The way the
puzzles in Gunpoint work (i.e. the fundamental mechanics of the game) involve
both direct character action and some clever level manipulation. Your goal in
each level is to reach some computer terminal or similar item, get the goods,
and get out. This is made more difficult by pesky obstacles, such as locked
doors, armed guards, or heights. Therefore you’re looking at things like
stealthily navigating a level to avoid getting shot by guards, going in fists
blazing and punching everyone you can, or using a set of tools you’ll unlock
over time to, say, jump through a window 3 stories up in order to bypass the
security system on the first floor.
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| Bulky guards are tricky because you can't knock them out with a door, but professionals are deadly even in the dark why not. |
The other part
of the game involves manipulating the level to do your bidding. You see, you’ll
gain access to a device that allows you to change the way electrical circuits
interact with each other. When you activate this mode, you’ll see the way
everything is connected, such as the light switch that will, predictably, turn
the lights on and off, the camera or motion sensor that is connected to a noisy
alarm that will attract guards, or the palm scanner that will open a secure
door. Then you get to change them. Rewire a motion detector on the first floor
to shut off the lights on the second, then laugh as the second floor guard
attempts to use the palm scanner to open a door and get back to the switch he
believes will once again illuminate his area, only to instead find out the palm
scanner no longer triggers the door, but the other palm scanner, causing the
door to open towards him instead of away, and thus knocking him out without you
having to lift a finger. Connect the call button on an elevator, which can be
an input that brings the elevator to that floor or an output that triggers
something else (it also makes a noise, which itself can trigger other sensors)
to an electrical outlet, then enjoy watching the guard on that floor be
electrocuted just as your elevator arrives.
To be fair,
electrical circuit manipulation is really the heart of the game, as it’s how
you go about taking care of guards or accessing restricted areas. However, even
though you can do it remotely from anywhere in the level, successfully moving
around the level requires more than just shutting off all the lights. You can’t
kill or render unconscious every guard with a door, special guards can see in
the dark, and noisy actions such as breaking glass will summon guards from
nearby floors. Furthermore, as you progress through the game, you’ll find that
there are levels with several dedicated circuits, all color coded so you know
what interacts with what, and the only way to manipulate them is to physically
hack into a control box, usually located in some secure area patrolled by a
guard.
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| The game’s difficult increases substantially when multiple circuits are involved. |
The strategies
you’ll develop to deal with these situations will depend on your personality.
Over the course of the last few years I’ve found I prefer stealth over the
“kill them all” approach, so I continued that in this game. Thus, when it came
to character upgrades (new technologies you can purchase with your reward
payment gathered at the end of each mission), I focused on things such as
landing silently or the ability to jump through glass windows without making a
sound, versus more combat oriented upgrades like the ability to occasionally
dodge bullets or the acquisition of a gun called “The Resolver.” Combining
those with tactics like shutting of the lights to leave (most) enemies blind or
at least getting them to patrol rather than stand in one place, using the
*ding* of an elevator remotely trigged to come to a floor to cause a guard to
turn away from the stairs, and the occasional pounce plus a one punch knockout
on a guard (with enough punches you can kill the guard, which means at the end
of the level you’ll score better in the witnesses area, but worse in noise)
resulted in some pretty good scores for me, though I always was lacking in the
quickness department. Still, for me it made for an interesting challenge, one
punctuated by plenty of do-overs as I found I was too slow crawling along a
wall, or a jump from a certain height made too much noise, or just some other
situation where I otherwise caught the attention of a guard I didn’t want to
know where I was and who, in the end, turned out to be quite proficient with
his firearm. Thankfully there’s this handy feature that, upon death, give you
the option to roll the game back to various points (usually something like 3
seconds, 12 seconds, 21 seconds, or restart), to see if this time you can jump
out of a guard’s line of sight fast enough.
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| There are plenty of upgrades in this game, though it's pretty easy to break them down into stealth vs. not stealth. |
Not only is the
gameplay lots of fun, particularly when you get into some of the later levels
where you have more tools and more complicated puzzles – on the tools side you
can route a power outlet to any other device, such as that switch that guard is
going to try when you shut off the lights, thus causing that to shock the guard
into unconsciousness, while the puzzles evolve to creating chain reactions
where timing is important or to cleverly set something up across multiple
independent circuits, usually involving something like an alarm or elevator
chime triggering a sound sensor – Gunpoint is also one of the most well written
games I’ve played in a while. This is not a serious, moving game a la Spec Ops:
The Line, despite what the detective noir facade it puts up. No, Gunpoint is
pure humor. It contrasts the previously discussed façade with the realities of
a somewhat bumbling detective who, depending on your text choices when
responding during mission briefings, is one degree or another of a smart mouth.
Take the first few levels for example, which you can access in the game’s demo
(to be completely honest, it was the demo that convinced me this was a game
worth getting…for the right price). You immediately find yourself having to
erase all evidence that implicates you in a murder you didn’t commit. While
this is serious sounding, you’re actually contracted for the job by the woman
whose security systems picked you up. This leads to plenty of opportunities to
joke about have 4 backups, the ease with which you’re breaking into her
facilities, how she can’t do it herself, and so on. The humor doesn’t add
anything to the game in the sense that it changes the outcome, but I found
myself laughing more than a few times at the dialogue tree I managed to
construct.
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| The story does involve competition between two rival companies, murder, people being framed for that murder, bribed, etc. Serious stuff, but the dialogue choices make light of the situation. |
Gunpoint is not
a game without its downsides. The most notable is its short length. I made it
through the whole thing using stealth tactics in under 3 hours. Replay wise,
other than going back for some achievements that actually do depend on what you
say or your chosen method for completing the final level, there’s not much of a
reason to go back. As it was, going the whole ghost/ninja route I managed to
just about get an A+ rating on every level, of which there are only 20 or so,
and you’ll be through the majority of those before the difficult feels like it
starts increasing. Thankfully the creator of this game, in an act that I find
both genius and incredibly lazy, included Steam support for custom levels, so
you can just hop on and find some new content to keep you busy.
All in all I’d
say Gunpoint is a good game that’s worth getting, but certainly not at the full
price of $10, particularly considering the brevity of this game. I’d recommend
it at the 75% or so that games eventually always seem to hit on a major Steam
sale (I received it as part of a Humble Bundle that a friend bought me, which
is even better). You should jump on it at that price though, because what you
do get makes for a solid experience – 8 out of 10.
So, the final breakdown:
Score: 8/10
Suggested Price: $2.49
***
For more Gunpoint, , check out this collection of screenshots otherwise unused in this review. Click on any one for a larger image.
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