There is something magical about shooting guns in VR. Like other games, the feeling can vary greatly, with no two games handling shooting the same way, though VR titles tend to lean toward realism. It makes sense too, I haven’t had a more satisfying experience in VR than shooting things with a Mosin Nagant in Hotdogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades.
Mothergunship: Forge (which also has a PC version simply titled Mothergunship) takes a more arcade-like approach, turning guns into evolving instruments that change constantly throughout a run. In a hands-on preview of the game, I was able to test my mettle aboard the Mothergunship, and at this point, I’m simply excited to delve into its depths.
Hit like a truck
I won’t bother with trying to sort out what’s going on in the game. With a name as ridiculous as Mothergunship, you can already tell it doesn’t matter all that much. In my preview, I was thrown right into the bowels of the ship, with small robotic dogs called staplerheads, or something along those lines, attacking me. I punched them, they blew up, and I moved on to the next room.
That’s pretty much what Mothergunship: Forge is about, save for the punching. You’re blowing robots to smithereens in procedurally generated rooms and reaping rewards with each room cleared.
The “Forge” part of the game’s name comes into play almost immediately, when it hands you a connector, a barrel, and a canister of special ammo. What Mothergunship: Forge lacks in authenticity, it makes up for in flat-out craziness. Over the course of a run, you’ll build guns that attach to your wrists, all of which are completely customizable.
If you clear a room and find a new barrel that you like more, for instance, you can simply swap out your old one for the new one. Better yet, if you have a connector with multiple ports, you can just slap the barrel onto it and have two guns firing at the same time. Connectors can even connect to other connectors, so massive, branching weapons made up of electrified chain guns and railguns that fire bouncing shots are a complete possibility.
Late into runs of Mothergunship, I almost felt bad for the robotic enemies that were trying to take me down. I ended up trying to be stylish, crossing my arms as I fired or shooting at one enemy while unloading on another without looking. While that was fun, I ended up getting killed by the missiles fired by turrets or saws attached to tiny flying bots.
Sadly, I wasn’t able to explore the whole of Mothergunship: Forge. The game’s two currencies, money and crystals, were essentially useless to me — especially since I couldn’t actually buy things whenever I came across a shop, regardless of how much cash I had.
I’ve only played Mothergunship: Forge for a couple of hours. That’s not a whole lot of time, but enough to play around 10 or 12 runs through its demo, and I simply can’t wait to try the whole thing out. Mothergunship: Forge is an over-the-top, arcadey roguelike where you build bigger and zanier guns to blow up robots. It’s one of the simpler joys I’ve found in VR, and one that I’m excited to continue exploring.
Mothergunship: Forge doesn’t have a release date yet, but will be launching for the Meta (formerly Oculus) Quest 2 and Valve Index via Steam VR.
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