Back in 2013, Wolfire Games released the wildly popular Receiver, an Indie FPS based primarily around the functions of a single gun. Armed with nothing more than a Colt 1911 A1 and an audio cassette player, players investigated the Mindkill while navigating through rooms filled with automatic turrets and other threats.
The game won a great amount of acclaim due to the incredible attention to detail it held. There was a heavy focus on the gun itself, with every different part of it being accurately modeled and able to be interacted with. Reloading wasn’t as simple as just pressing a hotkey, and players had to be knowledgeable about what they were doing to be able to adequately play. It was so in-depth that many consider the game to be a complicated handgun simulator.
It seems that the sequel will be bringing the same features to the table, with even greater depth this time. The Steam page flaunts the “100% gun mechanic realism” on offer, highlighting that the game “simulates every internal part of each firearm based on manufacturer schematics and gunsmithing resources.”
The game is so realistic that it serves as an excellent training method to learn about the guns that are featured within. The loading and unloading are completely realistic, as are the issues and malfunctions that wielders may run into. The team has even been diligent enough to include the safety features of each gun as well.
Skill and accuracy are rewarded more than anything in Receiver 2, with every enemy killable by a single well-placed shot instead of the unrealistic bullet sponges most games feature. Wolfire has included ballistic modeling of the bullet trajectories, from ricochet and penetration to the drop of the bullet itself. They’ve pulled out every stop to make the game as realistic as possible.
Wolfire says that their main influence behind the game is that, regardless of your opinion on firearms, they’re incredibly prevalent in culture today. “If you want to understand it,” their philosophy goes, “then you must understand them as well. While many games include firearms, we felt it was time to have a game that is actually about them.”
Their philosophy is understandable. No matter what your opinion on firearms is, though, a good game is a good game. Wolfire has done everything they can to make the game as realistic as possible while also making education into a playable game mechanic.
While there’s no release date set in stone yet, Wolfire intends to release Receiver 2 in early 2020.
