A Summer at Gunpoint

Lets turn the clock back to the end of the summer term, 2013. The days were long and hard, but then the term ended, and all was well. And suddenly I found myself with much more time for gaming. This in turn allowed me to finally catch up with a game I had been anticipating for a year, Gunpoint. I’d first learned about it from the developer’s blog/website (www.gunpointgame.com) back in my first year. Here’s the general idea: You are a freelance spy/private investigator wearing the classic noir trenchcoat (with some upgrades) who has been asked by his clients to steal sensitive data and technology from various people, for various reasons. Hitting both the platformer and stealth genres, Gunpoint throws something else into the mix: The ability to rewire all the electronics in the building in interesting ways, which brings a great puzzle element to this adventure. I’d been anticipating it for so long because it started as a project by PC Gamer writer Tom Francis, who wanted to learn to develop games with absolutely no prior knowledge of how. His concept was so interesting that just had to take a look. Now that the term had ended, I could finally sit down to play my way through my special extended edition, with all of its included extras (A “making of” video by the developer, along with the bonus soundtracks of the game, which sound great). This game combines everything really well. The music and art bring the game to life, as you jump across buildings, up and down lifts and tinker with the wiring that even with the short playing time (about 4 hours total) it was worth every moment, seeing the result of the game maker’s efforts as well as inspiring me to begin creating my own.