The irrational fear that aliens are going to come and kill us all has been pervasive throughout media. Mothergunship from Grip Digital takes this idea to an extreme and says that the aliens not only came, but they won. It is up to the player and the resistance to take back the earth in this roguelite adventure that pits the resistance against the hordes upon hordes of alien regiments. It’s the player’s mission to go to each randomly generated room to destroy the enemy. Bringing the FPS genre to new craftable heights, will Mothergunship stand up tall and retake the planet or will it fall in a battle, full of holes?

It’s the distant future. An alien race has come and conquered Earth with the player being a part of the resistance. The resistance will battle their way through various gunships on their way to not just win back Earth but to destroy the titular Mothergunship. This all takes place while using an arsenal of endlessly customizable weaponry that will be crafted from pieces and parts that is gathered from the endless enemies as they are destroyed. Players will put together their speed and intellect in conjunction with the bullet hell they create to utterly decimate those who oppose them. How will you choose to waste your enemies? Will you be quick and guns blazing or maybe be a little more meticulous with your alien destruction? More importantly, will you take back the Earth?

What I Liked:

Customization Everywhere- To say no one persons journey through this game is the same is an understatement. No two players will find themselves sporting identical weapon arsenal, and the only limits are within ones’ own imagination. It is possible to create everything from long distance specialized weaponry to absurd, close quarters giant shotguns. It all depends on what fits the situation while crafting. With a lot of variety, players can find a balance between standard weapons to crazy concoctions that shooted laser beams, cannonballs and saw blades. What this roguelite brings to the table in terms of firepower really is hard to match.

Looking at the Humorous Side- The writing is flat-out funny. Within a couple of hours of gameplay,  the player is hit with some solid one-liners and even some cheeky references to things like pop up ads and viruses. Between the events happening and learning about the tragedy that was losing to the aliens, this game will cause a barrel of laughs along the way. Some lines are admittedly eye-rollers, but others will genuinely worthy of laughing out loud.

What I Didn’t Like:

Bullets Sponges As Far As You Can See- There is plenty of variety as far as enemies encountered; however, all these enemies feel like just bullet fodder for the sake of being bullet fodder. Some do chop up pretty quickly, mainly depending on what crafted gun you brought to the fight. In the end, most just feel like they are kinda there versus feeling like a difficult challenge or any real sense of diversity. The game tends to depend more on a massive amount of enemies in a space versus clever room design or gradually tougher, more diverse enemies. Even the bosses, while somewhat difficult depending on how they cause the player to have to maneuver to avoid being hit and kill them, come off as really spongy rather than offering a more unique battle experience.

Frustration Abounding- Now any roguelite comes with the facet that when upon death that the player is going to lose something. Whether it be loot, progress, or even cause a game over. In Mothergunship, the penalty for death is losing all the gun parts and pieces that the player started the level with. Now to be fair, this isn’t necessarily a bad design choice as it puts a lot of emphasis on being careful with what is brought into a level. It might benefit to do a blind run just to see what lies ahead, but it becomes frustrating when it can cause the player to put themselves in a hole for a simple mistake. For a game boasting so much as far customization and the abilities of the weapons that can be created, losing your parts just feels like the penalty can be too steep at times. Instead of experimenting with bonkers creations, you’ll often find yourself playing it safe with tried and true weapons at the price of allowing the game to be more fun overall.

Wrap Up:

Mothergunship is a ultimately a humorous tale of taking back earth from the aliens that had no business winning in the first place. Going through this game will have its frustrations but the funny writing and the solid gameplay at work here will make those melt away. From top to bottom, Mothergunship is a good time, and good for a solid go on your hard drive. So what are you waiting on soldier? Don’t you have some aliens to kill?

Score: Highly Recommended

Mothergunship was developed and published by Grip Digital. It was released on July 17th, 2018, for $24.99. The author was provided a review copy of the game.