GUN JAM is a fun rhythm shooter with some fun and unique mechanics, but probably needed more time in the development oven.
The rhythm shooter genre is a genre of gaming that works surprisingly well; timing your shots and movements to the beat of the music can certainly make a person feel like quite the badass. UK-based developer Jaw Drop Games released their own take on the genre in the form of GUN JAM, their first game which is a first-person rhythm shooter game with a fun twist.
Jaw Drop Games certainly lives up to their name, not just in the visual style they created for GUN JAM, which consists of bright neon cyberpunk-esque aesthetic that is, well…rather jaw-dropping. They live up to their name also because of how they went about game development. Most of the time, up and coming game studios tend to start small, with their first projects being rather simplistic indie games, but that’s not the case for Jaw Drop Games, who went for a big release straight from the get-go.
As for the story of GUN JAM, there isn’t one at all. The game doesn’t really introduce us to it, no introduction, no opening cinematic, nothing. Instead, we just get thrown to the wolves and let loose into the chaos that is its combat. In the game, we get to choose what arena we fight in and what song we have to match the beat to, which isn’t much, as there are only 4 stages to pick from.
But have no fear; you also get to choose between 3 different playable characters. Each of these characters has their own abilities, overdrives, and health pools. These characters are sadly tied to each stage, so you can’t mix and match, meaning if you like a character, you’re going to be stuck playing through their levels over and over again.
As stated before GUN JAM has an incredibly limited amount of stages that all share that eye-catching neon theme. These stages are divided into two types, Checkpoint Stages, and Arena Stages. Both types of stages come with their own unique set of difficulties and challenges. Arena Stages are much smaller than their Checkpoint Stage counterparts. In Arena Stages, you will have to face off against endless waves of enemies and must try to rack up the highest score as possible without dying.
Checkpoint Stages are a bit more interesting and also provide a much more expansive map for players to play in and explore. Checkpoint Stages, unlike Area Stages, are composed of various rooms filled with hordes of lesser enemies and the occasional boss that players will need to fight off against.
Also, unlike Arena Stages, Checkpoint Stages are timed, meaning that when the song eventually finishes, the match is over, and if you want to go further, you will need to start from the beginning. You can increase the amount of time you have by either defeating all the enemies and bosses or by moving on to the next area.
As for the aforementioned characters in GUN JAM that you can play as, besides having their own unique overdrives and abilities, they also have different Health and Speed stats. These stats are rather self-explanatory and can give an indication as to how each character plays.
Health indicates how much health a character has, which is also an indication of how many hits they can take. Speed indicates how fast a character moves around each stage. Both of these stats work hand in hand as often time the character with the least amount of health also has the highest movement speed and vice versa.
In GUN JAM there is no voice-acting, meaning you don’t really have much insight as to what type of person you are playing as or what makes them unique. This is where the game adds a bit of character storytelling through each character’s Overdrive ability. Your charge your Overdrive ability by collecting various glowing orbs dotted throughout the map or by defeating enemies.
Once your Overdrive has been filled up, your character will momentarily unlock a unique ability that also shows us a bit of their personality. Ballard’s ability, Berserk, unlocks a mean melee attack that deals heavy damage to enemies in range. Aero gains Bullet Time, which slows enemies and their projectiles. Tap gains Quad Damage, which does exactly what you think it does and doesn’t require much explanation.
At a glance, the combat in GUN JAM may seem like just another rhythm shooter, similar to BPM: BULLETS PER MINUTE or Metal: Hellsinger, but once you get into combat, you will soon discover what sets it apart from its counterparts. Unlike in other rhythm shooters where you have to only follow one type of beat, in GUN JAM, instead of one beat, you follow different types of beats.
These beats also change what type of weapons your character will use. This will also change the speed and damage of your attacks. For full beats, your weapon will change to a Double Barrel Shotgun. For half-beats, you will switch to a Railgun and finally, for quarter-beats you will switch to a Plasma Rifle. You will also get a Rocket Launcher for Beat Emphasis.
While the different weapons, corresponding to the different beats does, add a fun spin to the combat and keep players on their toes. It does make staying with the rhythm difficult, as the switching between full, half, and quarter beats can easily disrupt your flow and make it hard to time your attacks and stay in rhythm. This makes it incredibly hard to maximize your damage and increase your multiplier, which is essential if you want to take out enemies easier.
Running and gunning aren’t your only means of traversal in GUN JAM, as you will also have access to a nifty dash ability. This dash ability, much like your weapons, is also tied to the beat of the song. You will have to use this ability to dodge enemy projectile attacks, which happen in waves similar to bullet hell-styled games. It also just makes moves around a map much easier.
Another way to get around the map is through the use of jump pads, which are also scattered around a map. As their name implies, these let you jump higher than your regular jump and allow you to get up close and personal with enemies, which works excellently with Ballard’s Berserk Overdrive.
Probably one of the most unique features of GUN JAM is the fact that the game allows you to import your own custom songs into it. While, yes, this does make up for the lack of song variety, it does come with its own unique set of issues. You see, when you import a custom song, the game doesn’t always get the beat mapping right.
Yes, you can set the BPM to get a more accurate beat time, but this won’t always follow the song’s beat. This is a pity because the ability to import your own songs would have made GUN JAM stand out, but without correct beat mapping, this is essentially useless, as the main point of a rhythm shooter is following the rhythm.
GUN JAM is an excellent game, in theory. Due to the lack of any real story and issues with its only real stand-out feature, it’s hard to recommend GUN JAM to anyone who is a fan of rhythm shooters, as the game feels under-baked and not fully fleshed out.
