Twin-stick shooters are a dime a dozen these days, but Uragun caught my attention pretty quickly. A dystopic future, wild visuals, and the classic tale of man versus machine all caught my eye, so it was time to check out Uragun for myself during PAX Online. Uragun is a twin-stick shooter, putting players in charge of a bipedal mech on a mission to save the Earth and humanity. While the setting has been done time and time again, Uragun is shaping to be an excellent twin-stick shooter.
Uragun made its pre-alpha demo available during PAX Online. The brief mission had players drop into a factory, retrieve data, and exfiltrate with valuable information. The controls were comfortable and tight, featuring the usual configuration for twin0stick shooters. The left stick was for movement. The right stick was for aiming. The shoulder buttons were for deploying offensive fire. For my demo of Uragun, my mech had a Gatling gun, a laser cannon, a ramming melee ability, and a holographic decoy. Additionally, players can run with their mech, though, like the weapons, this will cause the mech to overheat. overheating, especially during combat, can render players defenseless and gravely vulnerable to enemy fire. The demo doesn't necessarily walk the player through the features or what each weapon does, but it was nice to jump right into Uragun and figure things out for myself.
Uragun was frantic, chaotic, and filled with boisterous and aggressive energy, that all that was missing with a thumping soundtrack to get players dee into the metal madness of the game. Walking around and shooting enemy tanks and drones was an absolute blast, with thrilling effects and action-packed combat! That's not to say Uragun was a cakewalk, as the enemies had a habit of crashing themselves into the player and blowing themselves up. The demo ended with a boss fight with a giant mechanical sandworm, who did put up a challenge. The worm utilized bullet-hell tactics, along with summoning more drones. A special touch was the wise use of environmental detail. As the boss arena happened over sand, keen-eyed players can see the worm burrow, move, and rise beneath the sand, not through thermal optics, but through regular sight. After some trial-and-error, I was able to terminate the worm with impunity and successfully complete the demo.
Perhaps the only complaint I can make of the demo would be the trigger buttons. Personally, I familiarize triggers with ranged weaponry, but when I clicked R1, it initiated a strong melee attack. This setup made combat slightly clumsy on my part, as I melee explosive enemies and took much damage early on in the demo. However, once I learned, I was able to sparingly use the melee attack, relying heavily on running and shooting instead.
Not too much is known about the world and story of Uragun, except that this combat mech is essential to the liberation of the Earth from the hands of AI-controlled forces. One special note I'd like to add is during the demo, I understood the environment more. Graffiti lined parts of the AI-controlled factory, and on the perimeter of the factory, there was a large body of water, with a deceased humpback whale floating belly-up. It'll be interesting to see the dystopic world that has been created here, and what it means for the surviving humans rebelling against the system.
Uragun is showing a lot of promise in its early state. The presentation is sharp, the gameplay is engaging, and the world is being presented in an exciting way. Uragun intends to go into Steam Early Access in 2020, and while there is no clear release on the final launch version of the game, Uragun is certainly a game to keep on your radar.
Uragun is looking to launch on Steam Early Access in 2020.
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