20 More Cult Classics Trapped On Old Consoles

While we now think of Red Dead Redemption 2 as the pinnacle of games set in the wild west, many years prior, there was GUN. Released by Neversoft in 2005, GUN was an ambitious, third-person open-world western, a combination that came a full five years earlier than the first Red Dead Redemption. 

Complete with bounties, animal hunting, and even poker, GUN contains many of the mechanics that would later be seen in the Red Dead series. Some similarities can also be found in the combat, with its Dead Eye style quickdraw gauge. If triggered, the game reverts to first person, slows time, and temporarily grants the protagonist, Colton White, unlimited ammo, allowing you to more easily deal with multiple enemies at once. It’s notable that many mechanics found here made their way to other games, and GUN can - ironically - therefore be seen as a forgotten pioneer, overshadowed by the Rockstar-developed heavyweights that followed. GUN was an early standout in the Western genre, taking risks with its setting, open world ambition, and surprisingly large number of mechanics. It paved the way for later open-world cowboy experiences, but its relative obscurity compared to those later titles has resulted in the game being trapped on old hardware. 

This is something that feels particularly unjust when considering its impact on western video games, and its ambitious early inclusion of many mechanics that we now take for granted.