Hands-On Look At Paul Greasley’s ‘A Fistful of Gun’

Yesterday, Paul Greasley a.k.a. “FarmerGnome“, released a playable Alpha-build of A Fistful of Gun, on his main website. A Fistful of Gun is a top-down shooter set in a pixelated version of the American Old West. The game has players selecting one of three playable characters, each with their own control scheme and weapon abilities, and eliminating levels full of enemies. Noah (the demolitions guy) is controlled by using the keyboard; Abel, the pistoleer, with a game controller; and Zeke, the scout, can be controlled by using the mouse. The game supports local multiplayer, so up to three people can play A Fistful of Gun at the same time. Online co-op will be introduced in an upcoming build.

A Fistful of Gun features a shootout in every level, and the player must eliminate every enemy in the level to progress. At the start of the level, players have a few moments to take a look at their surroundings before the first enemies enter the area. By keeping out of the enemy’s line-of-sight, players will gradually become nearly invisible, which just means that the enemies have lost track of where the player went. With this mechanic in place, it is often a smart idea to strategically pop up, fire a shot or two off, and then duck behind some rubble or run through a building, to get the enemies off of your trail. One solid shot from an enemy rifle, and it is game over.

The experience is very fun, even though it is a bit punishing. Players only have a few lives and once they are gone, it’s game over, back to level one. However, the more levels that are beaten, the stronger the player’s character gets. At the end of each round, players can pick to upgrade their character with a variety of perks like increased accuracy, decreased reload time, and weapon upgrades.

“As far as the the future of A Fistful of Gun builds,” Greasley said on his website, “I will leave that up to you guys, if you enjoy the game do say so, it will be the difference between me adding more features to the game or finding something else to do with my spare time.”

The Alpha build of A Fistful of Gun is available on Paul Greasley’s main website, which is also where you can find out more about his main project, Under the Ocean.