MOTHERGUNSHIP is one of those very rare releases which earns the all-caps title. There’s no other way to announce its existence than with a skyward scream, because it never does anything small. This is a game where bullets are frequently the size of your head, and guns have so many barrels that even Rob Liefeld would do a double-take upon seeing them. You can not only dual wield five-rotor miniguns, but stack one weapon atop the other, until you are firing a literal tower of guns.
The story here as about as throwaway as you could get outside of a 90s arcade machine, with Earth having been conquered by alien robots and you as the one person capable of turning the tide. Much of this exists purely to offer you more and more varied designs of enemies to fight, but it certainly works. You could be fighting anything from a series of rapid firing turret emplacements to a giant enemy mechanical crab with cannons.
It also helps that the typical FPS experience has been altered significantly, as this is less Halo than it is Touhou. At times this really is a first person bullet hell experience, with all the flashing gunfire, massive projectiles and steams of energy bolts you would expect. Due to the semi-random layout and varied designs, this allows rooms to change massively from one environment to the next, and you can never be wholly certain of just what awaits you around the corner. This should have been MOTHERGUNSHIP’s greatest strength, but it is instead undermined by severe RNG issues. There is no consistency from one room to the next, and you will frequently bump into massive difficulty spikes right after relatively easy environments. If you thought FLT: Faster Then Light could be punishing, this game completely eclipses its traps.
The RNG issue is further compounded by weapon drop rates and the fact you only find shops as and when the stars align. While the customisation options are extremely varied and complex, you can end up carrying completely the wrong bits you need to further enhance your current weapons. As such, so much of your victory is put down to sheer luck. Combined with the fact you lose any and all items you carry on death with some very punitive rewards, and what is initially creatively energetic becomes an exercise in frustration.
MOTHERGUNSHIP has the potential to be a great game, but currently it definitely needs a few patches to balance out its problems. You will certainly have fun for the first few hours, but after a while, the experience will feel like you are bashing your head against a brick wall. In its current state, save it for the sales.
MOTHERGUNSHIP / DEVELOPER: DIGITAL GRIP / PUBLISHER: DIGITAL GRIP / PLATFORM: PC, PLAYSTATION 4, XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
