning and runs quite smooth also. I tend to favor gameplay over graphics, which brings me to....


*** GAMEPLAY ***

There are three gamemodes available: Story / Arcade / Duel
Let's begin with the story mode:

*story mode* consist out of a mission based (episodic) format.
Basically you'll move from objective to objective eliminating all who stand in your way in a linear path. At the end of the mission you will usually face a boss (in this case a famous outlaw like Jesse James) and have a true mexican standoff. Eliminating enemies will grant you with experience points. These can be used to unlock and upgrade some abilities. You have three tiers of skill categories which favor the matching playstyle (dual wielding / rifleman / shotgunner)

Maybe the best part about the gameplay is the return of 'bullet-time' we know so well from Max Payne. Slow motion gameplay, dodging bullets, lining up headshots (or crotch shots if you're into that) and keep those combo's going.

Enemies are hiding behind objects, actively taking cover.
A.I. isn't too smart though, but hey it remains an arcade style shooter and not a tactical masterpiece.

You'll also have your basic hidden secrets (golden nuggets) which, if collected, tell a bit about the background story and also net you some extra experience points in the process.

Some minor QTE's on scripted occasions are also present.
Luckily they're quite scarce and not all that annoying.

For the die-hard cowboy a 'new game+' mode is included.
This keeps your hard-earned xp and existing skills intact for the next playthrough, if you so desire. The True West difficulty only unlocks after finishing the story mode once and offers an increased challenge due to the complete absence of a HUD.

*Arcade mode* is basically a rehash from the story mode missions. Run through a parcours to the finish line, eliminating bad guys and scoring as much combo's and points as possible. Nothing really special here, but it guarantees some additional gametime.

*Duel mode* offers a mexican standoff against 15 of the in-game outlaws. 'Billy: The Kid', Jesse James, The Daltons, Butch Cassidy etc. The principle consists out of keeping two pointers simultaneously in the correct zones. One pointer resembles your draw hand and hovers above your pistol. The longer you keep it in the correct zone the faster you will draw your weapon. The second pointer is aimed at your opponent and resembles accuracy. The longer you correctly aim at your opponent the more accurate your shot will be. Furthermore, you can kill your opponents 'honorably' (which means that you react upon them drawing first) or 'dishonorably' (which inevitably means that you draw first). Statistics about reaction time and even leaderboards are available.


*** CONCLUSION ***

Gunslinger is quite a solid arcade shooter. I didn't expect this after the debacle with 'The Cartel'. Everything blends really well together (graphics, gameplay, sound and the narrative storytelling). It's an immersive experience and The Wild West never looked this good. Sure, one may claim it is too short (ca. 8-12 hours) story mode, depending on skill, rushing or finding all collectibles etc.) It's linear and not free roam and maybe has little replay value, but in the end it doesn't really hurt the game. For a $15 listing, this is quite a steal. I know some $50 titles that are a lot worse.

If you're looking for a solid arcade shooter, you actually might be pleasantly suprised.
My rating an easy (8/10).
Highly recommended!