In the bleak future overrun by robot neon spiders and renegade AIs, the only thing that stands between a robot and their lost pilot is an incredibly chaotic, challenging, yet rewarding experience. Mixing twin-stick gameplay and shoot ‘em up action, Uragun hit Steam Early Access back on April 11th and I have spent some time with the game.
You control a mech who blasts through the streets of various futuristic levels based on real-world locations. As you progress through each zone you will earn additional weapons and modifications to your mech, turning into an efficient robot killing machine. Mixing and matching components is a lot of fun especially when you get something you never used before.
Gameplay is smooth and fluid while offering surprisingly precise movements. Some bosses are incredibly challenging, lending themselves to that “shoot ‘em up” style. At first, you’ll try to dash around the battlefield and deal out as much damage as possible only to learn that sometimes your best offense is your best defense.
Attack patterns of enemies are easily telegraphed but more importantly each enemy is so finely crafted that there is no confusing one enemy for another. When you see a bunch of spiders or jellyfish looking enemies, you know exactly what to expect and your brain is already measuring your counter.
When it comes to bosses, they are absolutely punishing but always have an attack pattern that takes a little experimenting to figure out. After a few tries, it finally clicked, and I tried to exploit the weaknesses of each boss, knocking down their health bit by bit with gusto.
My only complaint so far is there is a lack of targeting line (akin to a red laser in other games), leaving me to rely on holding down my mini gun as a way to know exactly where and what I am shooting at. Text is also incredibly small sometimes forcing me to guess what button the game wants me to hit.
Uragun runs smooth on most systems I have installed it on, and it has yet to be optimized for the Steam Deck. Recommended specs are a bit heavy, but if you have at least a 7th Gen Intel or AMD Ryzen 1700, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050ti, you can also enjoy this unique take on the genre.
I plan on following up with Kool2Play during Seasoned Gaming’s PAX East coverage. Uragun is currently on Steam Early Access for $14.99 USD and several updates to the game have already been implemented due to community feedback. The future is looking bright for this one.
