We get hands-on saddle time with Gameloft’s new wild-west sandbox adventure… Update: New Screenshots!
Originally posted October 17: After seeing the initial trailer for the game, it’s obvious that Six Guns will get comparison’s to RockStar’s Wild West epic Red Dead Redemption. After all, we all know that Gameloft are the expert cloners, bringing us iOS gamers a slice of console-like experiences we’d otherwise only dream of.
However, while Red Dead goes for realism, transporting you back to that bygone era of lawlessness and spittoons, Six Guns seems happy to deliver a fun shooter experience wrapped in a wild-west theme. In fact in our playtime, it seemed more content in offering up crazy gun fights, zombies and other monsters for slaughter.
The story tells of Buck Crosshaw, an outlaw who fakes his own death and travels to a new territory to start a new. But little does he know that by escaping one hell, another is just on the horizon. Bandits and lawmen are one thing, but how about Vampires and Werewolves?
There are 40 missions to play through, such as taking out robbers, saving damsels in distress and protecting sacred grounds, leading up to missions that are more supernatural in tone. There are also side challenges such as horse races, target practice and wave-based shootouts.
Missions are accessed through a map menu, from which you can plot a course, or for the impatient you can jump straight into the mission. If you do jump from mission-to-mission you’ll miss out on much of the horse riding (which, anyone who has played Red Dead knows, is the most fun), and any sub-missions that you could encounter on your journey. Much like Sacred Odyssey, you can call your horse at anytime, and your steed will magically appear. From here you can freely trot or gallop around the map in a sandbox style, or journey to your next destination to continue the story arc.
Combat is your usual 3rd-person fare. You can shoot from the hip, or tap the crosshairs to get a more accurate aim, but at the cost of slower movement. During a shootout with some angry mexicans (Nacho?), we tried out the cover system. Working very much like Silent Ops, it allows you to spring to walls and other objects to take cover from enemy fire, and shoot back in relative safety.
Much like the new Gangstar Game (more on that later), customisation seems just as important as the action. You can unlock items of clothing, like hats, boots and jackets, as well as different horses, and of course new weapons.
Speaking of weapons, there are 19 in total and they range from your usual western selection of Colts and Winchesters, but then start to get crazier territory with Rail Guns, and even a weapon called the Demon Thrower. We particularly enjoyed swinging the scythe during a monster shootout, though taking out flying witches was far easier with the trusty shotgun.
Graphically Six Guns isn’t as detailed as other Gameloft games. On the iPad 2 the textures were lower resolution and the models lower in polygons. Having said that this was no-doubt a design choice in order to ensure a steady frame-rate in the large expansive Arizona planes. We didn’t notice any pop-up, and we’d take a good balance of quality and frame-rate any day. That’s not to say the game is ugly, we got lost a few times while taking in the impressive sight of the sun setting over the western landscape.
Six Guns isn’t due for release until the end of November. So we expect it to come along some more from our initial playtest. With no multiplayer the story mode needs to work hard to engage players, and so far it looks promising. We are looking forward to getting more time in the saddle and breaking this game in… until then, be sure to stick around for more updates as they hit.
Update November 7: Check out these new screenshots…
Update November 14: 3D screenshot
