Ammossum Preview

The world is being overtaken by a plague infecting many beasts who are continuing to spread the virus. You are a gunslinger whose family has been taken away from you; the only thing that you can do is fight through the waves of the infected to get answers, rescue your family, and learn the truth of what is causing this chaos. If the previous wasn't enough, our pistol-spinning possum hero is also tasked with keeping the railroads clear and keeping the train moving. 

Now, our possum isn’t a little weakling who will roll over and play dead when in danger; instead, they are armed with an endlessly upgradable weapon. It starts off in a melee form called the Cleaver Club, which means you need to get up close to the enemy to strike. As you complete waves, you will visit the next train station on your journey, where you can purchase arnaments like a mace, slingshot, or ship cannon, spending the bones you have collected from defeated enemies. Most weapons can be levelled up so that they get better stats.  

These weapons won’t only be used individually; you can fuse them together to create an all-new gun to decimate the enemy. Every run you play will be entirely different depending on what pieces you mash together to build your firearm. Some of my favourite use explosive shells, which can take out a large number of enemies in one shot. 

Ammossum uses a keyboard and mouse to play. Move your character around using the WASD keys, then attack using the left mouse button. To reload your weapon, click the right mouse button. Personally, I am a fan of playing using a controller for most games, but using this method worked alright. 

When you visit the train station, besides purchasing weapons, you can also talk to other characters like Baribrew the Capybara, who will guide you on who you want to speak to about finding beer. He also tells you about side hustles that you can complete to earn rewards to power up our fuzzy gunslinger. 

While fighting the waves of enemies, you can’t turn around. You are always facing forward, but there is the option to run backwards if you need to get in front of some enemies trying to run past. There is no requirement for a specific number of infected creatures to be destroyed to move on; you will just earn fewer bones to spend at the train station. 

To go along with the Western setting, the soundtrack is full of twangy music that feels like it belongs in an old Western movie full of cowboys. The desert is teeming with cacti and large rocks to avoid while trying to get a clear shot at the waves of a variety of different infected enemies running towards you. 

Ammossum is an entertaining Western-themed game with a fun weapon-building mechanic, especially if you don't mind using a keyboard and mouse for controls. I am excited to see the changes made for when the game releases.