Guns at Dawn Arena

Genre: Third-Person Shooter

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS AND USES LOOTBOXES AND WAIT MECHANICS

Guns at Dawn Arena, released on mobile devices in 2021 as Guns at Dawn and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022, is a Third-Person Shooter with a Wild West theme focused on 1 v 1 duels in relatively small areas.

The presentation here is generally very good. While the game does still have a menu design that’s a clear holdover from the game’s mobile roots, the game’s visual style does a great job evoking the Wild West theme, the graphics feature nicely-detailed, slightly-stylized 3D characters and arenas with a lot of detail to them as well. The music is likewise wonderfully evocative of the Western genre. My only real complaint here is a lack of scope and scale – I wish this game allowed larger arenas with more players at once.

The controls here are quite simple, with players using the left stick to move and right stick to aim, while players hold ZR to ready their gun and release it to fire, and can press B to dodge. The default settings include a really heavy dollop of auto-aim, but this can be turned off, and there are options for both gyroscopic motion control as well as touchscreen controls. There are only three match types, and all three focus on variations on the 1v1 battles. Players can independently upgrade their gun and change characters to try out different builds.

If that were all I had to say, I’d probably be giving this game a glowing review. The core gameplay is limited and a tad stiff but otherwise fun, and the presentation is excellent given the low price point. However, there’s one thing that absolutely spoils this game, and that is the monetization.

You have to struggle with this game’s monetization at seemingly every turn. There are multiple types of currencies, including currencies specific to each upgrade that you’ll need to upgrade that character or gun part. There are lootboxes that the game pushes you to use premium currency to open with its constant wait mechanics. And all of this is in service to the game’s omnipresent pay-to-win elements.

Yeah, you know how I said that everything in the game can be upgraded, and those upgrades are all tied to specific currencies you need? Players who dump cash into this game get a clear, unquestionable statistical advantage over those who don’t, and bear in mind that this is not a free-to-play game. Oh, it was free-to-play on mobile when it released there last year, but on Nintendo Switch players get the privilege of paying an entry fee for the honor of paying more money to remain competitive in its pay-to-win system.

It’s a real shame that Guns at Dawn Arena’s monetization and pay-to-win elements are so nasty here, because the game underneath them all is quite enjoyable, if a bit limited in scope. The presentation is excellent, and the core gameplay is fun, but the way the game constantly hounds its players to keep paying even after they bought the game, and gives clear advantages to those who do, makes this game feel gross in a way I can’t in good conscience support.

tl;dr – Guns at Dawn Arena is a Wild West-themed 1v1 Third-Person Shooter. The presentation here is quite good, and the core gameplay is fun, but all of that is ruined by the game’s absurdly ugly monetization and pay-to-win elements. As a result, what could have been a really fun game just turns into something despicable.

Grade: C-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2022 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Worst Microtransactions

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