Featured Image Credit: Activision
Topics: Red Dead Redemption, Activision
Once upon a time, back when Activision still made single-player games, there was a well-liked but little known open-world Western called GUN.
If you've never heard of it, I wouldn't surprised. While it was released back in 2005, some half a decade before Red Dead Redemption, GUN was ultimately lost to history and overshadowed by Rockstar's masterpiece. A pity, because GUN is a genuine hidden gem - one that deserves far more love than it ever got.
Released for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PC and Xbox 360 (as a launch title) GUN was an open world Western that boasted fun gunplay, a fascinating world, excellent characters, and some serious violence. In other words, it was a classic Western in video game form.
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"Holy moly - that game was a labour of love," GUN Project Lead Chad Findley told GAMINGbible. "It was a super difficult transition to making something that was open world (kinda), had a walking/shooting engine, had horse riding/horse AI, had AI combat, and was in a genre that was considered non-mainstream."
According to Findley, there were a few reasons that a sequel to GUN never saw the light of day: middling sales, Activision's lack of belief in the Western genre, and launching hot on the heels of Red Dead Revolver all played a role.
"I do know we were going through another console transition which takes a lot of person-power," he explained. "I also know that GUN barely made a profit. As well, there were not a lot of people at Activision who really believed in the western theme from the get-go."
Given that both Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II went on to become some of the most critically and commercially successful video games of all time, you have to wonder if Activision ever kicks itself for shutting down GUN 2. Given the wheelbarrows of cash it brings in through Call Of Duty every year, probably not.
Still, if given the chance Findley explained that he definitely wouldn't be against revisiting GUN one day, as unlikely a prospect though it may be.
"I would only do it if there was a great team really stoked to jump on-board," he said. "I love westerns but there is a lot of second guessing that happens with big-budget projects these days and keeping a game pure to the core is really hard when it isn't following the standard formula."