MOTHERGUNSHIP

So... I've got a lot of mixed feelings about this game, but ultimately I would recommend for the unique experience it provides. TL;DR at the bottom. [hr][/hr] Right off the bat, I wouldn't call this game a true Roguelike, at least compared to its predecessor, Tower of Guns. This game is more structured like a Dungeon Crawler Looter Shooter with unnecessary Roguelike elements that sour the experience. Here's the summary of the gameplay loop for pretty much the entire game. You enter a level with some gun parts of your choice from your collection, go from room to room collecting cash, find a shop to spend money at to get more gun parts, and rinse and repeat until you reach the end of the level. Each room is also only generated when you reach enter the door for the end of the previous room, so I'd highly advise putting this game on an SSD if you don't want frustratingly long load times. [h2]---THE BAD---[/h2] So, now for the bad part about this loop. If you die in a stage, you lose every single part you were carrying, including the ones you brought with you. This mechanic is probably the one I hate the most because it punishes you for experimenting with new gun parts. If you enter a level with a bad setup and struggle to get a good one going, you'll probably die, losing everything you brought with you. Thankfully, there is a little shop that will sometimes have items you lost you can buy back, but that leads me into the other issue I have... MONEY!!! Everything not inside a level takes so much grinding to get. The shop prices for the Legendary parts are absurd, costing 2400 PER PART. For context, clearing high difficulty missions that only occasionally show up rewards you with around 300-500 gold. Each of these will probably take 20-30 minutes to clear. That means several hours of grinding just to get one of these parts you could lose with a simple mistake. You can buy them back at a significantly reduced cost, but it still eats at your money. There are ways to circumvent this grind with a handy bug you can abuse (and I'm currently in the process of selling thousands of parts while writing this review thanks to it), but that's too much for a review, although I could make a guide for it later if anyone would like it. In summary, this game is a LOT of grinding to get the cool stuff that you can lose in a moment. Not only that, but there's a limit to the amount of parts you can even store in your stash, and it is a VERY small stash, so you can't really store backups of your items... unless you grind for hours to fork over thousands of coins to upgrade the capacity by a meager 25 parts with increasing cost every time you upgrade (500 more coins per upgrade). So, the game punishes you for collecting a variety of different parts because they occupy valuable slots for superior ones to be in. You want to know how many bosses there are in this game? Four. Just four. Two of them you will literally only encounter once normally: One them is a boss at the end of the tutorial you can only replay if you start from a fresh save; the other is a boss that can only be fought during a specific campaign mission (but you can replay the campaign with no consequence thankfully). The other two are final bosses that will always be at the end of their designated mission, and there is no variety beyond that. One of the bosses is also extremely obnoxious because half the fight is dealing with the minions while the boss hides out of bounds. The fun part about fighting it is seeing how fast you can explode him with your crazy creation so you don't have to engage with the poor mechanics of the fight. As for stage variety... it's mostly alright, but some issues. I don't think any of the 3 primary ships(stages) have any exclusive enemies unique to them, so you'll be seeing a lot of the same from all of them. There stages are visually distinct at least with some unique mechanics and layouts, but no bosses in this stages means that's about all the variety you'll get. I'm pretty sure this is all you'll see in the endless though; each room will be a random room from one of the 3 ships, and none of them will ever be boss fights. There is are 3 other ship types, but those are exclusive to certain missions. One is the final boss ship, which has a cool layout; another is associated with a post-campaign mission type, and actually has unique enemies; the last is a series of ships for rare, special side missions you can sometimes get, which is pretty cool. It would've been better if endless had a more cohesive structure. In summary, The Roguelike elements are probably some of this game's weakest, most frustrating features, so don't be mistaken by the tags. Even the endless mode is kinda boring and tedious, mostly because this game feels like it's allergic to bosses and all the rooms are smashed together without much cohesion. If you were a huge fan of Tower of Guns, as I am, and don't like Looter Shooters, I would advise against getting this game. Unironically, the demo environment is handled so much better in terms of a proper Roguelike experience. The game gives you a bunch of toys to play with in a setting that feels like should've been the main game loop instead. Seriously, go try it. It's free. (linked in the TL;DR below) [h2]---THE GOOD---[/h2] The most advertised part of this game, and by far it's strongest feature, is the guncrafting system. It's simple, intuitive, leaves a lot of room for creativity, and has a massive depth that can allow for some insane creations. Part of me wishes I could save some of the things I make for the sandbox, so I can just quickly pull it out to re-experience the fun of it without having to rebuild from scratch. At least a photo mode would've been a cool addition. Seriously though, the guncrafting is amazing. You can make a machine gun into a full auto shotgun; turn a rocket launcher into full auto; send lasers bouncing around the room 100 times; or combine all of those into one for a monstrosity of a weapon. The only restriction is your energy limit, since each weapon and part consumes energy when using them of course, but there's actually a legit way to get around that (hint: it involves two Load Balancers and as many Overchargers as you can get your hand on). The point is, there's a lot of cool things you can make, and I love it! If you've ever played Tower of Guns, the movement and gunplay here is nearly identical. A lot of weapon parts act very similarly to their ToG counterparts. They also have the same pushback mechanic, so you can use your guns like a jetpack if you build them right. The multiple jumps is also still here, so you can stack dozens of double jumps if you get lucky enough. Also, while I haven't had much of a chance to play co-op. the fact it exists is a good enough reason to get alone if you have a friend who shares interest in these games. [hr][/hr] [h3]-TL;DR-[/h3] This game mostly a Looter Shooter with lots of grinding. Movement and gunplay feel good. Enemy variety is okay. The guncrafting system is AMAZING, but the rest of the game holds it back in a lot of ways. There is a severe lack of bosses and many frustrating mechanics (losing valuable weapon parts on death). It feels overly punishing when it doesn't need to be. Endless is meh due to poor level structuring and no bosses. As a huge fan of Tower of Guns who was so excited when they saw the email for this game's announcement, I feel so painfully torn. The good is REALLY good, but the bad is also REALLY bad. Had this game been more like the demo, it would've been so much better, but I still can appreciate it regardless. Overall though, if you like/don't mind Looter Shooters, then this game is absolutely worth it. If not, but the guncrafting looks so cool you gotta try it, just get the free demo here. I put 12 hours into that alone! https://store.steampowered.com/app/769860/MOTHERGUNSHIP_Gun_Crafting_Range/