I have to admit I have been a bit down on the Xbox 360’s peripheral of late. It just seems like I have played a string of Kinect games that don’t quite live up to expectations. Flying under the radar, The Gunstringer arrives from Microsoft Studios without much hoopla and at a time when I have hit my low point for Kinect titles. So as you can imagine, my expectations for The Gunstringer was understandably very low. Yet much to my surprise, The Gunstringer has been a hoot and has somewhat renewed my faith in how Kinect games should be played.
The Gunstringer is set in the Old West like many other cowboy games, but this one is presented in the form of a theatre house play. There is an audience watching the action and this is presented by showing footage of a live group of people in an actual theatre. They applaud, laugh, and boo, and even gasp at times as they react to your performance in the game. The footage in the theatre is the only live action footage as the rest of the game is animated and played out like a typical video game. The Gunstringer is anything but a typical video game though. What is the audience watching you ask? They are watching you control an animated puppet.
The game starts out with a group of people settling in to see a show when our hero, an undead gunslinger named The Gunstringer, rises from the grave. The Gunstringer is a skeleton cowboy marionette who has a thirst for revenge and will stop at nothing to unleash his six-shooter on anyone or anything that gets in his way. His old posse packed him full of lead and left him for dead, so this crazy skeleton will stop at nothing to hunt them down. The story is told by narrator who follows your every action and wonderfully describes the events that go on in the game. The story isn’t the most hart-warming tale, but as I like to say, it works. It is a simple premise that provides a nice backdrop to the real enjoyment in the game, that being the gun slinging.
Your arms are the primary form of control when playing The Gunstringer. I tried to sit down when playing but the Kinect sensor did not read my arm movements properly. As a result the game would come to a halt and I would be prompted to get up so the Kinect could read my body movements. The game is advertised as a game you can play sitting down, but unfortunately that didn’t quite work out for me that could be due to a variety of reasons. Anyhow, you control your skeleton marionette with your left hand just as you would if you were holding a puppet held on strings. Moving your puppet side-to-side and jumping is performed by moving your left hand in the appropriate directions. Holding the puppet in such a manner can be exhausting, but I found if I tucked my elbow into my body that would alleviate some of the strain. Your right hand is used to control the gun but not in manner as you would suspect. I went in thinking I would be pointing my finger at the screen and shooting by moving my thumb back and forth just like when I was kid playing cowboys and indians. Instead, you point your right hand towards the screen and flick it upwards to shoot. By waving your hand across the screen you can tag multiple enemies at once and flicking your hand up can kill all the enemies in succession.
For the most part, the controls worked quite well. Granted there are occasions where the game did not respond to my actions, but these instances were not all that common. Yet this can cost you some health if you don’t fire your weapon in time or move your character out of the way before an incoming bullet or brick of dynamite blows up in front of you. So this can certainly be agitating when it does occur.
As much as I enjoyed the game’s controls, I should warm you the game does require a fair amount physical exertion as The Gunstringer can wear you down fairly quickly and ultimately take away from some of the enjoyment in the game. Even my 8-year old daughter, after playing the game for about 10-minutes turned to me and said, “Dad I like this game but my arms are tired. I need a rest”. So The Gunstringer is really a game meant to be played in short bursts.
The majority of the game plays on rails as it guides you along the many levels in a pre-determined path. If you miss something to shoot at, your character breezes on by the enemies or other targets. That being said, the game involves a little more than simply moving and shooting with your puppet. There are platforming sequences in the game where you have to guide your Gunstringer over train cars, exploding barrels, and dodging giant boulders. There are also sequences where you need to fire two guns at once at several moving targets and there are time where you have to punch out enemies by merely punching at the screen with you left and right fist. There are also boss fights which can offer up a bit of a challenge. As a whole though the game is not too difficult though as it provides you with a good chunk of health, and in those instances that you die, you do pick up where you left off.
The game’s difficulty increases as you progress along. What is really challenging is getting a very high score at the end of each level. Certain scores will award you with a bronze, silver or gold medal. Most of the time, I ended up with a bronze or silver rating. The rating system does add some replay value as getting gold medals in all the levels will take some precision and practice.
The Gunstringer also has a co-op mode which is enjoyable. Playing alongside my daughter was a blast; however, the action can become a tad too chaotic on screen at times. Personally I preferred playing the game solo, but many may enjoy playing the game alongside a friend. It is a teen rated game, so there are some parts of the game that are not appropriate for the little ones.
The single player campaign is a short one and this will likely disappoint many. The campaign should take you anywhere from 3 to 5 hours to complete. I can see how the game was intended to be an arcade game as it does appear a tad thin on features and depth, yet 5 hours is about all I could take of this game. I found it to be a perfect length. After the first few levels the gameplay does start to repeat itself anyhow.
On a side note you do get a free copy of Fruit Ninja Kinect which is a nice little bonus and the game is appropriately priced at most brick and mortar/online retailers for around 40 bucks, so you do not have to blow the budget to pick up a new copy of The Gunstringer.
As far as the visuals are concerned, The Gunstringer scores high marks. The game is very colourful, the presentation is original, and the game’s main hero, the skeleton cowboy marionette, looks great. If The Gunstringer turns into a hit franchise, I can envision skeleton marionettes in stores. There is something about his overall design that makes him appealing and much of that has to do with the way he looks, moves, and guns down everything in sight.
The cardboard cutout western themed environments are perfectly suited for this goofy adventure. The movie clips of real life people in a theatre environment cheering on our hero on are something I have yet to see in a game and much to my surprise it works. There is no question The Gunstringer is one of the most unique games you will play on the Kinect. Granted, The Gunstringer will not maximize the Xbox 360 hardware by any stretch, and there is nothing so visually stunning that it will blow your socks off, but it is technically solid and what you do get is wonderful and charming.
Much like the game visuals, the sounds in the game are bang-on as nothing is too over the top given you do not get big swooping orchestral sounds or voice work from well known Hollywood stars. What you do get though is a game that is wonderfully narrated. The humour is well placed and works. The narrator’s charm accurately describes your characters blood thirsty emotions and what is going on in the game. He has a gritty western cowboy-like voice that has you hanging on every word as you mow down large birds, cowboys, sheriffs, sheep, and other crazy characters. I often sound myself chuckling at some of the one-liners in the game. The music on the other hand is on par with other western themed games. Finally, the sound effects pack a punch and are well timed with your body’s motion controls. The applauding of the crowd when you string off a series of perfectly timed shots is a nice little touch and gives the game that spaghetti western feeling. Gun sounds, explosions, and other in-game sound effects all sound great in 5.1 Surround Sound. All in all, I was quite pleased with the audio package in the game.
Overall, The Gunstringer is one of the better Kinect games to arrive since the peripherals launch. Controlling your crazy bloodthirsty skeleton cowboy marionette is a hoot. The game never takes itself too seriously as it is a goofy and silly adventure. All the elements come together to make a great little Kinect game that is reasonably priced. If you own a Kinect and are looking for something a little different that is highly engaging for it, then The Gunstringer may just be for you.
