If only this game had 1 more month....
After playing the game once I was somewhat frustrated by the amount of "western cliches" the game offered in it's storyline. But then I made a thorough investigation and after watching a couple of dozens westerns (From The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, through Unforgiven and Maverick to recent movies like Appaloosa and 3:10 to Yuma) I realized that the such "cliches" are actually essential to a story such a GUN'. A western without a mano e mano gunfight, dealing with Indians and etc. is just....not complete. This however does not remit the developers to make the story short - very, very short actually.
As for the gameplay - a very good mix between FPS and 3rd Person action. Gunfights are somewhat realistic and a lot of fun, but the horses tend to turn from moving beautifully and gracefully to a complete stop within microns and the rider just slides in air the rest of the way - until the actual depletion of the physics force. Horses and men - move and die very realistic but both human and horses just wander around. No action no nothing - you can catch a mustang just by walking to it and mount it (I am not going to put my eye on the annoying horse swapping during the start and the end of a mission).
Having in mind the name of the game - I thing there should have been a few more guns. There are plenty as it is but not all are useful - pistols with the Quickdraw options are the Max Payne moment of it all making even the fastest, strongest enemies to lose massive amounts of health before the Quickdraw meter is depleted. The Rifles I consider the perfect weapons - combining a very common type of ammo with medium-high to high range and reload rate and dealing a very solid led punch to anyone who decides to stand in Colton White's way. Shotguns are very powerful but somewhat useless and the sharpshooters are obligatory only few times, beyond which they are again overpowered by the Rifles. The upgrades you can buy are a good thing but...not that good - and though they may affect the outcome of a gunfight - its almost impossible to get them all in time for the serious boss fights - or the weapons obtained during the gameplay make the diffrence anyway.
The Side Missions and secret's are the most strange part of the whole GUN experience (SPOILERS) - you get two very powerful weapons and a bit more (I am not that evil - so find out yourself) - but not until the whole story is done - therefore making them just a fun thing to gloat in front of friends with less patience than you. Dont wonder why I said that - the side missions are well balanced but some of them can last the entire game plus more - and are very, very annoying.
Sounds are impressive, music - which like the game itself could be just more - as a quantity that is. The Graphics - for the time were very good requiring a decent machine to play and a bit juiced to experience a lot of the eye-candy.
The bottom line is - a GOOD game - in every way - just...if it had a month or two extra to smooth the edges this game would turn into a instant classic.