This is my BOOM STICK!

For many gamers, the first person shooter genre is a sacred thing that they grew up with. Games like Wolfenstein, Doom, and many others helped create the genre and are still fondly remembered today. Its been a long road for this kind genre, with many trying to update the mechanics, trying new ways to engage the player from different powers, guns, environments, and everything in-between. However, while there was always a new gun to be had, the player almost never had control on how that was used, and no experimentation was ever offered, until now.

Terrible Posture Games and Grip Digital are taking a different approach, while still holding true to tradition. Instead of just presenting the newest BFG to be earned and admired, they are letting you build your own sort of gun that fits you. They offer the parts, they offer the powers, and the enemies to kill, and you take care of everything else. Starting with a great customization and building screen, that lets you physically manipulate the gun itself, it feels so much more real to attach a part in a way that you hadn’t thought of earlier. Putting the control of not just then gun, but the play style for the rest of the game feels so good, and really scratches the itch that many gamers who might be control freaks have. Because of the random assortment of parts you can get, you can spend a significant part of the time just customizing the gun to try to fit one more part or totally change things up and just make a BFG.

Check out my stream of MOTHERGUNSHIP here:

While the customization is of course a main appeal here, there is a lot more to look at as well. For one thing, the amount of graphical polish is very impressive, with every level and movement being just so smooth from point to point, and all the transitions in-between. The glossy metal and elemental affects from the lava are spot on, even the death of all the robots is really satisfying. Even with this graphics to ogle at, there’s usually a part of the game that so many forget about, and its dialogue. Not many FPS’s even think to have any at all, let alone make it good. However, in MOTHERGUNSHIP the crew and NPC’s you meet along the way are distinct, interesting, and most of all funny. All of them have to have some kinda quip ready at a moments notice, and really keep the “cheezy action movie” feeling alive and helps to transition from one action piece to the next.

It’s a fun game to be sure, but its by no means perfect. The difficulty spikes are for real, so its hard to gauge how to setup your new gun for what’s to come, since the pacing is really up and down across the board. Also, while the customization is fun, because the ammo is controlled by how much power is used by the gun, you may not realize how effective your gun is in battle until its way too late, and there’s usually not a space you can get back to fix your mistake by reconfiguring it. Also, while the graphics are great, the music is pretty lacking and really only serves to keep things going in the background, and is kinda forgettable. Overall, it’s a fun ride, especially if you’re into action games, or FPS’s.