When I saw the trailer for Mothergunship, I was immediately reminded of Doom in the best of ways. This is what sparked me to set up a press appointment with the folks at Grip Digital and Terrible Posture Games to try it out. What I discovered was a crazy addictive, over the top, skill-based, rogue-like shooter that deserves way more attention.
Mothergunship at its core is a rogue-like that has players clear out rooms of enemies, grab randomized power-ups, and defeat bosses to progress to the next more challenging area. In its layout, Mothergunship is pretty standard fare for the rogue-like genre, but its core gameplay is what sets it apart. Players will be dodging hundreds of projectiles in a way that would make bullet hell schmup players cringe.
All of this dodging is entirely done in first person with the hitbox being extremely precise. I never felt like a took a hit because of detection; I took a hit, because I made a poor quick decision or was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course this is much easier than it sounds due to the slower nature of the projectiles that are also typically coupled with orange colors, while many of the player’s weapons shoot blue. This high octane action and keeping the pressure on enemies is coupled with a metal as hell soundtrack and sharp visuals.
Sound design is pretty top notch with the aforementioned metal blaring in the background, driving tension and adrenaline. Combat is never dull because of this, but its not the same sort of excitement or even thought processes that I had while playing the new Doom. Instead of enemies all having their own behaviors, weaknesses, and threats, Mothergunship (at least in its current form) shakes up variety with a sheer amount of crazy projectiles thrown at the player. Drones that swarm and explode were also prevalent in my demo, forcing me to keep on my toes and listen for that sharp little beeping noise that would spell defeat. This definitely feels like the player versus the ship with everything feeling industrial. Come to think of it, a metal soundtrack makes even more sense!
Lucky for me, players can take a lot of hits and health drops are plentiful. Other than keeping an eye on health, players will also be keeping track of an energy bar for their weaponry. Depleting this bar overheats the weapon, leaving the player defenseless for a bit. Luckily, weapons are crazy awesome and can have different types of projectile. This pull and release of tension definitely helps keep away any sort of monotonous.
Crafting a huge part of progression in Mothergunship. Basically, the player will add parts to their weapons, creating off the wall stacks of barrels that’s similar to Serious Sam Double D XXL. During my first run, I was able to buy a second gun for the right mouse click, giving me a more spread shot that was like an automatic laser shotgun. I then used this in the next floor to take out those pesky suicide drones and used my standard weapon to keep up pressure with bigger targets.
Some of these larger enemies and turrets can definitely be overwhelming, but it’s always manageable by the game’s movement system and that precise hit detection. I found myself jumping towards large groupings of enemy fire, because I knew I could hop through the gaps to get closer and deal more damage. One of my favorite rooms in the demo had floating enemies spreading lasers outward and in groups created this crisscross pattern that I weaved between. It’s awesome to look up and see just how tight of a gap you can squeeze through and this moment really showed just how this game truly creates a first person bullet hell.
I will say that if this game could be put into something like the PSVR, where the player could still use a traditional controller, it would make for an amazing experience. Throw in some clever head dodges and we could have a slam dunk in the VR space. I don’t see how it would work without the movement ease of a controller though, so maybe just an extra mode would suffice.
Those looking for an engaging rogue-like fix should definitely keep an eye on Mothergunship as it hits PC and later on consoles. It has all the feels of classic PC FPS gaming with the unique offerings of the rogue-like genre. Mothergunship also has the distinction of being fairly easy to pick up and play, provided the player has a decent understanding of first-person shooters. I imagine this will be a game that can infinitely be replayed and with the right amount of dedication in the final release could be well on its way to becoming an instant classic.
Players wanting even more challenge can also bump it up to nightmare mode, which has an insane spike in difficulty. I actually had some great footage of me trying my best in this mode, but was unable to get it to cooperate with my editing software. Spoiler alert, I didn’t make it to the end of the demo in that run.
All in all, I had an awesome time playing Mothergunship and I look forward to its final release. Once again, it scratches all the right spots for those who grew up playing things like Quake, Doom, Duke Nukem, and Serious Sam. Some of the promotional footage of huge bosses definitely has me excited too, as the boss I fought was a giant wall of turrets. With my busy schedule, these rogue-like games that focus on mastering the mechanics have fit nicely into my life, creating some of my favorite experiences in modern gaming.
Mothergunship may end being my next obsession.
Look for it on Steam, Xbox One, and PS4. There’s no release date at the moment, but the developers would like to release it before the end of the year.
