It's been nearly four years since we first reviewed Pistol Whip, and a lot has changed. Here's our 2023 review of the game, evaluating all the content and features added since launch. ...
In 2019, Cloudhead Games released the innovative rhythm shooter Pistol Whip, and we very clearly gave it a perfect 5 stars in our review. But since then, its strength has only grown. With tons of new free content, it's cemented itself as one of the best games in almost every major VR headset.
Previous review
If you're new to Pistol Whip, we recommend going back to our original 2019 review to get a better understanding of the basics. However, here is a quick summary:
Each song (or scene) in Pistol Whip moves you forward through the level at a constant speed, rather than just slicing cubes or dodging bullets in slow motion. Enemies will pop up from preset locations and you need to shoot or hit them to the rhythm of the music to get the highest score.
Pistol Whip takes the granddaddy of VR rhythm games, Beat Saber, and gives it a cinematic, action-based twist that blends elements of Superhot and John Wick.
The game proudly displays its influences and builds upon them to create a style all its own. Pistol Whip now has more content, more features, and more ways to play than it did at launch.
New scenes feature sci-fi and action classics like Mad Max, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Ninja Gaiden and more. In fact, there's so much love for pop culture that they transcend mere points of comparison ("Beat Saber and Superhot combine John Wick and The Matrix") and become games. A core component of Identity ("a VR rhythm shooter with many classic action movie references").
The Cloudhead team's passion for both the game itself and the media it references is evident in every thoughtfully designed corner of Pistol Whip.
What's new?
Pistol Whip launched with only 10 playable music scenes (called "scenes" in the game), and this relatively small selection was one of the only regrets we mentioned in our original review. We were also hoping to add custom song support, which might lead to a massive library of community-made content similar to Beat Saber.
As of this writing, there are 34 official scenarios available for players to play in the game (another is coming soon, and more scenarios are confirmed to be released in 2024), as well as an evolving contract system, a variety of different Weapons, local shared headset co-op mode, two themed mini-campaigns, and a completely new "Style" system that completely improves and expands on the game's original modifications. In addition, a modding tool called Pistol Mix was recently launched, allowing players to create custom scenes on PC and allowing other players in the community to download and play these scenes in the game.
Cloudhead spares no effort in adding new content to Pistol Whip. Even better, all of this new content - each one is completely free and available to all game owners. The option of paid DLC soundtracks and new content was once considered. However, the studio decided to increase the price of the base game to ensure that all new content is available to players as ongoing free updates. It's a bold but welcome approach, contrary to many other similar VR game releases, and one that rewards both new players and those who have been playing the game since day one.
New scenarios and campaigns
The vast majority of the 30+ scenarios are immediately playable in Arcade, the game's main mode. The only scenes that won't be unlocked immediately are those related to the game's two mini-campaigns - 2089 and Smoke and Thunder.
Although they're listed under a "Campaign" tab on the main menu, none of them are fully formed campaigns designed to compete with other narrative-driven VR games. Instead, a basic story is told before each scene through short 2D storyboards and audio readings. Both mini-campaigns are carefully designed and consist of five scenarios that introduce new themed environments and exciting mechanics that add variety to the classic Pistol Whip formula.
The scenarios themselves introduce new themed environments and exciting mechanics that shake up the classic Pistol Whip formula. The year 2089 is a cyberpunk-style setting inspired by movies like The Terminator and Blade Runner; while Smoke and Thunder takes the game to the wild west, complete with cowboys on horseback and swinging western saloon doors.
The campaigns are fun and often force you to adjust the way you play - for example, one scenario might require you to fight exclusively with a melee pistol, while another introduces new weapons or pits you against new enemy types or Themed boss battle.
The most interesting thing about these campaigns, however, are the enhancements and opportunities they bring to other modes. Once you complete a scenario in each campaign, it becomes playable in Arcade mode, and you can play with any combination of weapons and modifiers of your choice. Likewise, modifiers and weapons from the campaign itself can be used elsewhere in the Arcade, ensuring great variety and replay value as you play through different scenarios.
Play the way you want
That brings us to one of Pistol Whip's biggest post-production changes: style. The style launching in 2021 is designed as an overhaul of the modifier system, allowing you to choose from a range of modifiers, weapons, and scenarios. You can then save your selections as favorite styles to easily come back to and use in the future.
