A Fistful of Gun - The Righteous Review

[Hitch]

A few months ago I found a stream on twitch by this guy, Paul Hart, whom I had never heard about before. He was designing some graphics that seem to be based around the wonderful Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns of the 1960s, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, A fistful of Dollars, Once Upon a Time in America and others. In the background he was also streaming some music from those same films by the incredible Ennio Morricone. The art was good. The art was very good. I then realised this was not just some static images, this was all for a game that he was also developing. I have to admit, I was instantly hooked. My favourite movie genre was being recreated in my favourite pastime, video gaming.

Fast forward a few months to present time and I get to present to you the A Fistful of Gun review and if asked to sum up my feelings in one word, that word would be, wow.

A Fistful of Gun – For a Few Gun More, is in simple terms a top down shooter where you and up to nine, yes nine, other players get to wield the baddest, most righteous gunslingers in the wicked wild west. Simple terms however do this game no justice, A Fistful of Gun is one of the most frenetic, hilarious, addictive and complete video games I have ever had the pleasure to play.

To say that Fistful of Gun is a multiplayer game would be doing it a severe injustice though at it’s heart it really is meant to be played with others, both locally through a wonderful system of couch co-op or online with fully optimised net code. Have no fears that this is yet another Indie game with tacked on online play as it is not, Fistful of Gun plays incredibly well online and offers a wealth of modes and fun, however I shall start with the story mode.

Taking the role of one of eleven characters you play the part of a lone gunman with one task, to stop the evil railroad Baron, Clayton Boon, and avenge the ‘righteous psychosis’ of those he has wronged. To do this you must traverse thirteen miles of barren western deserts, hokey townships, corrupt lawmen, arrow toting red Indians and much much more. Along the way you will find pickups to upgrade your guns, barrels of Whiskey that really test your drunken gun-slinging skills, and even a very powerful drug induced high that will have you trippin’ all the way to your characters tombstone. After it’s initial release we are also promised access to Spirit Animals to help you on your quest. All of this is done through a top down, almost bullet hell game play filled with colour, and extremely pretty pixel styled graphics that invoke a retro gaming feel but a very modern and fast gaming experience.

Levels in A Fistful of Gun vary extensively in looks and feel and you will find that what worked on the previous one will not do so on the next. This makes the game feel fresh every time you progress and each play-through is always a little different which can and will keep you coming back for more. Top this off with an excellent high score list that keeps track of all global players and your friends and you have more than one reason to keep coming back for more.

In addition to the single player Story section of the game we also have Local and Online Arcade mode which involves multiple levels of gunslinger action across all the varied themed areas and with harder A.I. as you progress. The arcade mode can also be played solo or with up to nine other players through online play or Fistfuls unique control style where all nine players can couch around just the one PC and use a combination of purely mouse control, pure keyboard control and of course full game controller support. I won’t lie, the controls can get confusing and each character has varying ways of being played so for some a controller is the only way, for others mouse and keyboard is your only option. This forces players to prefer one character over another but with eleven to choose from there is always a character for everyone’s style and abilities.

The other main online mode is Versus and as the name suggests it is you versus everyone else but as this is A Fistful of Gun the areas are also spiced up with TNT, Trains, Mexican outlaws and much more, all designed to make your job of killing your opponents as hard as possible and as much fun as it can be, and believe me it is fun!

Online play is done through dedicated servers and also includes the ability to create your own server on your PC using the included server.exe which is a rare thing these days and I applaud the developer Paul Hart for designing the game around this option from day one. It is both refreshing and inspiring to see more indie developers do this. Online play through either the dedicated or personal server is fast and easy to use from my pre-release tests and due to the inclusion of the server.exe I see no reason why this should not continue.

Often overlooked in indie games is the audio and whilst the actual audio options are simplistic for Fistful of Gun the actual music, audio clips and voice acting are not. There is an inspired choice of musical style here that jumps from excellent heavy rock when needed to a more traditional Ennio Morricone spaghetti western theme that invokes even more memories of those classical movies. The voices used, whilst a small selection fit the genre perfectly too and just help to make the game feel like one of the most complete experiences I have had in many years.

The options are somewhat basic with little choice in resolution or effects but like many games of this ilk they really are not needed and will max out on virtually any PC from the last three to four years with ease with an option to drop the quality for older machines whilst still looking and playing gloriously.

Released on the 24th September 2015 and available at the time of this review’s publication for a discounted 25% on Steam for Windows PC that also includes a raft of Steam achievements and trading cards this game is an absolute steal and my biggest must buy of 2015.

Strap on your belt, load up your six shooter. There is a new Multiplayer Game Of The Year and it is called A Fistful of Gun – For a Few Gun More.

Buy this game, now!

*This review was wrote in its entirety to The Ecstasy of Gold by Ennio Morricone*

Original review here:

http://www.thegamesshed.com/a-fistful-of-gun-review/

[CupcakeCult]

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[Eldritch Xypher]

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[sn!pe]

I agree with this review wholeheartedly.

This is my favorite indie game of the year so far (and I played a lot!). Everything about it is rock solid.

The campaign is fun to do singleplayer and all of the multiplayer modes are implemented well. Have fun on your own shooting up the old west or hang out with your buddies locally or online.

Hats of to Paul Hart for making this one!

First impressions video I did a week ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEflMl99r2Q