Developed by Human Head Studios Dead Mans Hand tells the tale of El Tejon who along side his band of outlaws The Nine decides to call it a day after The Nine resort to killing women and children. Not happy with this situation El Tojon wants out as he is a better man than that. However The Nine decides that he cant leave and is in fact a potential treacherous enemy and so they neutralise him at the scene of a robbery so that he takes the rap. Thrown into jail by the sherrif our hero seeks revenge. This is where you come in to take control as you blast your way through the wild west themed first person shooter. Yeehaw.

Dead Mans Hand plays just like any other first person shooter except gone are the marines or aliens and in their place we get a whole host of cowboys,rustlers and general no good dirty scoundrels all baying for your blood. As revenge on your former allies is key you will also come up against the various members of The Nine in boss fights. However you are not empty handed as you are armed with the typical western weapons which include pistols, rifles, dynamate, shotguns and even a knife for the silent touch.

Playing through the levels is pretty much if it moves then kill it type approach. Including poor innocent horses that have no choice but to be riden by their evil owners. Oh well such is life. This gameplay works quite well here as you duck in and out of cover firing volleys of shots at each other. One feature that is neat and in tune with the whole western theme is the combo counter which allows our hero to perform special trick shots if a meter is kept filled. This is accomplished by shooting things such as bottles or barrels and of course your opponents.

Although not vital the trick shots can help you out of tricky situations such as the multi kill which powers up your shots if you kill more than one enemy in succession. The level design is also well suited to the type of gunfights you will have seen in the western movies in fact the game borrows just about every western movie cliche in the book. This is not a bad thing because its what you would expect from a Cowboy shooter.

Between levels and in keeping with the game's title you get to play a few hands of video poker. The point of this is to gamble things like your starting ammo amount. The more hands of cards you win in succession the more extras you start the level with. Unfortunately should you lose a hand then you lose your entire winings and start the level with basic supplies.

Graphically Dead Mans Hand is very below par with nothing really to comment on other than they are drab and dreary. This is not really up to scratch on Xbox especially as the first person shooter genre has enough competition. The character models also display signs of looking rather dated on Xbox. Overall the graphics are not the games strongest point but are bearable if you play focusing purely on the gameplay.

Sound is of a better quality as some good if not cliched voice acting is used to progress the storyline. As well as the individual characters you face in those boss battles who always have some comments to give before you fill them with lead. Gunshots all sound like they do in the movies and the in game music is more background than anything.

Dead Mans Hand features no split screen play for two players who wish to battle it out. What it does feature is Xbox Live support and also system link play for those fortunate enough to have access to these. While worthy additions to the not so long single player game, overall will not hold your attention for too long because quite simply there are better games out there.

Once you strip away the western theme of the game you are left with pretty much a standard shooter that offers no frills entertainment. There is nothing much to shout about this game other than there is some enjoyment blasting your way through the single player or on Live.Its a game that you would probably play once and never look back due to the fact that it lacks overall polish. A definite must rent for a rainy weekend.