Gun Monkeys – Review (PC)

Gun Monkeys – Review (PC)

Described as a ‘procedurally-generated, physics-based, online deathmatch platform game’ by its creators, the real question is whether or not  monkeys with guns translate to fun with monkeys?

The premise is an interesting one; energy companies send highly trained yet expendable monkeys into the future to harvest the unused resources of an earth desolated by an extinction level post-apocalyptic event. You control these monkeys as they duel in one on one gun battles, attempting to kill the opposition while gathering resources in the form of energy cubes.

However, narrative is not the focus of Size Five Studios’ Gun Monkeys. The game is designed as a multiplayer experience, either locally or over the net, without a singleplayer campaign or bot support to provide for those of a less competitive nature. After a brief tutorial, the player is submitted to a trial by fire as you take to the online servers to compete against live opponents. However, you may struggle to get a game straight away, because at time of writing, the servers were practically empty, aside from a few early adopters.

The learning curve is relatively steep, with several of my first opponents having accumulated wins within the double digits. If and when you begin to win your matches, you accumulate money that can be used to buy ‘perks’ to customise your monkeys, changing the way they handle and how certain weapon pickups perform. The problem with this current system is that you can lose just as much if not more money from a loss than you gain from a win. It took time for me to strike it lucky and achieve a five game winning streak to be able to purchase my first perk. Unfortunately, this streak was only the result of preying upon another new player even less experiences than myself, leading me to question how friendly the current system is to new players.

Past this initial issue, the game is a lot of fun. The visuals are striking, boasting a unique neon aesthetic with pseudo-cell shaded particle and explosion effects. The environments take damage from larger explosions, and the ultra-violent deaths of the monkeys are very, very satisfying; blood and severed limbs fly across the screen, sliding across surfaces and pouring over edges. The environments become cluttered with lifeless corpses and pools of blood as each match goes on. The game often moves into a slow motion kill-cam when a player is caught by an opponent’s bomb, adding to that sense of achievement that comes with dispatching a foe.

monkeydeath

The level of violence on display is, quite frankly, awesome.

Unfortunately, the game is severely lacking in alternative play modes and features. Past the 1 on 1 battles, there is simply nothing to do. Grinding for unlocks is made unappealing by the fact that a few bad games can push a close goal out of reach, while the complete lack of leader boards or similar detaches the game from the possibilities of a competitive gaming scene. While there is a local multiplayer option, it is lacking any kind of customisation options or map controls. Local multiplayer could be fantastic, especially running on a larger TV, with a few friends round; gun monkeys could truly shine as a party game – the pick up and play simplicity really carrying it. It is a crying shame it doesn’t support more than 1 v 1 matches.

monkey screen 1


The action is thick and fast. Above we see the ‘retro’ power-up in action, giving the player’s monkey a deadly Contra-esque spread to their weapons fire.

On top of this, there appears to be several bugs and balancing issues. The previously mentioned bombs are simply too powerful. I often found myself stuck on the top or bottom of a ladder and one game in particular was unplayable due to my screen turning almost completely black. The developers are aware of these issues, as can be seen by their interaction with games official forums. However, I can’t help but feel the ‘full release’ of a game for £6.99 shouldn’t be plagued with such issues.

Despite my negative criticism, there is real promise present in Gun Monkeys, but playing it I could not shake the feeling that you may have just paid to enter an early test build, or a beta. Such thoughts are only further cemented when I witnessed the development team making use of the Gun Monkeys’ Steam group to find people to test upcoming updates. Of course, having the community (no matter how small at present time) and developers working so closely could easily be seen as a good thing, and early adoption of an indie game for a price is not unheard of. I myself bought into Minecraft for about $10 during its Alpha stages, but Minecraft had already developed a lot of buzz at that point. Gun Monkeys isn’t really comparable in that regard, and doesn’t attempt to warn a potential buyer about the games relative infancy on the Steam Store page. The store also mentions “Loads of Achievements and Trading Cards to collect!” when in fact there is only 8 achievements, and no cards. It simply doesn’t feel like a full release.

At the end of the day, it is quite possible that Dan Marshall and co at Size Five Games have put a higher price point on this release for good reason. Having lost out to the rather trusting model of ‘pay-what-you-want’ on previous releases, he may want to start out a little higher and lower the price when he feels it appropriate. In his own words, “You can always move the price down, you can’t really move it up.”

Summary:

Pros:

  • Great sense of style and humour (complete with Cave Johnson-esque narrator)
  • Unique visuals
  • Good music
  • Fun central concept

Cons:

  • Lacking in features
  • Very small community, at present time
  • Still buggy and unbalanced.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Promising release that I really want people to try out and play, but simply can’t recommend it in its current unfinished state for its current price point. Certainly one to watch.

Gun Monkeys is available now on Steam for £6.29 (10% off for first week). A double bundle is also available for £9.44.

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