[Review] Writhe - Nintendo Switch

Developed and Published By: Mission Ctrl Studios
Categories: Shooter
Release Date: 01.15.21

Boomer Shooter is the right kind of term for something like Writhe, right. It feels like it at the very least.

Writhe is a fast paced first person shooter, you got lots of bugs and you need to do your best to stay alive the longest. The longer you’re successful at this, the stronger and faster you become. But depending on how you do this, it all might get a bit overwhelming. In your left hand, a shotgun, in your right, a machinegun. The shotgun is slow, but it’s most useful to actually kill the bugs, while the machinegun is great for just spraying around or chipping away. You’ll see these eggs, destroy them ASAP, as they’ll give some delicious soda to heal you, if you don’t, a super strong bug comes out instead. As the goal is to just stay alive as long as possible, you don’t really get stages in a traditional sense, but you do get the choice of three different levels to shoot in. I can’t say whether or not I like stages over the other, but I do appreciate the option. If I had one gripe, I do wish at times the game was third person, as I can’t even begin to count how often I was just struck from behind with no way of warning me.

For the most part, everything described above is the game. However, you might notice something in the menu for lore. That’s the main push to play more and more, with your kills getting closer and closer to unlocking more lore to learn. Without going to into the story spoiler wise, it reminds me of the Slurm episodes of Futurama. If you need to relax though, the game has a feature I absolutely adore, no matter the game. A museum. Want to learn everything you’d need to know about the guns, the enemies, your character’s suit, the soda that’s in the game, it’s in the museum. Nothing in the museum really enhances the gameplay in any way, but there’s something really admirable about wanting to explain everything in a game that is otherwise a mindless shooter.

Seeing console games lately have graphics or performance options has been a welcome thing to see this generation. Games like Writhe, which you’ll probably need to be as fast as possible make the performance mode a must. On purely cosmetic options though, the game does have neat retro and CRT filters, but I always found myself just sticking to the standard, just for more clarity. I want the exploding bug guts that splatter on the screen to be clear, while I get in a real good shooting mood with the music.

It should go without saying however, the developers have made a goal of constantly updating the game, with gyro controls being added rather early on, which I feel is a must have at this point. Some of the issues I had, mainly revolving around the content coming off as a bit lacking, ~~but that is to be fixed with upcoming DLC.~~

Update!: The game has since seen improvements. There’s upgrades to guns now! Last long enough and do well enough and you can get faster or stronger. I mostly saw the faster shooting and piercing shots as I’m still not the best, but it’s a great motivator to see more of what you can get. It can extend you runs exponentially. Just don’t hit he – button or anything, it’s a suicide button.

More updates to come!