The skinny:
The mysterious Stranger (he looks like a St. Bernard, gallops like a chimp, dresses like Clint Eastwood and wields a crossbow like Chewbacca) is a bounty hunter who roams from town to town bagging and tagging banditos and collecting rewards. His also uses live ammo. Literally. He searches the underbrush for wee creatures like skunks, chipmunks, spiders and Lil' Romeo, then loads them into his crossbow. A skunk will K.O. enemies with its foul smell. A spider wraps enemies in webbing. And Lil' Romeo will hit on women four times his age. Stranger invests every red cent of his bounty into a high-yield money market account, because he's saving up—brace yourselves—for an operation. No joke. Seems this Stranger has a secret—a secret that left us reeling around the office, clutching our chests like Fred Sanford and saying, "I'm coming, Elizabeth!"—a secret that makes the second half of the game more compelling than the first half.

Tantalizing tidbit:
Wounded? Hit the Y button, and like a wet dog coming out of a lake, Stranger gets rid of his damage by shaking it off.

Buy, rent or run away screaming?
Buy. Even if you have to dip into your own saving-up-for-an-operation fund.