Gameloft, known for games such as the Modern Combat series and N.O.V.A, brings a fun new third person action game to the App Store. Six-Guns (free App Store Link) is one of the first Western-themed games to arrive on the app store that has some shades of Red Dead Redemption. Unlike most games from Gameloft, Six-Guns is a freemium app, which is good, but if you want to buy more ammo or health among other items, you purchase it using real money.
From the start of the game you jump right into the action, following a brief tutorial. In Six Guns, you play as Buck Crosshaw – an outlaw who faked his own death, and now finds himself in Arizona where he runs into an ancient force he has to overcome. There is a twist on some of the enemies, but if you are a fan of either of the Red Dead Redemption games, Six-Guns should feel familiar to you.
Gameplay
Six-Guns provides widely varied gameplay styles, from defeating a gang of enemies, protecting your turf, and even horse racing. There are 40 different tasks in all, so there is a great range of things to accomplish in Six Guns. Six Guns operates in a free roaming, open-world environment, but while on your missions, you have to select the map, then select a scene and follow the map to get where you’re going. There is a path you have to stick to, and even though it has sandbox type gameplay, it feels a bit restricted, probably because some of the missions feel the same.
The horse races are a good change of pace from the rest of the missions, but there’s not a big difference in each race. Once you get more into the game, most of the quests feel quite similar to one another. The game does have a lot of different enemies, however – at first you are attacked by some random gang members. As you continue your journey through each mission, you’ll run into gargoyles, vampires, and banshee ghouls. If you manage your ammo enough, you can go through the game without having to buy ammo with real money through in-app purchases. The same goes for health and experience points. If you really need to buy any of it though, it starts at $1.99 and it goes up from there.
Controls
The controls work pretty well, but they take some getting used to. Everything looks and feels a bit cluttered if you’re playing on an iPhone or an iPod Touch. Sometimes when I’m using the analog stick to move around the environment, I accidentally aim a weapon which is above the analog. Other than that, the menu at the top of the screen is a bit too bunched up. I’d rather pause the game and go into a separate menu. The aiming is pretty easy. I noticed I wasn’t 100% accurate with a few of my shots and I still did fine shooting. It’s not too challenging when you’re against enemies until you get to the higher missions.
Graphics
The developers at Gameloft always push out great graphics with their games. Six Guns is no different. The cut scenes look really well done, as does most of the environment. Since the game is set in the Wild West and in deserts, there’s a lot of empty space and some of the scenery looks the same, but it’s not too noticeable. The characters and A.I. look good for an iOS game. Other than that, the game lags once in a while, and I also ran into a few bugs, which will hopefully be cleaned up in a future update.
Verdict
Six-Guns is a good game for what it has to offer. There’s a ton of replay value because you can go back to earlier missions and play them with harder enemies. As you gain more experience and happen to replay a mission, your enemies will always be more difficult. One thing I noticed throughout the game was that there are no voice-overs. It would have been nice if they were in there, but it’s nothing to gripe too much about, and it doesn’t take away from the gameplay or the story (the little of it that there is). If you are a fan of either of the Red Dead Redemption games, you’ll like Six-Guns.
Price: Free (App Store link)
Rating: 3.5/5[rating:3.5]
Pros
- 40 different missions
- 19 different weapons
- Free to play
- Decent graphics
- Offers fairly good replay value
Cons
- Needs a more in-depth story you can follow
- Some missions seem repetitive
