Game Reviews

Run'n'Gun

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iOS
| Run'n'Gun
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Run'n'Gun
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iOS
| Run'n'Gun

It may surprise you to learn that Run'n'Gun contains both running and gunning.

Okay, so that probably didn't surprise you. How about this - it's a 3D endless-runner in the mould of Temple Run. No?

All joking aside, Run'n'Gun really isn't a particularly fresh concept, so it had better play a mean game if it's to impress.

Survivalist fantasy

You play the part of a typical square-jawed meat-head with an itchy trigger finger. The world he inhabits is slightly more original - a kind of anachronistic steam-punk fantasy world.

It's through this world that our hero runs, dodging left and right, as well as jumping over and ducking under obstacles.

Lateral movement is handled by tilting your handset, while ducking and jumping requires a swipe in that direction. Occasionally you'll encounter a sharp turn, at which point you have to swipe left or right accordingly.

The game has the irritatingly cheap tendency to place obstacles immediately after or before these sharp turns, which is often what catches you out and sends you back to the tavern.

Gunning for the champ

That's the 'run' part of the title covered. It's pretty standard Temple Run fare for the most part.

The 'gun' part comes into play in two ways. As you progress through the various zones you'll encounter hobgoblins, who run along just in front of you. Line yourself up with them and you'll start pumping them full of lead automatically, causing them to spill coins in their wake.

While this mechanic is fun in its own way, it's also a bit hands-off and shallow. Occasionally you'll also get to tap explosive barrels for more coins, but - again - this is hardly what you'd term visceral gunplay.

Mission over

There's a little more to Run'n'Gun in the shape of missions, which you can accept from a barman at a tavern between levels.

Well, they're called missions, but they're essentially the kind of banal achievements that are usually automated in other games, like turning a corner 40 times or crashing into so many obstacles. They're more than a little dull, and the way you have to manually select them one at a time feels like an unworthy promotion of a background feature.

As you might expect, there's also a heavy in-app purchase system that demands silly amounts of money for power-ups and new characters.

What this all amounts to is a reasonably accomplished but thoroughly generic endless-runner. Run'n'Gun's attempts at innovation are shallow and slightly half-hearted, and its core mechanics have quite simply been done better elsewhere.

Run'n'Gun

A merely adequate Temple Run clone in pretty much every way, Run'n'Gun passes the time but fails to ignite
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.