True Grit

What is it with characters in videogames setting out on adventures to avenge their father's death?

You never hear of a hero firing on a foe because someone knocked off his or her auntie. Equally rare are the titles that tell the tale of someone embarking on a murderous spree because someone took down their half-cousin, twice removed.

Sons and daughters tracking down their Dad's murderer is, in comparison, something of a common theme, though True Grit is by no means a common game.

Its setting isn't entirely the game's fault, either, given it happens to be based on the film of the same name. In both, the story focuses on Mattie Ross and her efforts to kill Tom Chaney, who brought about her father's demise.

Horsing around

In terms of gameplay, this translates as a lot of wandering around on horseback.

Billing itself as something of a sandbox title, most of your time in True Grit is spent either conversing with or shooting at characters to push the story forward. Riding around with your two compadres from point to point in the painfully sparse levels is another common activity.

Perhaps aware of how painfully dull scrolling through rolls of tired dialogue is – much of which crudely signposts the fact that the game's lead is, in fact, female – or hammering the '5' key to take down largely static adversaries, Tag Games has also thrown in the odd mini-game in an attempt to keep things fresh.

So slow and ultimately tame is True Grit's take on quick draw, however, that you'd scarcely notice if it wasn't there. There's very little thrill given the game gives you a window so wide you could fit a house through it in which to fire first.

Snagging the nag

Even discounting the sheer lack of imagination instilled into proceedings, it's hard to find much love for True Grit given its signature seems to be a combination of blatant mistakes and moments of laziness.

It's not uncommon, for instance, to have to talk to characters that can't actually be seen, given the developer happens to have plonked a building right in front of them.

The design of the stages themselves is also something of a botch, unavoidable objects annoyingly snagging your horse in the midst of races.

There just isn't anything to grab hold of here, and – much like Tag Game's recent Doctor Who tie-in on iPhone – little effort seems to have been paid to just what the license could and should stand for.

Instead, the studio has attempted to force through a game that simply doesn't fit, serving up an open world devoid of anything of worth to interact with, and ultimately turning a Western into a comedy – a comedy of errors, that is.