Great story, great shooting, great gameplay, great game!
In terms of the graphics, they are really good. The cutscenes boast the great graphics of which the Xbox is capable. The gameplay graphics are a little bit different and hard to qualify, however. THe game is portrayed in the style of a western shooter, so the graphics are toned toward that in many locations, which dries out the colors some. There are some locations which are incredible however. Many of the flora that is in the game is done exceedingly well with the graphical work.
The sound is what you would expect, for the most part. The noises of the actions is done well, and the talking ammunition and other noises they make is great. The chippunks are especially entertaining. The town inhabitants are somewhat of a different matter though. The chicken-men can get a bit annoying at times, and there is a strange quality about their voices. Sometimes it adds to the style of the game, but it also detracts when thinking about it. Subtitles would also have been a good idea due to the sometimes difficult accents and low volume that occurs during cutscenes.
The gameplay is one of the things that really stands out about this title. The idea of using live ammunition worried me when I first heard about the game when it was in development. I wondered how one would be able to hunt for more, considering it would require ammo to hunt ammo. Anyway, the system works well, and all of the creatures look very good sitting on the crossbow. The mechanics of the shooting work well, and there are some things that will take getting used to, but it is fairly intuitive and creative a the same time. The game can be played from the perspective of a first-person shooter or a third-person platformer of sorts. When in third person, Stranger can run much faster and this does come in handy on many occasions. The game automatically shifts to 3rd person when capturing an enemy for the bounty and then leaves the camera there, which is sometimes bad and sometimes good. It would have been nicer if there had been an option to have this or to have the camera return to 1st person.
The story is also very good, and there is a marked shift in the gameplay that shifts when there is a large twist in the story narrative. The hunt for a steef results in some interesting developments, and things are not what they seem. When this twist occurs, the combat shooting takes a much larger role, and there are times when a little more finesse is required, and there are times when a little more boldness is required. I do not want to say too much about the story so as not to spoil it for those who will choose to play the game.
It is a very good game that I recommend to everyone.