Developer: Grip Digital, Terrible Posture Games
Publisher: Grip Digital
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Tested on: PC
Mothergunship – Review
Mothergunship, with a project name of Tower of Guns 2, is the successor of (you guessed it) Tower of Guns. Tower of Guns was a game that put the player in a position of facing rooms full of bullets in a frantic shoot-out versus robotic enemies. Mothergunship basically does the same, in space, with a new layer of graphics. Fight your way across roguelike rooms that have the intention to either kill you or receive the pizza you are bringing, and claim victory over the Mothergunship.
Story
You are a recruit who is handed the task to destroy the Mothergunship, the leading spaceship that runs the A.I. hellbent on destroying life in service of collecting data. With your merry band of jolly space rogers who provide you with conversations and humor, you are pretty much the only person who actually does the fighting (unless you start the co-op mode!). Your colonel is a self-absorbed nitwit who is better at handing assignments than offering you any actual help, there’s a smart girl called Wilkinson who actually would be more fit as leader material, and then there’s Jasper, the slightly depressing Ship’s A.I.. Most of the story is not important, but certainly has a highly entertaining factor that provides you with unexpected jokes or between-mission story events that lighten the stress you endured while trying to complete another main story mission. There are no cinematic cutscenes throughout the game.
Graphics
The graphics are rather good, especially combined with the maze of bullets and explosions that are there for you in each room, it’s not always easy to keep a game like this communicating with the player well. Looking at Tower of Guns, Mothergunship improved itself in this area. Most things look more clean and crisp and have its own style that’s still slightly cel-shaded but retains its aspects of glory. The interface is also well done, as well as the gun-crafting. Simple yet effective, it leaves more room for the game to focus on what it’s good at: blowing things up.
Sound
The background music stays in the background well enough to enhance the experience while playing. Sometimes the music is a bit mysterious, when fighting more rock and metal themed songs appear like i.e. the hectic shooter series of Serious Sam. The sound effects are good and fitting for each different part such as the explosions, the gunshots that range from shotguns to miniguns, energy weapons etc. One of the best additions of the sound might be the voice acting where each character truly has their own voice that’s somewhere between good acting and cheesy clichés. But it works and entertains! Which is the most important thing in any game’s sound.
Gameplay
Mothergunship is a roguelike shooter game, meaning you will have multiple rooms to choose your path from that are sometimes (partially) randomized depending on the game mode you play. In each room you shoot, a certain floor layout will present itself to you. On this floor, elements such as traps and enemies spawn, and you will have to survive at least most of it before you can continue to the next one.
Each enemy has some unique elements such as high damage output combined with low mobility or flying and a charge attack. It’s up to you to combine your wits, speed and aim to survive. The best and most fun part about all this randomizing is that you get to collect, craft and shoot your own guns. For some missions, you can bring a few parts yourself. For others, you need to gather what you can onsite or bring a pre-determined bunch with you. You can gather what you can by going into shops that are attached to most rooms and spend the coins enemies dropped on Connectors (basically a frame you build to attach gun parts to), gun barrels (every bit that shoots) and caps (booster parts that give you positive and negative stats such as increased damage but more gravitational force, allowing you to jump less high). But be careful, the things you bring from home will be lost if you die. Especially if you bring epic pieces, which are a lot better than standard pieces, it’s something you have to want to risk. Clear a level faster or make more of an effort yet be safe if you die?
It’s an effective way of producing quality gameplay, and you will be guaranteed to have some hours of fun. However, the game isn’t roguelike enough to not notice the patterns that are there. If you have found a way of gun crafting you like, you will probably try to repeat the same crafts until you find a better pattern. This, combined with limited enemies and rooms, create a certain loop that you will find yourself in after a while. Some side missions are fun to do, but the most variation lies in the main missions that offer the most variations in story and events happening.
Be that as it may, the game is eventually fun, and with co-op and an endless mode, the developer proves that it’s possible to make it better every now and then. Especially compared to Tower of Guns, a couple of steps have been made already to increase the overall quality of the game. Maybe a third installment from the developer, or a couple of tweaks on Mothergunship, and it will be the full-fledged game it already sets out to be.
Conclusion
Mothergunship is a fun roguelike shooter that just misses a few elements to make it a true rogue game with enough variation and challenges. It’s got an entertaining cast for the main story and some interesting other modes, yet it could have been more if it didn’t copy and adapt its predecessor Tower of Guns. Doing so gave it an effective base, yet lost its potential to be there with other rogue top games like Binding of Isaac, Rogue Legacy or a more similar game, Strafe.
Mothergunship - Review,
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