Thank you Alientrap for sending us a review code!

Gunhead is a 3D first person shooter (FPS) sequel to Alientraps’s 2017 title, Cryptark. While I haven’t played Cryptark, I can see the similarities between it and Gunhead using the gameplay video as a reference. In Gunhead, you’re on a mercenary ship that takes on salvaging jobs from a client. The jobs, ships, and bosses guarding them are randomly generated so each campaign will be unique.

Upon launching the campaign, you get to choose your suit and in the beginning, you only have one model to choose from. As you scavenge ships, you’ll unlock new weapons and upgrades. Bosses also drop new tech for you to acquire as well. Despite unlocking new technologies, you can’t utilize them until you purchase licensing for them. Refilling ammo is also done from the same terminal. If you die or abort a mission, you’ll have to start the campaign from the beginning and re-purchase all the licensing all over again. Money carries forward and is a coveted resource in this game.

You can earn money by completing the base objective for a mission. Secondary objectives net you even more funding if completed. Some examples of secondary objectives include completing the mission under a certain time, destroying all of the enemy’s defenses, or leaving a designated number of them intact. Many ships have healing stations onboard, but some secondary objectives discourage you from utilizing them. You do earn a health point back per defense system eliminated, so that’s helpful.

To start a mission, you have to decide which ship to warp to. You’ll see a breakdown including ship type, tech onboard, boss type, number of healing stations, and sentries onboard. If a ship has a jamming station, you will not be able to see what’s inside of the ship’s cargo rooms without going inside of them. The bosses are typically protected by a shield that you’ll have to first take out. Some ships have their shields protected by other shield devices so you’ll have to take them down in order. Repair stations will slowly fix systems that you have obliterated so taking those out should be a priority. Destroying nuclear detonators, alarms, and armor systems, you’ll make life easier for yourself when fighting sentinels and other robotic enemies.

For the most part, enemies are robotic and will shoot projectiles or flames in your general direction. Many of the ships are powered by one or multiple gigantic brains that you have to take out in quadrants. In fact, many of the bosses have brain-like weak spots that you need to target. Once all of the brains and/or bosses are neutralized, you’ll automatically be warped back to your ship and praised or berated based on your performance.

If your mech sustained damage during the mission, you can repair up to five health points (for a fee) throughout the campaign. The rest of the repairs will have to be made during a mission at healing stations, or by defeating enemy defense systems. One of the technology upgrades you can purchase is the ability to heal.

There are many forms of weapons and defensive skills to unlock. You’ll be able to use various types of machine guns, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, laser beams, etc. There are attack shields and defensive ones as well. You can equip auto-firing weapons and drones to assist you in combat. The possibilities are endless.

Visually, Gunhead looks pretty. Inside of the ship is cel shaded. Once you leave the ship, you can use your jetpack in space to locate a fitting entrance to your target ship. Open doors are colored in blue and locked doors are orange. Keys do not transfer between missions and you’ll have to collect new ones each time.

The voice acting is well done and I like the adrenaline pumping background music. Weapons sound as expected and produce lots of explosions and eye candy.

Morally, there is little to worry about as the enemies are either robots or brains. There is no blood.

If you enjoyed Cryptark, Gunhead is a fitting sequel. Although I’m new to the series I enjoyed this entry. I have since added Cryptark to my Steam wishlist. If you enjoy games in space, FPS', or Rogue-lites, Gunhead is worth checking out if you’re up for a challenge. There are multiple difficulty levels for an even greater challenge.