I had the misfortune of experiencing Necromunda: Hired Gun on PS4 when it first launched. There was nothing wrong with the premise of the game, mind you — I actually really like the setting and the general gameplay seems like it’s probably fine.
However, there was an issue with the dead zone on controllers that made the gunplay feel frustratingly imprecise. Basically, if you moved the thumbstick just a little bit in any direction, absolutely nothing would happen. Once you moved the stick far enough, the character’s aim would suddenly lurch in that direction. The part of the thumbstick’s movement that normally controls subtle movements simply registered as a “dead zone.” So you could forget about trying to aim with any precision. In a game that feels like it wants you to play fast and spastic, that is a huge problem.
Well, Necromunda: Hired Gun has had a couple patches on PS4 now, so I figured I’d drop in and see if this has been addressed. Thankfully, this issue has been fixed, and the game feels immensely more playable as a result. You can actually play the game as it was intended now, rather than sort of hide behind corners and then try to micro-strafe to get your aim lined up properly before getting a shot off and going back into hiding.
While this was the game’s gravest sin in the controls department, other issues still linger. I mentioned in my previous article that if you reload while using ADS (aim-down-sights), you would trigger the reload animation but you wouldn’t go back into ADS without removing your finger from the L2 button and repressing it. That issue still stands.
I could get used to that, though. That’s not a huge problem. What’s worse is that the game struggles to keep up, reducing the framerate to barely playable levels while too much is happening on the screen. That’s a bit harder to deal with. It’s not a total dealbreaker, but it’s an issue that does make me hesitant to get too deep into Necromunda‘s twisted world.
I did manage to make it about halfway through the second chapter today, but then the game hard crashed on me. At that point, I decided that I should maybe wait for another patch or two before I attempt it again.
No biggie, I suppose. I’ve got plenty of other games to play in the meantime, Gary.
