Gun!

It's not an 8.

The story is actually fun, and the loose shooting isn't such a big deal -- there's so much firing from horseback that a tighter system would be incredibly difficult.

But despite the free-roaming thing, once the story is done there really isn't much to do.

It looks fun, but it looks like it could easily fall short.

With all the great voice talent involved, I was really hoping they'd knock this one outta the park. Still, a fairly realistic-feeling Western is pretty rare these days, so count me in for at least a rental.

I've played and thought about it more, and it might be an 8. The story really is a lot of fun, and I love the voice actors. Tom Skerrit? Hell, yeah. I do wish there was more to do outside the story, and also that the horses didn't feel like electric cars. But it's got me hooked for now.

Gamespot gave it a 7.4. I had a feeling IGN was going to give it a rating around 8.

Just rented this fpr PS2 and played through a lot of it last night. It isn't as free roaming as I imagined. Once you get locked into missions you really are locked into the template. I think a 7.4 is a fair review. It is worth renting, but I'm not sure I'd pop 50 down for it. I will say I've enjoyed it and plan on finishing it this week.

I'd say get the non-Nexgen version of the game.

Yeah, I'm enjoying this as well.

Getting creamed by that psycho General after the canoe section with the indians though. How do you beat him?

Beating the General (slang):

Get up near him before he tosses any dynamite. Pop him a couple times in the head while he's throwing the stuff. You can whittle him down to about half. Then it's a combination of molotovs, shotgun and quickdraw. He'll retreat, strap dynamite all over his body and run at you. Just keep away and he's done. If you haven't done many side missions, this might be a good time to do some and get your stats up a bit.

/slang.

I find I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. Interesting story, great characters, cool action, lots to do. A solid effort.

Hell, I gave up on that @&%$# end boss fight.

I HATE it when game designers think they have to throw in some uber-armored end boss to cap off an otherwise fun game. The first time Magruder shouted "Your bullets can't harm me!" I knew this was going to be one s-h-i-t-t-y fight. Sure enough, you don't use ANY of the techniques or skills you've spent the entire game building up. Pathetic.

It just pulls you right out of the Western feel the game has earned, and feels like you're playing some stupid creature from Metroid Prime or something. "Oh, I see, I need to time some arrows to explode when he's walking over some weird gaseous vents! This is just like The Outlaw Josey Wales!"

I really enjoyed the game up until this fight. Shame on the designers. They could have done a hundred different things to make the end game dramatic and fun and Western-y. The whole end boss thing seems like an insult.

How long did it take you to finisih the game (minus the end-boss), Jacob?

I'm not sure exactly how long. I completed all the side quests (hunting, ranching, poker playing, bounty hunting, lawman-stuff), pretty much everything except mining all the gold. I'd say between 8 and 12 hours. I'll have to look and see if the game keeps track of time spent playing.

Wow...that is short. Take the western free-roaming setting and combine with Morrowind's length and depth and it'd probably be a classic.

That has been the main criticism of the game: It is simply too short, particualarly for a game that had the potential to be as deep as GTA III.

Just beat this and I think this is a must-rent but I have no idea why anyone would bother to buy it. I liked the story, I liked the side-missions, but it's definitely an 8 out of 10. I really hope they do a sequel and that they include the following:

1. A good vs. evil system. Some will cry KOTOR rip-off, but I think such a system would be very interesting in a world of outlaws and lawmen.

2. Puzzles. Unfortunately this game has no mental challenge. I would like to figure out what to do next. If I'm hunting a bounty, I would like to figure it out for myself instead of having a message flash across the top of the screen and a big "X" on my map telling me what to do.

3. Improve the Texas Hold-Em A.I. Aggressive betting will make your opponents fold about 90% of the time. Also, I don't think it's possible to get caught cheating, which makes the game even easier. Also, it shouldn't be free to play. With the amount of cash you can earn by mining gold and side-quests, you should actually be gambling instead of having nothing at risk.

4. More weapons, more customization. The game is all upgrades and I think it would make for more interesting strategy if you had to build your own weapons and choose which attributes to build.

I think my biggest problem with the game is that it's too easy in its design. It's a lot of fun and I enjoyed playing it, but it's pretty much just slashing and shooting your way through linear missions.

And I wholeheartedly agree with Jacob that the final boss was crap. Why can't there just be a knock down, drag out fight in a huge arena and you have to have the skill to survive. Having to shoot fire arrows or throw dynamite onto flaming pits (of course! It's so obvious!) was just crap.

Goddamn, I couldn't have said it all better. Loved the atmosphere, the gore, the voicework; hated the linearity, the shortness, the all-round non-challengingness (it ain't a word, I know).

Edit: That fucking music rocked so hard!!! Any place I can DL it or something?

I think everyone here is on the same page. Just finished this the other day after picking up a used copy.

Add the depth and length of Morrowind and this would have been a classic. I agree.

End boss pissed me off though.

Here's hoping for a sequel with all the suggestions made in this thread.

Picked this up the other day on a whim for 7 bucks. Not half bad so far, and i definitely agree with some of the criticisms mentioned in the thread. Sucks to hear about the final boss. I can't tell you how many games I've given up on and never bothered to beat just cause the final boss pissed me off.

I thought this was okay (played it on the PC); a bit short, but I got it in a trade so it didn't really cost me any money.

Not bad, but I think it was too limited because it had to run on PS2.

Last boss was kind of tough, but beatable.

Best thing about it was probably the voice cast.