Westward, How

Getting the jump on GUN™ isn't easy—you'll face angry Indians, murderous ex-military officers, uppity cowpokes and an army of two-bit bandits at every turn. Thankfully, the team at Neversoft (whom observant gamers will recognize from other recent outings like Tony Hawk's American Wasteland) has provided you with all the tools needed to gallop at full speed through the adventure.

This free-roaming, open-ended tale lets you grow and evolve your character and arsenal infinitely with stat-enhancing side-quests and damage/range-increasing upgrades. We heartily encourage you to explore and devise your own personal strategies, but if a helping hand's needed, pardner … well, have a few free tips on us:

Head-on attacks? Not recommended.

Always Travel With a Full Clip
How easy it is to forget, while in the midst of a tense jailbreak or furious firefight, that reloading takes precious time. Rather than be reminded of this fact every time you're staring down the barrel of a loaded weapon, why not avoid running into this issue entirely? Make sure all weapons are fully reloaded before you proceed too far into any mission, and do so again whenever there's a pause in the action. While it's inevitable you'll run out of ammo, and need to reload during prolonged shootouts, the less time you're sitting helpless on the sidelines, the better.

Use Whatever Cover You Can Find
Crates, barrels, posts, even the occasional horse: always keep something between you and an adversary's bullets. Because you're offered options for leaning around corners, zooming in, and accessing slow-motion Quick Draw powers, you have a decided advantage over enemies, even given their overwhelming numbers. The fastest way to squander it is to stand in the middle of the street squeezing the trigger like a frontier-era Rambo. Crouch behind objects whenever possible, and only poke your head out to blow someone else's off.

Walk Softly and Carry a Big Clip
Avoid attracting unwanted attention. Weapons like the Apache bow, which can be used to perform silent kills, are a great means of quickly picking off potentially dangerous opponents without calling the cavalry down. Eliminate as many as possible via this method. When it is time to charge ahead, don't rush ahead wielding a measly six-shooter either—go with guns that hold more bullets. Provided you've spent cash beefing up the reloading speed and damage potential of munitions with large ammo stocks (e.g. the rifle), you'll be able to pick off many more foes before needing to stop and regroup.

Check the size of that clip.

Wield Quick Draw Sparingly
Missions are designed fiendishly, so that attacks occur in waves. Just because you've stopped the first rush of braves from charging those TNT barrels, doesn't mean their buddies aren't close behind. Naturally, Quick Draw attacks are the best way to kill multiple opponents quickly. But you can only access them so often—specifically, until a timed meter runs out. Be smart about when you activate these powers, and immediately turn them off once all nearby opponents are defeated. The more juice you conserve, the more you'll have available when you really need it.

Aim Intelligently, Concentrate Fire
One of the coolest features in GUN is body part-specific damage modeling. Use it to good effect, so that you can down your enemies rapidly. Shoot your run-of-the-mill foe in the leg first to stun them. Staggering, he'll lower his head. Immediately open fire in concentrated bursts, aiming for the chest and cranium. Bada-bing—just like that, another one bites the dust. Be certain assailants are dead before moving onto other victims, though; wounded gunmen left alive long enough will recover and wreak their revenge. Don't try this trick on bosses either—it just won't work.

Kill Weaker Baddies First
Often, story-driven firefights pit one single, strong boss character and hordes of lesser adversaries against you. During these situations, it's best to focus on eliminating the little guys first. After all, even their less worrisome attacks take a toll over time, and there are only so many directions you can stand to take incoming fire from at once. Pick off henchmen to cut down on bothersome diversions, and then focus on felling their leader. He'll go a lot easier in the end.

Preparing for an escort mission.

Heads You Win, Tails You Lose
Headshots are a must. Pull one off, and you can immediately fell an enemy who'd otherwise take three or four shots to destroy. Aiming for the noggin is especially important during escort or defense missions, where you're protecting key characters or stagecoaches from harm. The quicker you get them out of the way, the faster they'll cease to be a problem, leaving you to focus on other ever-present dangers.

Article by Steve Richter