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 moresatisfying experience in VRthan shooting things with a Mosin Nagant inHotdogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades.
Mothergunship: Forge(which also has a PC version simply titledMothergunship) 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 asMothergunship, 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 whatMothergunship: 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. WhatMothergunship: Forgelacks 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 may 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 ofMothergunship, 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 ofMothergunship: 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 playedMothergunship: Forgefor 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: Forgeis 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: Forgedoesn’t have a release date yet, but will be launching for theMeta (formerly Oculus) Quest 2and Valve Index via Steam VR.
