Although many believe that the Imagine Dragons x Beat Saber stole the show at the E3 VR showcase this past week, some may argue that Pistol Whip was the best announcement made. It just may be. Pistol Whip is a first person shooter game – with only a pistol of course – that makes you feel like an upgraded version of Jack Bower.
Cloudhead Games are the creators of Pistol Whip. They describe this game as a “music rhythm FPS”. When watching the trailer, it looks exactly like that. This game isn’t nearly as challenging as super hot, and it doesn’t carry the same music weight of Beat Saber. What this game does do though, is mix the two ideas to make you enjoy your time taking the enemies out. Cameron Oltmann was the design and and programming lead on this game and project, and this is how he describes playing the game.
“It’s a shooter that you don’t necessarily have to be dead accurate for to be able to hit, and it’s a rhythm game that doesn’t require you to take out enemies in a specific order.”
That is reassuring to hear that you don’t need the accuracy of Katniss Everdeen, or even the smarts of Sherlock Holmes. Just simply point and shoot at your enemies, and you’re most likely to hit them while still stating on beat.
The gameplay is supposed to make you feel like you are running through the streets of Moscow, fighting off the Mafia. Cloudheads delivered. When playing this game, there is a sense of being in a frantic hurry to get to the other side of the level, while trying to stay on beat. Not only will you being firing on the beat, but literally pistol whipping some opponents on the beat drop. It truly is a feeling you cannot forget, and something you want time and time again.
Another fun part of this game is the simplicity. As you go from one end to the other on the level, you stay on a strait path. This helps keep the motion sickness down to a minimal amount, as well as making the game easy for anyone to play. You won’t lose any points for missing a target, and the only ones that are required to be shot or hit are the ones in your direct path.
Making a VR game that anyone can strap on and play is an important feature. With standalone headsets being the norm, and sharing them is more common than ever, a sharable Vr experience is vital to selling games. This game, like Super Hot and Beat Saber, will be a strap on and play experience.
Pistol Whip will be available on all major VR headsets “later this year”. There is no further detail on the release date as of right now. The game itself is expected to stay below $20 dollars, which will count towards a gold star for Cloudhead. So far, this game is in the making to be a
