A very good title can let you know all the things you might want to learn about a online game in only a phrase or two. When it involves elevator pitches in that vein, you simply aren’t going to get rather more succinct than Gunbrella.

Developed by Doinksoft, the studio behind this yr’s physical-only Demon Throttle, Gunbrella‘s title really tells you everything you need to know about the 2D action game in three syllables. You have a gun. It’s additionally an umbrella. What different info do you might want to decide in the event you’re in or out?

A zany title like that may have its downsides although, as gamers will be fast to write down one thing off as a “meme game.” Fortunately, that’s unlikely to be the case right here. Based on a 30-minute demo I performed, Gunbrella is shaping as much as be one other worthy addition to Devolver Digital’s constant slate of indie motion video games. Like a number of the writer’s finest releases, it makes motion simply as a lot about shifting as it’s about taking pictures — and that’s all because of its namesake weapon.

Under my Gunbrella, ella, ella

My demo begins when my character, a quiet woodsman sporting a brown bowler cap and an extended scarf, arrives on the outskirts of a small city by way of boat. An NPC on the dock rapidly places some quests in my logbook by mentioning some mysteries taking place within the recreation’s “noir-punk” world. The most intriguing of these pertains to the titular Gunbrella that I’ve arrived with, which has some type of unusual insignia on it.

From there, Gunbrella wastes no time in introducing me to its core concepts. With its default ammo, my trusty weapon acts as a short-range shotgun that may take fundamental enemies down in a fast burst. However, that’s simply certainly one of many tips. When holding down a path button and opening the umbrella with a proper click on, I zip in that path. That permits me to each attain high-up platforms and carry out dashes.

It’s a bit difficult to get the dangle of. The path needs to be held down earlier than opening the umbrella, which I discovered went in opposition to my instincts. After some early fumbling, I received the dangle of it and began to see the potential for superior motion strategies that’ll be a blast to observe executed at a excessive degree. Like a variety of Devolver-published video games, I think about the speedrunning scene could have a subject day with all these zips.

The umbrella additionally works as a protect and one that may parry assaults too. If I open up my umbrella proper earlier than I’m about to get shot, it’ll deflect the bullet again at my enemy. By the tip of the demo, I received a powerful sense of the bullet ballet. In one breath, I might pop into the air, shoot down at an enemy under me, and open my umbrella upon touchdown simply in time to deflect a turret’s shot. I’m like a lethal Mary Poppins dropping a spoonful of shells on the world’s creepy cultists.

The story is a bit more mysterious in the intervening time. I solely received a small style of what seems to be a multilayered thriller that delves each into native politics and supernatural horror. While most of my demo was spent exploring a small 2D city that featured NPCs complaining concerning the mayor, it ended after I found cultists making blood sacrifices to summon what’s in all probability finest described as a fleshy meatball with legs. Naturally, that led to a boss struggle the place I used my gun’s alternate ammo (a longer-ranged pulse rifle) to chop it down with out a lot bother. There’s a little bit of meta humor within the combine for good measure too, like a signpost that begs me to not break a machine with a grenade by laying out precisely how I might do it (I did it).

So far, Gunbrella delivers precisely what I hoped for: a enjoyable indie motion recreation with a sturdy mobility hook. I get the sense that my trusty weapon is able to much more tips, so I’m excited to see how rather more it will probably open up within the full launch. Even if it doesn’t wind up being groundbreaking, I definitely have already got its title branded on my tongue.

Gunbrella is scheduled to launch in 2023 for PC and Nintendo Switch.

Editors’ Recommendations