Two Very Different Takes on Gunsmithing in Computer Games!
Casual Gaming with Guns
I'm pretty much emersed with big multiplayer co-op games at the moment. These triple-A titles - like Red Dead Online, State of Decay and Zombie Army 4 - all take quite a lot of concentration and are high energy and quite stressful at times! Sometimes I feel quite drained when I finish a session of these games! 😂
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| Above: StaceFiona and I in a Zombie Army 4 session. This is a typical moment of my getting a little too stressed out! Hahahaha! |
So it's nice to have a single player option in the form of a more laid back casual type of gaming where I can just relax a little and tinker away at while I have the feet up on the sofa! (In fact, I believe 'sofa gaming' is the actual term for these sort of games, although they are usually played on a big screen TV.)
My gaming tool of choice for relaxed gaming is my ASAS TUF gaming laptop and I like the games to be a little more gentle in pace and ones which I can pick up and put down in short sessions.
With this in mind I came across a couple of games on STEAM which seemed to fit the bill and which both had as their central theme virtual gunsmithing. Seemed just my cup of tea!
The Serious and the Not So Serious!
Well, let's start with the game I saw first, it's one I've been tempted by because I am a fan of the Tank Mechanic Simulator game. I'd been umming and ahhing about Gunsmithing Simulator though as the whole 'mechanic' sim thing sometimes get's a bit tiresome as they are pretty much just - in my opinion - just digital jigsaw puzzles. You just assemble a set number of component parts to complete whatever you are working on, and at times this can get a little repetitive.
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| Above: The third job given in the game was the repair and refitting of this iconic 9mm Uzi submachinegun! This entailed replacing broken part and also buying replacement and missing parts from the game's 'online store'. |
As it happens, though, Gunsmithing Simulator popped up in the STEAM sale so I decided it was worth a pop!
Gunsmithing Simulator - as the name suggests - is a fairly 'serious' attempt at portraying the gunsmith's craft, with some very polished 3D models of real world firearms that you work on.
Loosely, it could be called as 'edutainment' as I have seen instances of professional firearm experts using this game as a tool to study the mechanics of historic firearms. The guns all seem very well modelled, with accurate fire mechanism components and assembly procedures.
Here I decide on what gunsmithing job to take on after the initial Colt 1911 is completed...
I started out a bit worried that this game would follow other 'mechanic sim' games as being a bit shallow and short lived, however I was soon pleasantly surprised that there seemed to be little more to the activities that are available and was especially pleased to see that you could customise your guns in a range of different ways!
Currently I am working on my third gun repair, this is one for myself as you can either take on commissions or build up your very own firearms collection by undertaking the in-game's 'online auctions'. My first gun was a excellent Mossberg M509A2. As it happens, this model is a gun I would definitely own in real life if I liked in the US (rather than the UK, where a 29 inch shotgun barrel is mandatory).
And this is where I think this game shines as you can take your basic model of gun and then customise it into one of a selection of alternative loadouts available for the gun. I went - in the end - for a custom short home defence layout of the Mossberg!
A very satisfying game.
And Now For Something Sorta the Same, But Different...
I love zombie survival games, but - in the main - the most popular format for these games is one based on loot savaging and defence against hoards, usually of the first person shooter style. Games like State of Decay and 7 Days to Dies epitomise this genre, so it's nice to see something a little different in play style when it comes along.
Rise of Gun is such a game where instead of fighting zombies you find yourself living inside a community of survivors responsible for the provision of their weaponry. You do this by buying weapon parts and then assembling them for sale in your shop.
Unlike Gunsmithing Simulator the kind of guns you will be making are a little ramshackle and sometime comical in their design. In fact, the whole flavour of the game is somewhat tongue in cheek and this is reinforced by the graphical style being of the voxel type (think Minecraft).
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| Above: A happy customer! |
The key concern with this game is the careful use of meagre resources - i.e. money - to build up enough stock while keeping yourself fed. At least, as I said, you don't have to worry about zombie attacks as the community is sealed off from the enormous hoards by strong walls.
So each day is a routine of feeding, savaging for randomly placed surprise items and collectables, buying what components you can afford and then making and selling your creations!
Important to note is this game is EARLY ACCESS and is obviously still under development. The story mode is thin (I completed it quickly) and town is only partially populated - most of the shops are closed - and you have limited ways in which you can develop your own gun shop.
Than said - and forgive this over-used cliché - Rise of Gun shows 'a lot of promise', and what there is is a lot of fun. I just wish there was more. The main downside is perhaps teh asking price of £9 BUT I look at this as a donation in order that the developer (no doubt a single guy) can keep on working and so we might see further additions in the near future...
My main request would for the developer to add an alternative source of food as having to eat hot dogs every day makes the apocalypse seem ever gloomier than it already would be!
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