Speedy Gun Savage is a VR rail shooter by developer and publisher, Gamitronics, that bravely starts off by attempting to subvert the first rule of modern VR games: no third person cutscenes. It’s an interesting choice that introduces the player to our space-cowboy/bounty hunter protagonist and his witty robot companion before being locked into a first person perspective. The idea is “lone space cowboy/bounty hunter on a cheeky adventure with robot sidekick,” which in itself is interesting enough for me to ignore the awkward camera angles during the cutscene (aka, VR head in wall syndrome), but the lack of execution is not a one time deal, instead, becoming a persistent issue throughout the whole of the game. Essentially, Speedy Gun Savage’s introduction cutscene summarizes the entire game pretty well: fun, quirky ideas, but a dire lack of understanding and depth in the execution of those ideas.
Let’s start with the gameplay. Speedy Gun Savage can be described as a first person rail shooter, and more specifically, a first-person cover shooter. Think childhood arcade games with the toy guys where you can shoot at the screen while the character moves from location to location on their own. The game does give the player some degree of freedom, allowing you to strafe left and right and take cover freely. Speedy Gun Savage does not avoid the negatives of this “cover shooter” genre. Most of the game consists of you hunched under cover, likely staring at some breed of rock or wall while your arm(s) are poking over and shooting enemies that don’t really have the processing power to run around the cover and bash you on the head. It’s safe to say… AI isn’t the best.
The NPCs actually have pretty decent aim, and at times, the repetitive gameplay is broken by the variety in enemy types and the drastically different sceneries the player gets to explore. I admire the attempts to make this a challenging, diverse, and balanced experience, but other issues, such as a small weapon variety brings us back down to earth. It’s tragically too little and too late. The issue really is that if their aim is too good, if the NPCs do too much damage, or if the player is not equipped with enough tools to fairly deal with opposites, the game goes back to “staring at rock/ wall” simulator as the best possible strategy. The lack of a strong interface aggravates the issue. I understand that VR games like to go for a sense of realism, usually settling for unobtrusive interfaces, however, there is a reason why modern shooters have so much information on the screen. An NPC can be shooting you for like 5 minutes and you wouldn’t know due to the lack of damage/health indication. This lack of attention and care towards the player experience shows even that the options menu at the very start is extremely unoptimized, being so small and far away from the player that only a telescope could help differentiate it from the vast expanse of space behind it.
Sound and art direction supported the humorous tones of the game’s premises, but overall, lacked charm and inspiration. Again, great ideas such as Victorian antique styled weapons and secret dark dungeons aren’t put together in a way that feels cohesive, and instead, results in a Frankenstein effect where the art direction feels aimless. As for technical issues… minding that the game is in Early Access, there was definitely a lack of polish. Playing on the HTC Vive, it was a struggle to stop the game from crashing at the end of tutorial. Other than that, the game ran smoothly for the most part.
Speedy Gun Savage has some interesting ideas, however, only skims the surfaces of it’s tropes, failing to truly execute on those ideas in meaningful ways. The game does not stand up to the fast paced action of something like Super Hot, nor the charm of a similar wacky lone space adventure like Outer Worlds. Nonetheless, this could be a very enjoyable entry into the extremely competitive shooter genre if the developers were to polish the game to further support the very highlight of the game as according to the title: players speed and skill in a gunfight.
Check Out the Speedy Gun Savage Steam Early Access Trailer:
Speedy Gun Savage is available for $9.99 for via Steam VR.
I remember when I was a little kid, I watched my dad talk to a cowboy robot in a post-apocalyptic open world game. He kicked me out of his office, stating that the game is inappropriate for children, but I think that’s where my love of western RPGs started. Since then, I’ve grown up playing competitive games, interacting with the community, and exploring immersive worlds. I’m definitely an old soul as my favorite games include all of the old Fallout games, RPGs with classical elements such as Divinity: Original Sin 2, and the all-time great Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
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