Different by nature but informative all the same, World of Guns educates and entertains firearm aficionados in an easy to use app. Now, I have never heard of many app that do this; most apps are games that have you using various forms of firearms to partake in epic battles or defeat invaders from another space. World of Guns is for folks who want to get to know their firearms better and can tinker around with them in a virtual space.
To start, the app provides a massively expansive offering of guns, providing vivid graphics of structure and videos to that display the gun in whole and in parts. The disassembly is most impressive. You click on the gun of your choice and it brings it up. You can do cutaways to choose parts and zoom in on them. This part of the app is widely used as a skill builder so you get to know guns well, inside out. So well that you will be able to disassemble and then reassemble.
From here you can load and unload the guns, add accessories, and view in different modes. I found the X-ray mode to be very fascinating, revealing the inner workings of the various areas of the gun. You can even view the video in super slow motion and see how the pieces move and adjust and come together upon any action you take.
World of Guns houses a range of guns from all eras. There are very historic ones and modern-day firearms. Here’s a sampling:
- Colt SAAs
- Garands
- Lee-Enfields
- Glocks
- P90s
- M4s
- Tavors
- M134
That’s the inspection/education side of the app. Then there’s the fun side. You can actually visit up to ten different shooting ranges and use those guns. Each range has its own level of challenge and goal to attain. In addition to the shooting ranges, there are games, quizzes and puzzles. If you so choose, you can sign up to play in competitive mode and pit your skills against others.
As you advance, you unlock access to more guns and accessories. Each level requires completion of a basic set of tasks: firing on empty, changing grip, loading, and more. If you achieve Power Player status, you unlock all items. This is a refreshing change to not have to spend on an in-app purchase.
The one thing I would like to see in the app is a better rendering of the side bar menu items they currently show in a white rectangle, which covers up quite a bit of the display. Maybe having them as non-opaque overlay of some sort or shrinking the display could resolve this.
Outside of this, World of Guns is a unique combination of training/education tool and entertainment vehicle. I can see many uses for it to help anyone interested in firearms to fully understand one before handling one.