I was going to mark this Not Recommended for one reason: Ubisoft.
Then I checked.
Ubisoft originally published Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. Techland publishes the Steam version today.
So this is a Yes.
♥♥♥♥ Ubisoft. Just not over this one.
I am 9.3 hours in and close to the end. The campaign is short, and I have not rolled credits yet. If the ending changes my opinion, I will update the review. What I have played is a focused arcade Western shooter that knows exactly what it wants to be.
The entire game is a tall Western tale told by a bounty hunter who may be full of ♥♥♥♥.
Silas Greaves sits in a saloon and tells the story of his life as a gunslinger. You play through those memories as he narrates them. When somebody questions his version of events, or Silas changes his mind about what happened, the level changes with him. Paths appear, encounters restart and enemies can change because the story has changed.
The narration is not sitting on top of the game. It is part of the level design, and it is easily the best idea in Gunslinger.
Silas crosses paths with Billy the Kid, Jesse James, the Dalton brothers and other well-known figures from the Old West. The game plays with the legends, while collectible cards called Nuggets of Truth give you some of the actual history behind the people and events. It is a small feature, but I enjoyed finding them and reading the entries.
The dialogue and voice acting sound exactly like this kind of game should. Silas enjoys his own story, the people in the saloon challenge him, and some of it is genuinely funny. No complaints here.
The cel-shaded art style was the right choice. It suits a story sitting somewhere between history and myth, and it still looks good for a game released in 2013. The main visual problem is that enemies can blend into the terrain. In a fast shooter, struggling to see what is shooting at you is not ideal.
The weapon selection is small: revolvers, rifles, shotguns and dynamite. That is enough. This is an arcade shooter, not a loot game, and it does not need forty versions of the same gun.
Three simple skill trees let you lean into your preferred weapons. They are not deep, but the upgrades make a noticeable difference as you progress.
Arcade mode turns the levels into score runs where you chase combos and improve your high score. Duel mode focuses on the quick-draw system and lets you face a line-up of gunslingers. Neither mode is huge, but both suit the game and give the short campaign some replay value.
Controller support is where Gunslinger feels its age.
The camera does not feel terrible, but it does not feel good either. The game does not give me the proper control I want over deadzones, aiming sensitivity and response. It is playable, but playable is not the same as properly tuned.
The shooting deserves better.
Performance is also strange. With V-Sync disabled, my frame counter can go beyond 400 FPS, so the renderer is clearly not hard-capped at 60. It still does not look or feel smooth in motion and often presents like a 60 Hz game.
I cannot tell you whether that is frame pacing, camera updates or something else. I can tell you that the number on the counter does not match what I see.
The campaign is short, but at $1.99 I do not care. It does what it came to do, and Arcade and Duel modes give you somewhere to go afterwards.
For that, I got a Western shoot-'em-up, a tall tale and a small history lesson.
Easy recommendation.
