GunSwords Strategically Moves Into Open Beta

It's down to the wire, I've lost my gunner and my swordsman is gravely injured. I've managed to kite the enemy Swordsman as long as I can, but now I've backed myself into a corner. Luckily for me, the enemy has been too focused on chasing me down to pay attention to the NPC golem that's spawned on the map, his ultimate undoing. What little time I've had kiting my opponent has been of great use, the golem has zeroed in on the enemy and substantially whittled his HP down. Knowing it's do or die I turn to face him and attack.

Success! My Swordsman's dagger finds its target and lops off a good chunk of the enemy's HP. The NPC golem moves in and finishes my opponent for the clinch victory!

This was my experience as I played GunSwords for the first time, an upcoming squad-based, turn-based strategy (TBS) game from the indie developers at One Button Studio.

The small Russian based team has been working on GunSwords for the past 2 years and just released it into open beta. Early impressions? It's quite fun.

In Gunswords, players must build and customize squads consisting of three specialized classes: Swordsmen, Gunners, and Mages, each uniformed in a different armor style and possessing unique combat abilities. Depending on the armor and weapon loadout, a player can even completely change the role of a class. Once a squad has been customized the player can compete in ranked battles in order to unlock more weapons, abilities and armor. There are a total of 17 weapon types ranging from the traditional swords to miniguns, chainsaws and rocket launchers. Players are encouraged to mix and match to find a team composition that best suits them. Heck you can even go without any weapons and simply use your fists!

The game is currently available as a client download for the PC and Mac but players can also enjoy the game through the browser as well. Check out our first impressions of the game above.