For the many reasons outlined in this Chumps Preview, we are excited to see where Gunbrella goes and will keep a close eye on it as it gets closer to release. Using the gunbrella is less of a gimmick and much more legitimately fun than I had imagined. Its gritty film noir ambiance is appropriate and blended well with the dry humor of Gunbrella's characters. It's a delightful little package that other players, including myself, get to open soon.
Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
DigitalChumps was given access to an extended preview of Gunbrella, spanning a good two hours for us to complete in full, and another hour or so to replay. There are some branching storylines that ever-so-slightly split apart based on our decisions, but those were very easily seen in a secondary runthrough of another 30 minutes or so. During this time, we became acclimated to Gunbrella‘s controls while giving us just a taste of its story. When I hit the end of the preview, I was almost disappointed because of how the preview ended on a cliffhanger explaining the origins of so many characters and more. This means I have much to look forward to. If you’ve played its demo, you’re probably feeling the same.
If you’re unfamiliar with Gunbrella, let me tell you: It’s WILD. I don’t use that when describing gameplay that often, but it’s quite fitting here. It’s a mix of Mary Poppins meets Kirby meets Mega Man. As I type this out, it feels like I’m experiencing a fever dream. Who thought Mary Poppins with a gun would work so well?
Gunbrella‘s platforming tasked me with navigating side-scrolling levels with a gunbrella — a hybrid of a shotgun and an umbrella all in one. I could shoot the shotgun and use it to propel myself in any direction I wanted. To extend my jumps, wall jumping gave me extra boosts to new heights. It’s a weird gimmick at first, especially coming out of Gravity Circuit‘s momentum-based hookshots and dashes. But, once I got the hang of it, I was able to literally float and dash through levels. If you enjoyed DOOMBLADE‘s high-mobility gameplay, you’ll love Gunbrella.
In between visiting small little towns of NPCs, I had to navigate the protagonist through several biomes full of dangerous machinery, deadly wildlife, and demonic cultists. All of the above were easily dispatched using the protagonist’s gunbrella shotgun shells. These are close ranged buckshots that fire in a three-projectile spread; if you line your shot correctly, you can very quickly dispatch enemies with a single button press thanks to all three projectiles hitting their body. There are several other ammunition types, such as sniper ammunition that fires in a three round burst, but they come in limited amounts that drop from enemies and can be purchased from vendors. The current ammunition variety is nice, but I never felt compelled to use the ammo because of its limited supply and enemies being easily dispatched with the default shotgun shells.
Our preview contained three separate boss fights at the end of the biomes we were given access. The most difficult was a gigantic rat creature that covered most of the screen. It was one of the few times during the playthrough where I struggled with the combat because of its initial attack patterns and its massive size. I had some sniper ammunition that allowed me to whittle a few bits of its health away from the safety of the corner of the level, but the shotgun shells ended up being the most reliable, albeit ammunition that let me slowly but surely get by. Boss fights are usually opportunities to test players’ mastery of some new ability or weapon, but Gunbrella‘s bosses thus far can be overcome with the base weapon and little else.
Gunbrella‘s combat works well, but it could be very well diversified by requiring players to use other forms of ammunition to succeed. There was a single instance where I was required to use an alternative form of ammo, and it was for the sake of unlocking a gate. It’s clear that doinksoft created the other ammunition types to add some variety, but there was little reward for me. Hopefully, there’s still time to encourage folks to utilize the gunbrella’s other ammunition in-game.
The Mary Poppins aspect of utilizing the gunbrella for propulsion and deflection takes some getting used to, but boy it felt really good once I mastered it. During my second runthrough, I was able to successfully deflect nearly all enemy projectiles and counter with my own buckshot right quick. By hour three I was zooming through each level and rarely touching the ground because of how smooth the protagonist can be controlled. It’s far from the stodginess of early Kirby games. I could understand that some of you might be wary of this platforming gimmick, but worry not: It works incredibly well and offers players additional precision in their ability to aim and participate in aerial combat.
Prior to my playthrough, I did some digging online and saw that some folks assumed/considered Gunbrella to be a metroidvania. At first glance, it may look like a Metroidvania, but considering it to be that would be equivalent to considering The Last of Us to be a horror game. Gunbrella is best described as an action platformer with RPG tendencies. You’re treated to a mild amount of exploration in the four or so biomes, but there’s very little off the beaten path to reward those with keen eyes and feeling the need to explore the current map in its entirety. Metroidvanias encourage backtracking and offer some branching paths, but Gunbrella is far too linear to be considered anything close to a metroidvania.
There are side quests, however. As you make your way through the world and interrogate the denizens of each town, you may happen across a sidequest or six, some of which give you branching paths to consider. Should you deliver a lost item to a person in the sewers, or should you deliver it to a seemingly shady merchant? Your decision has some impacts, but not to a serious degree. These sidequests offered small breaks away from the protagonist’s quest, treating me to some unique dialogue and the occasional bonus that proved to be helpful down the line. I just wished that the decision trees of some of the other sidequests had greater impacts. When presented with a choice, I want my decisions to matter in most respects and my character to experience the impacts of those choices. While there are some, such as one that makes a boss fight easier if you chose correctly, others give you some unique dialogue, and that’s about it.
On the topic of dialogue, I want to emphasize how much I enjoyed the writing of the NPCs. Despite the grittiness of the main character’s story and the bloodiness of the antagonistic occult, the NPCs’ conversations and behaviors are chock full of dry humor and good puns. Heck, the cult’s name is Cult-45! You’re not supposed to take this game super seriously with a band of antagonists like that. I also got quite a good chuckle out of a questgiver conveniently forgetting to reward me after saving their life and subsequently saving their town’s honor. The dry humor felt akin to the silliness of Undertale and Rhythm Sprout, and it made conversations worth reading. It also tells me that doinksoft wants players to take the time to speak to other NPCs and read any lore entries scattered around the world. At the bare minimum, you’ll get a good chuckle like I did.
I also want to praise Gunbrella‘s ambiance. I’ve mentioned a few times in this preview that Gunbrella is gritty and bloody. The default visual setting of a film grain and mild bloom creates a realistic effect of playing on a projector with old-school film. Those in the know will immediately pick up on the film noir thematics that are interwoven throughout the demo. It doesn’t lean that heavily into steampunk, but the storyline involving the gunbrella’s origins skews more technological. It’s a unique ambiance and I’m excited to explore it further when the game eventually releases.
Because this is a preview, we’re unable to give Gunbrella a score at this time. We were given access to what is supposedly the first half of Gunbrella. I enjoyed what I was able to play, don’t get me wrong, but I see ample opportunities for the combat to be just a smidge more complex and some of the choices I made during this preview to bear fruit in the latter half of the game. Did I have fun during this preview session? Absolutely. I didn’t want it to end. Did I want to finish the story in its entirety? Also yes. We concluded the preview at the edge of a massive cliffhanger! Ah!
For the many reasons outlined in this Chumps Preview, we are excited to see where Gunbrella goes and will keep a close eye on it as it gets closer to release. Using the gunbrella is less of a gimmick and much more legitimately fun than I had imagined. Its gritty film noir ambiance is appropriate and blended well with the dry humor of Gunbrella‘s characters. It’s a delightful little package that other players, including myself, get to open soon.
A preview key of Gunbrella was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this Chumps Preview.
