Gunman Contracts - Stand Alone
Image: ANB_Seth & 2080 Games

Those who stuck around with Half-Life Alyx beyond the (admittedly excellent) campaign found a great collection of community-made mods. Among them, ANB_Seth's excellent series of one-shot John Wick-inspired experiences have been given a second shot in the limelight as a standalone (see what they did there?) retail game on Steam, launching into early access yesterday. And for those worried about being left out because they don't have fancy VR goggles? Gunman Contracts - Stand Alone is fully playable without special hardware, admittedly losing something in the translation.

The setup here is almost sillier than John Wick. You are a possibly-immortal gunslinger with superhuman reflexes, taking contract work to clean up the most villainous parts of the criminal underworld. But that's all the excuse I need to run around a series of deliciously detailed mook-infested urban environments in VR, shooting, stabbing, and grappling my way through wave after wave of dangerous-yet-fragile enemies. When firing on all cylinders, it really does feel like being John Wick, coolly pivoting around corners and plugging each enemy with exactly the right amount of lead before snappily reloading and moving on.

While my first run through the current early access version had a few performance hiccups (seemingly shader-related stuttering), I'm impressed at how well the feeling of Half-Life Alyx's gunplay - or rather, the mod's high-lethality variant - has been replicated here. The guns feel solid and powerful, and satisfying to reload manually, or convincingly enough when you slam a virtual magwell into your (invisible) chest holster, ideal when you're dual-wielding. As in the mods, enemies all go with a couple of bullets to the chest or one to the head, but the player can only take a handful of hits per mission, giving this a real Time Crisis-ish arcade feeling.

Unlike Time Crisis, things are frequently unpredictable, with enemies moving through the combat area differently each time, lending it some replay value beyond the leaderboards, especially when you return to older missions with new guns or attachments for your old ones, bought using your reward money from each run. The only real wrinkles I've encountered are a few minor technical issues and quirks of VR, with me having to squint to read the text on my character's mobile phone/hacking device, or objects (rarely) getting caught on terrain and making horrible noises. My powerhouse PC didn't really notice, but some are saying it's also much more hardware-demanding than Half-Life: Alyx. Not surprising, given Valve's exceptional engine optimization work.

Presently, the main argument against picking the game up is that it's quite short, and might not ever be a 'big' game. Right now, there are three main missions, two challenge modes, and a pile of customizable weapons. There are plans for at least three more main missions and some extra bits on the side, making this much more of an arcade game built for replay and chasing high scores than a long-haul campaign. That said, it really does work well as a replayable arcade experience, and I'm sure I'll be dusting this off every now and then for a 30-60 minute quick session, given how fun the combat is.

Gunman Contracts - Stand Alone is out now for £22.49/$25, with a rough estimate of "the coming couple of years" until it hits V1.0, mostly being a

mostly-solo project. The game's price is expected to rise as it nears completion, so if you're okay replaying stuff, it might be worth jumping in early. Also, the game is published by 2080 Games, who kindly provided a preview key.