REVIEW / Guntastic (PC)

Wow. I’ve played some crazy games in the past (I’m looking at you Castle Crashers) but never something as purely chaotic as Guntastic. And, before assumptions are made let me just say, this was fun chaotic, not rage-inducing chaotic. Guntastic is a multiplayer, one-shot-one-kill arena brawler where the focus is to take out the other players as fast as possible. For 25 seconds, it’s an all-out war against your friends– anyone remaining after the 25 seconds is eliminated. 

These are super fast matches. As I got used to the gameplay, there were times when I actually thought 15 seconds was getting a little long. That should give you an idea of how ridiculous this game is. 

We here at That VideoGame Blog decided to have new years virtual get together. Guntastic was chosen and four of us played off against each other in teams of two. This was nice since I never would have chosen to play this game otherwise and if I did it would not have been as fun to review it while playing alone against CPU characters.

So yes, I highly recommend playing Guntastic with a group of friends. We played online but it also has a couch versus setting which is nice.After loading up the game, the player is met is some high-energy music and from there the player can choose how they want to proceed. It’s possible to customize the matches but we went with what was already set up, 25-second rounds, 10 rounds each match, best two out of 3. 

Guntastic’s gameplay is amazing. It took me a few tries to understand the best way to win a match. Avatars appear in random locations of the map to further confuse the player and on top of that, random weapons appear in various parts of the map. It’s best to go for the guns you feel more comfortable with but when it comes to the time limit and how far away that particular weapon is, sometimes it’s just best to go for the weapon in front of you.

The weapons themselves can either be your greatest ally or your worst enemy. Friendly fire is very much a thing. I can’t count how many rounds ended in suicide. Cannons rebound off of surfaces, ninja stars bounce and rebound, and a lot of times even if you are right up against the other player, your weapon will do you both in.

The music is great, nothing extraordinary but it fits the game perfectly. The graphics are nice, a little old school and the avatars are vulgar, ugly, crazy looking, and all-around funky cool. From what appears to be a unicorn on mushrooms to zombies to a monkey in shades, it’s unclear whether a lot of work went into creating these avatars or perhaps not much at all. It definitely looks like the developers had a lot of fun creating them either way. 

This is overall a great game to play with your friends. We all had a good time going up against each other. Guntastic is face-paced, chaotic, nail-biting, and heart-pounding. It has you sitting on the edge of your seat the entire time.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.