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Have You Played... Pistol Whip?

Guitar Hero meets Hotline Miami

Like the better known Beat Saber, Pistol Whip is a virtual reality rhythm game, but here you're firing bullets at silhouetted figures in time to the music. It's Hotline Miami via Guitar Hero.

The Guitar Hero part is that you're advancing through the level in a straight line with no way of stopping. The Hotline Miami part is everything else. Enemies run into position, take aim and fire, and you have to punch and shoot them to pieces while dodging their return fire.

That this is all tied to music - you get more points for striking to the beat - causes you to slip into a flow state. Thoughts disappear with the steady, propulsive rhythm of the action, even as it introduces enemies in armour that need shooting two or three times instead of just once. Shoot, shoot, shoot, punch, reload, shoot shoot, reload, on and on, like a line dancing John Wick.

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Graham Smith: Rock Paper Shotgun's editorial leader, corporate dad, and breezy evening news writer.
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Pistol Whip

PS4, PC

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