Gunpoint

Gunpoint is a game about rewiring things and punching people according to the developer website and it's a game I picked up on steam for basically no money thanks to a combination of steam sales and selling stuff on the marketplace.

Gunpoint is a game about a freelance spy called Richard Conway who uses his techno trousers to infiltrate buildings and do all sorts of other spy stuff.  He gets caught up in a murder mystery as well as a tale of espionage between two rival gun companies as he tries to clear his name for a murder he didn't commit.  They story isn't exactly the deepest thing in the world and it's made up entirely of text conversations between Conway and his clients that are completely skipable and sometimes a little bit stupid, but there is enough there to keep the player entertained between missions.

Game play is a mix of stealth and puzzling where you have to rewire building electronics to get to your target all while trying to avoid being seen and shot in the face by the various guards that patrol the corridors.  Each level is a building presented in 2D and you are free to scope it out as much as you want so that you can plan a route through the level.  Flicking the mouse wheel will activate your PDA thing where you can see the buildings electronic devices and how they are all wired up.  From here you can change them round so that a security camera might open a door or a light switch might send a power surge through a socket to shock a patrolling guard.  It's a cool system of game play and when you combine it with the various upgrades you can get throughout the game there are a few ways which you could tackle a single level.

The only problem for me is that the game is little too easy and a bit short.  I basically blasted through the whole thing in an afternoon and I managed to get most of the side objectives and an A grade or higher on the majority of the stages.  I'm not going to pass myself off as some kind of super genius but I don't think the majority of people would have much problem with this game and it's sort of a shame in a way.  There's such a great amount of potential in this game for some real head scratchers and while it's a shame that there was nothing brain busting in the core content, there is a level editor so you can share and play user designed levels that might really test you.

I suggest that anyone reading this article go and play Gunpoint.  It's pretty cheap anyway but if you don't want to pay £7 for a game that is a little on the short side, just wait for a steam sale again and you'll be able to pick it up for basically nothing.  Fun game worth checking out and a great way to kill an afternoon when there isn't much going on.