This is being rolled out alongside a new leaderboard system - instead of all modifiers and weapon combinations competing on the same leaderboard, each scenario, modifier and weapon combination now has its own independent leaderboard. This prevents the leaderboards from being dominated by players who have chosen higher-score, more challenging modifiers, instead allowing everyone to compete in their own way on the same playing field. The end result, according to Cloudhead, is to have millions of unique leaderboards covering all the different possible combinations.
Players can now play over 30 scenarios using a variety of different weapons: regular pistols, dual-wield pistols, rapid-fire pulse guns, western revolvers, crossbows, heavy boxing gloves, dual-shot shotguns, and more. Once you select a weapon, you can apply countless modifier combinations, such as nobeat (score is determined by accuracy), rhythmic (score is determined by rhythm only), headhunter (hits only the head), and recckless (no protection) and bullet hell (a lot of bullets) and so on.
You can completely customize your version of the game to your liking. If you don't want to choose your own, Cloudhead also provides a large number of pre-made styles for you to explore in Arcade mode and apply to any scene.
On the aesthetic front, you can also fully customize the look of your preferred weapon, including colors, sounds, wraps, and more. There are so many choices.
For those looking for an extra challenge, there's also Contracts mode, which offers unique scenarios and modifier combinations on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. The daily contract only contains one scenario and additional modifiers, while the weekly and monthly contracts contain three and five scenarios respectively, which need to be completed in sequence. Compared to the infinite choices in Arcade mode, Contract mode provides veteran players with new challenges every time they return to the game, without having to set parameters or make any decisions.
Mixed experience
今年早些时候，Cloudhead Games还推出了Pistol Mix，这是一款供PC玩家使用的模组工具，允许玩家创建定制的《Pistol Whip》场景，并将其上传供其他玩家在游戏中玩。在游戏中，使用Quest、PICO和PC VR头显的玩家可以轻松浏览、下载并直接在游戏的主菜单中玩自定义场景。可惜目前尚无法在PSVR头显上访问自定义场景。
While Pistol Mix is an excellent feature (both as a production tool and as a way to play custom levels), it may be a little late to the game. The quality of the custom scenes currently available is generally lower than the official content of the game. Some of it is funny, but more of it is a gimmick with no actual substance. Regardless, this is now beyond Cloudhead's grasp. Over time, the quality of custom content will depend on continued community interest in creating and playing new levels. We'll see.
So what is missing now?
Despite Pistol Whip's impressive array of late-game content, there are a few loose ends and areas that could be improved.
The most glaring omission is any form of cross-platform progression. The Cloudhead team is clearly committed to bringing Pistol Whip to new platforms—the game has been released on nearly every new major headset since 2019. However, players who upgrade their headsets in the four years since release may find themselves inadvertently switching platforms as well - for example, players who were using a PC VR headset in 2019 may have moved to Quest in 2020, and then to Quest earlier this year Upgraded to PSVR 2.
Pistol Whip players who upgrade their headsets may face two problems: They will likely need to repurchase a copy of Pistol Whip on the new platform, and they will also lose any progress they have made on the platform they left.
前者是Cloudhead无法控制的——Meta和Sony直接竞争，希望通过游戏销售获利，所以很显然没有办法将Quest上的游戏副本转移到PSVR 2上。然而，后者的跨平台进度问题可能可以以某种方式解决。VR市场变化迅猛，跨竞争平台的头显升级并不罕见——如果《Pistol Whip》想确保长期存在，实现跨平台进度绝对是必须的。
Pistol Whip has also been working on creating new stories and using original music for all scenes and new content. However, now it's time to explore slightly more creative options. Games like Beat Saber, Synth Riders and Walkabout Mini Golf have all leveraged existing intellectual property and popular high-profile music tracks to expand their reach and reach new audiences. Pistol Whip could benefit from exploring similar high-profile partnerships, allowing for more direct interaction with the pop culture it admires.
The road ahead
Ultimately, Pistol Whip is better than ever. Cloudhead Games has done a fantastic job backing Pistol Whip, cementing its place in the VR Hall of Fame. It's rare for an event service game to consistently provide players with such great service, let alone ask for a penny more on top of the fee.
Two new scene collections have been confirmed for 2024, which seems to be an ongoing trend. All in all, Pistol Whip is better than ever. If you own a VR headset and haven’t purchased Pistol Whip yet, what are you waiting for?
You can read our original Pistol Whip review from 2019, or see more details about the game's 2024 plans here.
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