Review by Jon Donnis
Guntech 2 is a retro style twin stick top-down view shooter. Reminiscent of classic games Thrust, Oids, Geometry Wars, and Asteroids.
Synopsis:
Utopos Space Station was the new hope for humans. It failed. Never underestimate human greed.
Your job is to clean up the mess. Fight alien life forms, rescue scientists, deliver vaccines to combat a deadly pandemic. The asteroid belt is filled with wild space aliens, many of them results of failed human experiments to create life that survives in space. You will even find a dragon in space!
As is often the case in such games, you fly about, shoot the aliens, get to the end point and on you go. This game has that but also a nice little twist. There is a virus pandemic affecting the solar system, and giant viruses the same size as alien rockets are floating around, and you need to take them out.
In normal times such a twist in a game would seem silly or pointless, but in current times it fits in just about perfectly. The viruses can even attach to your ship and drain your power. Along with the giant viruses and aliens, there are also demons, dragons and all sorts to fight.
Designed mainly a single player game, control of the ship is with the left stick, this includes the engine thrust, something I am not keen on, I prefer engine thrust to be controlled with a separate button, this does make control at first a bit trick and hard to get used to, but stick with it and you will get there. And the right stick controls the rail gun. You also have two additional weapons, fired using the bumpers. Unfortunately, because of the control system, these additional weapons only fire in the direction that the ship is facing, so if you are using the rail gun to fire behind you or to the side, the extra weapons become pointless.
5 worlds, Tutorial, Virus, The Dark Worlds, Space Jungle, and Cargo Hauler each with 8 levels to beat, so there is plenty to keep you going. Plus, the addition of some fun themed levels which I won't spoil for you now.
Each level has up to 3 stars to achieve for passing. Various things to achieve in a level to get the maximum stars. There is an arcade and adventure mode. Plenty of weapons to collect.
I imagine the levels with the giant virus will trigger some people, especially the boss fight with a giant virus that has a name similar to Dr Birx, one of the scientists in America who "controlled the narrative", and you need to destroy a lab from which the virus escaped. Disclaimer: Any similarities to real life events are purely coincidental.
The Good
Super colourful graphics, excellent design, and well thought out levels, plus the whole virus angle is really fun. Trying to destroy the boss virus and watching it multiply and keep coming back did amuse me.
The Bad
Not a fan of this form of control, but it is what it is. If anything, it is close to the classic Asteroids game in control method, I just never liked it.
Overall
If you are a fan of top-down space shooters, this is another to add to your collection. Hardly ground breaking, but does have unique features that give it a level of interest.
Out now on Xbox
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