Terrible Posture Games released their bullet hell first person shooter Mothergunship about four years ago, and now they’ve back with a VR adaptation of their game. Here are our thoughts on Mothergunship: Forge, which is out now for PC-VR headsets and the Quest 2, on which we tested.
I’ll admit that I didn’t play too much Mothergunship when it launched, because I like my first person shooters to have a bit of a story component to them, and that was rather thin with this one, even compared to games like Doom. I’m much less particular for VR titles though, as play sessions are generally shorter, so I was looking forward to seeing how the blend of bullet hell shooting and FPS would come together in Mothergunship: Forge. And yes, it’s officially MOTHERGUNSHIP: FORGE, but that just feels too loud for my liking.
As the original is a shooter that’s focused on frantic movement and action, I was curious to see how they’d translate that to VR – especially in terms of comfort. The answer is that they kept all the guns and bullets, but restricted the movement – letting you fire from relatively stationary positions instead of making you walk around. You still have a little bit of room to step and duck your way around incoming fire, but Mothergunship: Forge is more of a shooting gallery/wave shooter than a traditional first person shooter.
The central premise is that you’re looking to defend mankind against hordes of aliens, but despite a few nuggets of narrative the action if firmly focused on the gunplay here. You’ll navigate in between different rooms where you’ll take out the enemies from said stationary position, after which you’ll select your next destination, tweaking your loadout in between with weapons that are highly customizable. This crafting system is one of the most fun aspects of Mothergunship: Forge, as you can put together a diverse selection of weapons to take into combat, making for a different experience each time even though this is ‘just’ a wave shooter.
Different attachments and bullets all change the gameplay, as some aren’t just more or less effective but also fire in different ways, bouncing from walls in order to hit enemies or exploding on impact, letting you attack without the need to be all that precise. Or dealing lightning damage, or adding something really crazy – there are tons of options, and it makes for good replay value as well as a campaign that doesn’t get repetitive thanks to these roguelite elements that impact gradual progression in sometimes unexpected ways.
Boss fights are especially fun to experiment with on subsequent playthroughs, as they’re challenging but can be taken down in multiple ways, depending on the guns and modifications you have equipped. Permanent upgrades that you unlock (the game has roguelite elements) also play a role here, and ensure that you don’t keep running into a brick wall even when you have a less than ideal weapon selected.
We’ve seen our fair share of wave shooters in the VR sphere ever since we first saw headsets appear on the market, but Mothergunship: Forge’s mix of eclectic and customizable weapons and roguelite progressions do enough to make this one well worth a look, as it’s one of the better examples of its genre in the VR domain.
Score: 7.6/10
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