A Fistful of Gun

A Fistful of Gun is a top-down shooter with twin stick controls and a western setting. The main story mode introduces Clayton Boon as the antagonist. He is a railroad baron who signed a contract with the devil to connect hell with the overworld using a railroad track. However, it passes the domain of an old shaman and he raises eleven gunslingers from the dead to take out the baron. The player chooses one of the eleven characters go after the baron in three acts. Each act consists of several connected areas that are randomized and often have very different gameplay, borrowing many elements from roguelike games.

Only three characters are available right away (Abel, Noah and Zeke), the others need to be unlocking by progressing through the game. Each character has very different mechanics and controls, but there is always an unlimited amount of ammo. A keyboard, game pad and mouse are required to control all of the characters. Noah for instance is entirely keyboard controlled with four keys for movement and two buttons to fire shotguns. The desperado Billy has game pad controls with a matching mechanic to fire, while Two Feather uses game pad angles to fire and Abel flick shots. Dutch, Tao and Zeke use mouse controls. The Chinese Tao puts down a large amount of fireworks that are launched with a delay, Zeke has a powerful, but wildly inaccurate rail-like sniper shot, and Dutch throws knives that need to be restocked after a while. Even the reloading mechanics, such as the six bullets of Virgil that need to be refilled manually, are very different. The "The 13th" character is even more unique as it consists of a regiment of characters controlled as a single unit. Enemies can pick off parts of the regiment, which reduces the firepower. A secondary function is used to rush quickly.

Each acts consists of twelve miles to reach a boss, with several areas. After clearing an area the player can often choose between different directions to progress, randomized for each session. It is not always a matter of taking out all enemies. There are often (optional) missions such as pushing a cart while fighting enemies, chasing an outlaw, robbing banks, participating in a duel, getting ambushed or visiting a neutral zone where you can still choose to start a fight. Except for the "The 13th" character, a single hit is usually deadly and a character has a small amount of lives, represented through aces of spades in the bottom left corner. When dead, the entire area needs to be replayed. A single area generally never takes longer than a minute to complete. Next to enemies areas often have obstacles and parts that can be used for cover, TNT, explosions that can set the enemies and the player character on fire (killing him slowly unless the area is completed first), whiskey that changes the environment fighting while drunk, and gold that can be picked up. Gold can often be exchanged when the shaman appears to get a better weapon or a chance for an extra life. There are also many random events, such as areas with railroad tracks where trains pass and kill everything in the way. There are sometimes also opportunities to buy permanent perks such as resistance against fire, a higher speed, getting a mount and so on.

The other game mode are the competitive versus mode, the arcade mode and the online multiplayer mode. In those modes all characters are available right away. The game supports up to nine players, both locally playing on a single PC as playing online. The arcade mode consists of several waves that need to be completed in succession, with a new perk from a selection after each wave. It can be played cooperatively with all characters on the same screen.