Mech shooter Cryptark is getting an FPS sequel called Gunhead, and it looks promising

Cryptark, the 2D sci-fi mech shooter, is getting a 3D shooter follow-up called Gunhead, in which you play a pirate mech with...er...a gun for a head. First impressions are good, and the announcement trailer above shows plenty of explosions and Borderlands-style visuals, which I'm a huge fan of.

Your mech is strapped with a jetpack and four guns at any one time, giving you plenty of options—the trailer shows a mixture of machine guns, single shot rocket launchers and explosive barrages. The game boasts more than 50 weapons in total, so you're sure to find one that you like.

It has a non-linear campaign in which you board and clear out procedurally-generated alien spaceships, and the story is a direct sequel to Cryptark. It's not clear exactly what happens between those combat segments: is there an open-world element or do you simply spawn near a spaceship and have to clear it out? I'll keep me eyes peeled for more info.

Procedural generation can sometimes make levels look a bit bland, but on first glance that doesn't appear to be a problem. Environments are full of colour, big bosses and odd structures, like a giant brain with mechanical arms attached. Of course, it's just a trailer so it will show off the best bits, but it's a good start.

I'm slightly concerned about the performance, because you can see frame rate drops early on in the video when there's lots of enemies on screen. But that could be a result of recording, or it might just be ironed out before release comes around. Gunhead will be out at some point next year.

I never played Cryptark, but I've heard good things. If you got your hands on it, what would you like to see in this follow-up?

Thanks, PCGamesN.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.