Guns and Spurs 2 Switch Review

Westerns are a genre they don’t make enough games about in my opinion, and I have spent close to 1000 hours on Red Dead Redemption 2 online, bounty hunting and selling goods to build up my posse. Nothing beats the freedom of riding through an open world on horseback taking in the sights and taking down the bad guys, so I was very keen to dive into the world of Guns and Spurs 2, a mobile game that was developed by a lone ranger developer at Frozen Lake Game Studio. What’s Guns and Spurs 2 on the Nintendo Switch Like? Let’s grab our duster coats, saddle up, and find out.

Guns and Spurs 2 sees you step into the boots of Jack Lane, a bounty hunter looking to clean up the Old West. After a short tutorial, you are dropped straight into the world to hunt criminals, horse race, deliver goods, and help NPCs who lose their wallets… a lot. The game itself has somewhat of a following on the mobile platform and is widely received well as a free-to-play western. Unfortunately for Switch gamers, Guns and Spurs 2 hasn’t made a smooth transition over to the Nintendo platform, so let’s break down the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:

The game has an interesting overarching mission structure, seeing you hunt down bounties before taking on a boss bounty, which concludes in a duel. There are a lot of weapons you can upgrade that have varying fire rates and ranges, allowing you to try to take out enemies from further away or blast up close with a powerful shotgun. There are also Horseshoes hidden around the world to collect and cursed skulls to destroy which is a fun distraction while exploring the map. The gameplay loop when the game works is actually enjoyable, despite some of the “jank” you encounter. I pressed on through the frontier to see how high up the chain of bandits I could get. When it works, it’s ok, when it doesn’t, it’s downright frustrating.

The Bad:

Unfortunately, your time in the West will be marred by technical issues. Entering doors for some reason makes your character face the wrong way when you get into a building, sometimes booting you right out. Summoning your horse can make it zip by your head at the speed of light to appear behind you, and at times your horse will be unable to navigate terrain that it should be able to. On one occasion, I couldn’t select any weapons so just stood still to get shot to death, and enemy respawns are overly aggressive giving you maybe 30 seconds to move on before more enemies aimlessly just run toward you while shooting. There’s also no real hit detection so fighting bandits means shooting each one roughly 5 times until they drop while side strafing to avoid fire.

The Ugly:

If the technical issues weren’t enough, the game engine looks similar to the GTA Trilogy, with a low poly PS2 feel, with modern shaders. The world geometry pops in and warps, animations are clunky, and the protagonist holds his revolver like a long gun, and reloads it like a semi-automatic. Guns all sound the same, and firing animations as well as hitting enemies lack any real impact. The world is largely bland, and towns lack distinguishing features, making your romp through the West a desolate and lonely experience. There’s also a wanted system that looks identical to Red Dead Redemptions, but I gained a wanted level and stood still in the middle of town as it wore off with no repercussions.

To me, what kills this title is the premium price point of $45 AUD, putting it in the same bracket as the AAA Red Dead Redemption (at the time of writing.) Had the game just been a fistful of dollars, I think a lot of the aforementioned issues may have been able to be dismissed along with the expectations of “you get what you pay for,” and sometimes, a game similar to Guns and Spurs that’s $3-5 would still be an enjoyable distraction to get you through a weekend, but at a AAA price point on Switch, while it’s free on Mobile, feels like we may have been offered a bottle of snake oil.

Guns and Spurs 2 is a commendable effort considering it was developed by a one-man team, but unfortunately is marred by technical issues, and is most definitely placed in the wrong price bracket to justify a purchase. While I’m looking forward to seeing what Frozen Lake Games Studio comes up with next, I would recommend that Cowboys and Cowgirls stay in the saloon and sit this one out. While I was certainly hoping for Guns and Spurs 2 to be a resounding Yeehaw, unfortunately for me, it’s a Yeah-nah.

So What’s it Like?

Guns and Spurs 2 is like a mobile version of Red Dead Redemption if it was made in the pre-patch GTA Trilogy Engine.