Bunker Punks Early Access First Impressions

Bunker Punks is a rebellious first person shooter game set on a dystopian future with a set of unique rogues available for your disposal. It is available as an early access game on Steam with a price of 14.99$ and was released on March 30, 2016.

Bunker Punks main menu
The game sets you off to choose a set of heroes to get your gang on the road to raid corporate strongholds for supplies, weapons and armor. Customize your very own doomsday bunker, strengthen your gang and overthrow the corporate government. Check out the game as it available on Steam and still on beta servers for Early access to take it for a test drive.

Story

The story takes place in a corrupt dystopian future that most of society is now obedient slaves of major corporations and the rogues are set on the course to rise up against the system. Several will join the cause to either fight with you on the road to freedom or supply the right stuff for the trials at ahead.

one of the rogues with result screen of the current level

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Graphics and layout are quite simple with a nostalgic 2D environment with raw pixelated details. The corridor action, simple explosions and floating weapons brings back through memory lane and gives a direct notion of the events transpiring around your character. Artwork has a good taste as it is presented with the theme of a dystopian future controlled by companies and men sacrificing themselves as machines. The pixelated environments are hard on the eyes when traversing through corridors or tight spaces or when you’re surrounded by dull gray humanoid killer cyborgs.

Music is thrilling with good rock and roll rhythm on the fights and even building up as you move through corridors. Sound effects keep my mind on the mission and make it out as if you were an action movie hero escorted with a rock band to tune an epic theme. Loud firing sounds and robotic grunts help me predict the firing trajectory of enemies as it comes by. Sound effects they are not too shabby as they are trying to capture a digital age of long ago towards the menu and fire fights.

Shotgun mayhem on a few robotsEither a hipster or an unhappy employee put this up.

GAMEPLAY

At the beginning of the game before starting your endeavors you are able to choose from two heroes. As a rogue in this dystopian future you start off with Molly Pop who is a fast moving specialist with handguns and Dallas beach who is a specialist with shotguns and pretty decent Health point. Each hero on the screen presents an additional buff towards weapons and a signature starting weapon type. After starting the game you will be entering an initial mission which just leads out of an elevator and kill through scores of robotic minions in a corporate building then led to an elevator to view the extent of your skill.

4 Heroes that were available on my current list
Credits, technology boxes and weapons float in mid-air after you gun down an enemy or crack open a few boxes, statues, capsules or any type of environmental object. There is only one type of a weapon slot and you have to discard the current one to pick up another weapon of your choice at the early stages. When killing a lot of enemies in succession you will gain a combo meter that will just be a score in the beginning but will be beneficial in regaining health with a bunker upgrade.  Credits will be used to purchase bunker upgrades and slots while resources are used on merchants who will give unique upgrades, weapons and extra personnel. There will be a small empty slot to fill in and it is where you can add in the desired room by right clicking on each frame and there will be a side window indicating the price and attribute of the room selections before adding them in. Your character can pick up items to wear to add armor or bonus damage.

You can customize your very own bunker to the feel and needs that are running in your mind to successful accomplish with ease or extra points. Depending on your weapon choice and survival needs the game will feature each three rooms to add infirmaries and shooting ranges. These upgrades will increase health, add armor, bonus damage to specific weapons and rewards for combos. Placing weapon bunks allow you to equip more than one type of weapon for your arsenal as you dare the heavily guarded bunkers. Merchants appear at a mall parking lot when you’re finished with a completed mission on a bunker or if a character dies during that mission to start all over again but with a better start.

Enemies are quite easy to find as they fearlessly swarm you with abandon and refuse to dodge as they firmly press on the firing rate. The variation style of each hostile group in a buildingis mainly compromised of either an armored melee, rapid shooter, flying or suicidal melee robots. Most are tough as a tank and require precise aiming to the glowing red eyes on their frontal frames.  

Death screen with tempting med kits that my character could not reach in time.Gun exchange option with a random enemy drop.

In order to start a mission there will be a map that will be laid out after the first mission. The map itself has a path connected to other landmarks with each landmark representing a building you will raid in order to gain resources and technology. Ending the mission is simply entering an elevator and selecting the exit button and it will display your score for the level and current equipment. The game autosaves from the most recent end of a mission or upgrade.
If one of the main heroes dies then their bonuses will be added to all other heroes in your current and future selection, other heroes will be in reserve for variation or as backup if the current hero you control dies. If all heroes were to die then the game resets and deletes progress, that will result into bunker status and current inventory to default except for unlocked for upgradable items and merchants. After your defeat you will be given an option to quit to main menu or start a new game after you decide to purchase or not from the merchants with whatever cash you have left to get you a better footing for the next trial ahead. Felt like Purgatory each time I played on several runs for a week to try and get far enough as possible but it is much more frustrating than the early Mario and sonic games since you start from the very bottom instead of a shiny checkpoint.

Bunker customizationCredit box pick up that is floating in the distance.

Issues

I have wondered if the developers tested the game far enough to see the difficulty in the game mechanics of poor ammo supply and lack of melee. Most boxes can’t be interacted with so I couldn’t have gained ammo when need but depend on the very short magazine supply the heroes have in their pockets. Reloading is not option strangely as you soon realize that all your ammunition are under one strange collective magazine. When you play it the thought of reloading will not don on you until you realize your emptying all you ammunition into a single rate of fire. I found a melee weapon on the later stages but cannot equip as a secondary weapon, which means I have to pick either 2 ranged weapons of short supply or choose a melee weapon that leaves me vulnerable to ranged opponents.

map layout and landmarks of the world of Bunker punksMerchant screen of Doc Mercy

Controls

The main interface of the game is a 1st person shooter with dynamics of the early generations much like the well-loved game title Doom. Initial controls are just the keys of WASD for movement and utilize the mouse to aim your screen. Using the left click button will fire the weapon at hand and the mouse wheel will go through different weapons. Press E for interaction but the only interactable items are the blue and white lined boxes and the elevator.
 I finally found a melee weapon but being shot an enemy from behind

SUMMARY

The game is fun and exhilarating and has the wonderful memories of the previous generation to greet you head on. The only exception and warning I have for new players and nostalgic gamer is that you are to prepare yourself for a brutal ride to test your limits and skill. Bunker Punks is on Early Access but I would rate the game with a score of 6/10. Enjoy and hope hardcore and skilled fps fans get a thrill out of being a rogue against the world.

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