Stack Your Miniguns in Mothergunship's Gun Crafting Range Demo

Published: May 24, 2018 1:30 PM /

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Guns. Most video games have them. Most players love them, especially when they're over the top. I'd bet that most players haven't considered making them, but MOTHERGUNSHIP may change their minds. The first-person procedural FPS from Terrible Posture Games and Grip Digital is all about slapping together a pile of death-dealing weaponry into a pair of insane firearms. Once you finish tinkering, charge into battle to take on an alien armada of flying discs and a whole bunch of rocket turrets. While the full game is still very much in development, the team has seen fit to grace us all with a demo that should give players an idea of the carnage to come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT7_t_TDzLU&feature=youtu.be

I was able to get an early look at the demo, and it is glorious. This brief glimpse of gameplay is pretty much what you'd expect from a game called MOTHERGUNSHIP. You start off with a minigun that shoots bouncing bullets, and that's the base level. Once you grab currency in the arena, you can add flamethrowers, fireworks launchers, grenade cannons, or just more miniguns.

One of the main problems with Terrible Posture's Tower of Guns was that it lacked weapon variety. Your starting gun had to last through an entire run, and the feeling of progression was off. Instead of giving players multiple guns during a run, MOTHERGUNSHIP has a single gun that can transform into all guns. It's really a brilliant solution.

By the end, you'll have two gun stacks to manage, each with their own power consumptions needs. The more barrels a gun has, the less you can fire before expending the battery. Thankfully, enemies drop chunks of power, and you can add devices that will generate more power as you shoot. Who would have thought that the perpetual motion machine would be uncovered thanks to firearms?

mothergunship guns gameplay guns
Alright kids, how many barrels can YOU count?

Combat consists of putting bullets in front of you and avoiding the giant missiles heading towards you. Even at the early levels, you output a ridiculous amount of hot lead, so your main goal is to keep moving and decimate anything in your path. The majority of enemies are stationary turrets, but that doesn't mean you can breathe easy. Their shots hurt something fierce, and you can only take a few hits before going down. Thankfully, the demo doesn't let you die, but it's obvious that surviving a run isn't going to be a cakewalk.

Outside of the combat, MOTHERGUNSHIP has another secret weapon, and that's its sense of humor. Everyone in this universe is aware of how ridiculous your arsenal can become, and they all lean into it. The back and forth between your obliviously cheerful commander and the gruff female gungineer elicited some real chuckles. Even better, you can wait around in certain situations to hear even more ridiculous dialogue à la Portal 2. Annoying characters in games to an absurd degree is very underrated, and I'm glad to see MOTHERGUNSHIP allows me to do so.

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Only with this Discman can love truly bloom on the battlefield.

As mentioned before, MOTHERGUNSHIP is still very much in development, and this demo reflects that. The game wanted to load me into the most ultra of graphics settings by default, and this did not treat my PC well. This is a game filled with excessive particle effects, so that's understandable, and bumping them down just a tad brought the game into a playable capacity. Since I couldn't preview the console version of the demo, I can only hope that these mild hiccups are avoidable. With a bit of spitshine and polish closer to release, the grimy and industrial visuals on display will really shine.

Overall, MOTHERGUNSHIP's Gun Crafting Range demo left me excited for what comes next. If the writing and combat are this good going forward, I'll have another excellent endlessly replayable FPS to add to my shelf. If you like what you see here, the Gun Crafting Range demo is now available to the general public on Steam, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (NA LINK) (UK LINK). MOTHERGUNSHIP is slated for a full release on those platforms later this year.

Are you eager for even more MOTHERGUNSHIP? What are your thoughts on the free demo? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to check out our video impressions of the game from PSX!

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Alex Santa Maria TechRaptor
| Staff Writer

Alex Santa Maria is TechRaptor's former Reviews Editor (2015-2020) and current occasional critic. Joining the site early in its life, Alex grew the review… More about Alex