Before I played Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone, I worried that the game would be too violent and too disgusting. After blasting my way through the three contracts included in its Early Access campaign, I now know my apprehension was entirely reasonable.
Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone is violent and disgusting.
But its violence is justified by the world of its fiction, by its protagonist’s brutal morality, and by its villains’ despicable cruelty. It’s a game about doing violence to criminals who do horrible things to innocent people.
Yes, Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone is violent and disgusting. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What is it?: An intense, action-movie-inspired single-player shooter which began life as a Half-Life: Alyx mod.
Platforms: SteamVR (reviewed using Steam Link and Meta Quest 3S on Medium graphics settings)
Release Date: September 10, 2026
Developer: ANB_Seth
Publisher: 2080 Games
Price: $25
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Beginning life in 2021 as a Half-Life: Alyx mod, Gunman Contracts (the mod) expanded through two chapters and has now evolved into a new, bespoke game. Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone is a solo-developed single-player shooter in which you play as a hitman working outside the legal system to bring punitive consequence to those who harm society.
The just-released Early Access version contains three distinct and connected Story Contracts. It’s also packing a fully immersive home base known as “The Hive,” where you can unlock and customize 18 unique weapons and attachments, practice at the range, play skill games, and train at several combat stations. There are Challenge Modes like Takedown, in which you face off against 30 opponents, and Last Stand, in which you fight waves of enemies and disarm bombs for as long as you’re able.
The game’s developer says that those who pony up for the EA release will get the game at the lowest price possible, and that they’ll receive three new Story Contracts as free updates in the future.
As it stands, what’s here will take about six or seven hours to get through. But the challenges are infinitely replayable and highly customizable. There’s also enough variation in the weaponry and enough baked-in variety in the missions that you’ll want to run through them a few times each. All told, the Early Access release of Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone has about ten hours of shootin’, rootin’, and tootin.’
Do I wish there was more game here? Of course. But is there enough in the EA release to justify the purchase? Absolutely.
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Beautiful Violence
Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone is one of the best shooters I’ve played in years. Not just because the mechanics feel good and the weapons are fun and engaging, but because using them on these villainous enemies is so righteously satisfying.
Early in our second contract, we learn that our enemies aren’t simply bad guys. They’re the worst guys. They’re doing things to people that are unforgivable. Nor do any of them, from the lowliest henchman to the CEO of Evil Incorporated himself, ever repent. Their remorselessness is convenient for our protagonist (and the player) in that it allows him (and us) to be unflinchingly brutal in our retribution. This happy fact turns a game about shootin’ dudes into something like a feel-good vacation. Thumbs up!
Combat feels immediate and chaotic. As is normal in VR, gunplay is incredibly physical. You’ll reload, chamber rounds, aim down sights, and holster weapons using physical movements, and in Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone, these actions are, for the most part, well designed and well executed.
Very few gaming experiences are as satisfying as deploying dual pistols to dispatch as many enemies as you’ve got bullets in the magazines, before stuffing the depleted guns into your hip holsters, pulling a shotgun from over your shoulder, and pumping a final jerk full of birdshot. And if that’s not quite satisfying enough, you can do it all in slow motion.
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Stages are designed to funnel you into close-quarters combat, where you’ll check corners barrel-first and clear a room, only to suddenly have a new wave of evildoers burst through a door or rush you from an adjacent hallway. The action seldom stops, pausing just long enough for some exposition, usually delivered through dialogue between the protagonist and his wonderfully voice-acted Controller.
Enemies don’t stand around waiting to get shot. They’re aggressive, mobile, and frequently positioned in ways that force you to consider the space you’re in, where best to find cover, and when and where to move and fire. Gunfights can quickly spiral into desperate brawls where, with no time to reload, you’re forced to clobber someone with the butt of your pistol, pull a knife from a nearby kitchen cabinet, and finish the job à la Ginsu.
For some players, all this violence will be too much. And that’s fair. For those who can’t stomach it, there’s a toggle to turn off most (but not all) of the blood and splatter.
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Sights and Sounds
The world of Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone turns our VR headset into a bloody projector flinging violent imagery against the backs of our eyeballs. And what we see by the flickering fluorescence and the blinding lights of flashing muzzles is gorgeous. Its urban environments are drenched in shadow. Its grimy streets are awash in moonlit rain. Its dank basements are full of dread.
Not only does it technically look amazing, but it’s artfully designed, too. The world is convincing and polished. Weather effects add atmosphere, while granular details make the places feel real, rather than simply a collection of corridors and rooms in which to shoot folk.
The game’s sound design is strong as well. Gunshots echo and boom, powerful and dangerous. Environmental audio sells the illusion of place. The voice acting is superb. While the character roster is, by the nature of the story, rather limited, each character’s personality is played to perfection.
Comfort
Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone presents a veritable cornucopia of comfort and control settings. There’s snap and smooth turning, headset or controller steering, sitting or standing modes, height adjustment, vignette movement options, blink teleport options, and more.
While it is most certainly a game best suited for those familiar with and accustomed to VR play, the dev has done everything possible to make most players comfortable.
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Early Access Misfires
But not everything is perfect. While I’ve mentioned the excellent gunplay, wonderful visuals, and satisfying narrative, there are a few termites gnawing on these tentpoles.
Guns can get hung up on environmental obstacles, pulling away or disappearing as you walk, taking your disembodied hands with them. It’s a janky, weird problem that can mean death in certain gunfights. There’s also a tendency for some weapons to react poorly to being holstered, or for reloads to glitch certain automatic weaponry. When these problems happen, they are really annoying.
There are also a lot of repeating enemy models, and without giving away spoilers, there’s a moment in one mission where many characters are identical. It totally breaks the immersion.
Lastly, the Story Contracts are good, but there are only three of them, as mentioned. I want more. The promise of additional missions sounds great but promises aren’t the same thing as finished content.
These qualms that I have with Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone can be explained with two words: Early Access.
In the future, I suspect none of these gripes will stand. I’m sure new contracts will be added, weapons will be balanced, and bugs and jank will be fixed. But even if they’re not, the version of Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone that you’ll play today feels substantial enough to stand on its own, because the foundational act of picking up a gun and shooting an irredeemably scummy dude is, in this particular video game, extremely satisfying.
Gunman Contracts: Stand Alone is one of the best VR shooters I’ve ever played.
UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in ourreview guidelines. As an early access release, this review is unscored.
