Gunscape

A love letter to the noteworthy shooters of yesteryear, Gunscape combines old ideals and new ways to play, with mixed results. The level creator is extensive and brimming with potential, but the shooting itself feels detached, and the clunky presentation makes it harder to get into the creative side than it should be. However, once a community of players get to grips with the game's toolkit, there'll be plenty of maps to play, and there's still some fun to be had in multiplayer – if you can convince enough friends to buy it.

Gunscape is an attempt to recreate the oft-loved world of '90s first-person shooters. Although it reminds me of the '90s, it doesn't inspure to keep playing. In short, while there is some nostalgic value to be had here, this one is for diehard fans only.

If you are the creative type, you can easily hop into a Minecraft-ish world to quickly make the 90’s era shooter of your dreams, all using legally safe knockoff assets of games such as Turok, Wolfenstein 3D, Quake, Doom, Bioshock, and many others.

While I appreciate its old-school FPS style and community-built levels, its gameplay stumbles more than it struts

Gunscape looks and sounds just like the classic first person shooters Quake, Doom and Wolfenstein. The nostalgia is strong with this title, but unfortunately Gunscape is a title that we cannot recommend. There are much better options available where players can create their own levels. Making a level is very easy, but even the creators have a hard time showing how fun levels should look like. The need for a Nintendo Online subscription ensures that this is a game that will not be picked up by many people so quickly. Unfortunately, this is something that is very important in a title that is all about building a community that creates, shares and plays levels.

Currently, and, sadly, maybe forever, Gunscape doesn't become what it wants to. Besides the fact that the level editor included (which is, like, half the game) is not as versatile as it should be, the main gameplay mechanics aren't fun. They aren't terrible or anything, but they're also not anything that will make anyone put their [insert old-school FPS] aside.

My only recommendation is that if you're coming to this looking for multiplayer fun, consider buying copies for friends too, because from day one the community for the game has been fairly limited. But it's a cheap game, so even if you decide to stick purely with the pre-built levels the developers threw in with the base package, you're still going to have a good time with this.

Gunscape is aimed at giving players the tools to create their own old school FPS levels and maps, but Blow Fish Studios' attempt to carve out a little niche is lacking in its execution. What remains is a game that could be of interest while you roam through player-made maps, but will ultimately be left behind as actually playing them will quickly tarnish any glimmer of hope it had.

Gunscape could be a good game creator with a healthy lifespan, but a high price point, unoriginal concepts, and muddled ideals are just the tip of the iceberg that looks like it will sink the game's lofty ambitions.

Gunscape's aim to give users a simple way to create and share their own arenas and campaigns is no small feat, but Blowfish Studios has managed to achieve it using an editor that is already familiar to gamers. The main downside is that the game's stability issues can be a major hindrance and lead to more frustration. The main benefit of Gunscape is that there will always be something new to play and more levels to discover thanks to the online community, giving players a virtually endless pool of maps to try out. If you have a large imagination and will spend hours creating the perfect map, this game is for you.