Gunlocked Reviews

With the announcements recently for the upcoming Gunlocked 2, I was reminded of this great little title and to my surprise, I'd found that I hadn't written a review of this one yet. With an eye to helping you decide whether the Gunlocked series may be to your taste, here's a short review. Gunlocked describes itself as a twin stick shooter without the twin stick but I found that to be an unhelpful description and not at all accurate. As many others have said in their own reviews, this is closer in gameplay style to Vampire Survivors if the VS grew had gotten into bug-shaped spaceships and flew out across the stars in a Star Force or Astro Blast style adventure. If that sentence puts you off a little because you dislike Vampire Survivors, know that this game is far less aggressive, less mental and a lot more readable than Vampire survivors is. If you like the manic overwhelming gameplay of late-stage Vampire Survivors you'll find this title almost quaint by comparison but stick with it - there's a different sort of challenge here. Gunlocked emulates the gameplay of an older, 1980's scrolling shoot 'em up, with your ship auto-scrolling up through the playfield of enemy ships trying to ram you, shoot at you or simply pass you by. At the end of each zone there's a larger boss enemy with traditional shoot 'em up attack patterns. Where Gunlocked differentiates itself from a typical shmup is in the implementation of it's power ups and the fact that it auto shoots everything all of the time for you. No shot or bomb buttons needed here! When you start, your ship need a pilot who will modify your abilities somewhat. During the game, you will blast enemies who will leave coins behind. Coins give you 'xp' and once you have enough your ship will get to level up, getting an immediate choice of a few power-ups to pick from. You pick a power-up from the offered list and the game continues on with you blasting more enemies and collecting more coins. Thus, the gameplay loop seems very simple on the surface - dodge, kill, collect, upgrade, repeat. Gunlocked employs a few spices to make this more than an average scrooling STG or just another VS clone. Firstly, the amount of power ups you can carry is limites in a similar fashion to Vampire Survivors and it's ilk. You have 4 weapon slots, 4 utlility slots and 4 augments that can be equipped at the beginning of the run. By selecting a pilot and augments first, you can start to shape your run in a more meaningful way that you do in the various 'survivor' style games out there. During the game, you will find yourself asking questions about what weapons you need to cover gaps in your arsenal or defensive abilities, and which utilities best enhance the build you are making. Once all of your slots are full in a particular category that's it - no more items of that type for you for the rest of the run! Weapons and Utilities can be collected multiple times, powering them up and making them shoot more, fire faster, get bigger or get better in some other way. Some weapon/utility combinations can be combined to make symbiosis weapons, further enhancing their capabilities or changing them up completely. If you are familiar with Vampire Survivors none of this will be a surprise but Gunlocked goes beyond the VS formula and becomes it's own thing worth playing in three very important ways: 1) The auto scrolling aspect makes the game more focused, removing confusing level layouts and giving you a continual sense of progress. 2) The game has less enemies on screen and becomes more about AVOIDANCE. In VS style games, you are corralling enemies to kill and farm them for faster level ups. In Gunlocked, you are not. You are being much more discerning about what enemies you take on, and which ones you avoid in order to survive and collect the goodies. The descicion space is more meaningful in moment-to-moment gameplay here. 3) The weapons you carry often have cooldown timers or charge times before they are ready or can be used. In VS style games, your weapons often trigger repeatably and you get used to the cadence. In Gunlocked you not only see the cooldown timers, but weapon styles often have very different cooldowns or charge types so each build becomes a matter of managing the availability of your weapons and defences to ensure you have killing capabilities when you need them. Moving around and damaging foes has a flow to it in Gunlocked, a rise-and-fall cadence that doesn't really exist in Vampire Survivors. The 4-weapon limit and differing weapon types really helps reinforce this, making the game feel more tactical than a typical 'survivors' game. There are other great things about the title. The soundtrack serves well, the graphics are very evocative of late-80's shmups and have a very bug-heavy theming to them, enemy projectiles are clear, weapons and utilities offer a more meaningful variety than you see in a lot of VS clones, and you never get bum-rushed in the way VS clones do to you. As far as negatives go, Gunlocked doesn't have many. It's solid, stable, cheap and a good time. Some of the weapons are underwhelming for sure and figuring out the sybiotic combinations is difficult in-game (have a look at the steam guide for the symbiosis weapons and save yourself guessing). The levels feel a little samey, the bug-ship designs are not to my liking (but inventive in their own way, I love how the dev has made everything feel so consistent in-universe) and for shmup fans the bosses are totally underwhelming. With a little more variety, some weapon balancing and a more engaging soundtrack, Gunlocked could easily be elevated beyond these minor quibbles. So, who could this be for? If you like survivors games but have played enough of them to be a bit jaded on the experience, Gunlocked may be the refresher you need. It's a little more thought-provoking, has more meaningful choices and is a lot less overwhelming that most survivor games on the market. If you like shmups, Gunlocked feels like one but at the same time, not quite like one. The auto fire, coin collection, power up timer management and roguelike upgrade selection mechanics will make it feel like a cross between Schildmaid, Rouguemax and Vampire Survivors with the focus very much on dodging. If you are looking to dip your toe into survivor games for the first time, Gunlocked will absolutely be a welcoming experience. It'd difficulty curve is gentle enough that it lets you get involved before it feels the need to show it's teeth and there's plenty of content for you here. If you want a simple timewaster to play sporadically, Gunlocked plays brilliantly as a short burst sort of game with the re-learn difficulty being next to nothing - you can leave this alone for weeks, come back to it again and it will just click for you. All-in-all, Gunlocked does enough well to give shmup fans a taste of 'survivors' style auto-fire gameplay and to give 'survivors' fans a different experience than they are traditionally used to. After putting a bit of time into this one I'm eagerly awaiting Gunlocked 2 as i feel that there's more to explore here. Gunlocked is worth the price of entry, especially if you are looking for something a little different. It's not a shmup. It's not a survivor clone. It's not bullet hell. But it does borrow enough from these things that any fan of them may find a lot to like here. Try it yourself - it's cheap and worth the time and if you like it, why not wishlist Gunlocked 2 because that one will be bigger and bolder than this.

Gunlocked is a nostalgia trip for those who remember the arcade machines, but comes with the twist of a Roguelike. Kind of wishing those arcade games had this mechanic.

Amazing presentation and sound. I want to like this game but it's just not that fun to play. Dodging bullets, fun. Dodging near-unkillable asteroids, not fun. It isn't even very difficult, it just didn't feel good. And I'm sure the weapons get better as you play more, but again, the ones you start with just are not very fun to use. I'll try Gunlocked 2 when it releases because I think there's something here; but this one ain't it for me