Nun of Your Business – Holy firepower and hellish simplicity.
Every once in a while, an independent game comes out that doesn’t look like a normal release and more like someone actually worked on an idea late at night. That kind of experiment does not feel like Nun of Your Business. It feels like a project that started with someone asking, “What if a nun had a gun and killed demons?” and then never gave up on the idea.
There isn’t any deep history, cinematic vision, or attempt at high-end design.
Nun of your Business was made on a small budget and had a silly idea, a wave-based structure, and relied on being silly to get people’s attention. It fits in with other strange indie shooters that like jank, exaggeration, and weird humor more than technical finesse. It’s clear that the makers were going for a kitschy sense of identity.
The characters are over-the-top, the title screen is too serious, and the gameplay is complete chaos. This is a small project made to be fun for a short time. It’s cheap enough to buy on the spot and strange enough to keep you interested.
Actually, there is no plot here, not even in the nicest way. Nun of your Business, pretty much laughs at the idea of a story’s goals. Right from the start, you are told straight out that there is no story. You’re a nun. You are killing monsters.
That’s all the game tries to do with its story. In between waves, a Bible verse or moral proverb will sometimes show up on the screen, as if the game were trying to give you spiritual support while you kill zombies and spiders.
In a way, honesty is nice because it never tries to be serious.
You can unlock different characters, each with their own look. There are sisters who look more traditional, nuns who look like cats, and even more complicated designs that look like they belong in Warhammer.
But none of these figures have any history, lore, or story arcs; they’re just there to be funny. You load in, shoot monsters, unlock new nuns, and keep blasting until you reach the end of the “story.” If you want a story with a lot of depth, this game will feel empty. If you’re looking for something silly, it does its best.
The loop of Nun of your Business is as simple as it gets. You start out in a churchyard arena with only a weak pistol. Your goal is to make it through a number of waves, which are usually two or three per level. There are 30 levels in all, and most of them go the same way: enemies rise from the graves and come at you, and you keep killing them until the last one dies.
You get money and XP when you finish a level, which lets you unlock new characters and tools. The tools do work, but they are definitely awkward. Often, the sensitivity needs to be changed right away, jumping is controlled by an odd button, and reloading requires an input that doesn’t make sense.
It can feel stiff to move, and sometimes movement glitches stop the flow of battle.
Still, the main loop is simple and easy to understand: shoot, run, reload, and live. Nun of your Business doesn’t have any puzzles, different goals, or environmental encounters other than opening chests to get ammunition, which isn’t needed since there is an infinite supply of ammunition. Just press “Start” to start blasting.
There aren’t any standard puzzles in Nun of your Business, so the combat is pretty much the only thing that makes it work. Around the map, enemies always appear in the same order: spiders at first, then small demons, skeletons with clubs, mummies, and finally stronger versions that take a lot more damage. Kiting enemies, backing into corners without realizing it, sprinting toward open space, and then going around to thin out the group is a common way to fight.
Although some monsters look scary, they die quickly, while others feel too strong, even early in Nun of your Business. This imbalance adds a little drama to Nun of your Business every once in a while, but mostly it makes it seem like the difficulty is being lowered by increasing health. When stronger guns, like the magnum and grenade launcher, are unlocked, battles get a lot easier. The grenade launcher makes late-game fights pointless because it is so strong that it makes most other guns useless.
The ease of it works well in battle. It’s simple to learn how to use and fun to enjoy when the screen goes blank after a well-timed blast. Part of the fun is the bad stuff—enemies running at weird angles, your character making silly jokes, and the chaos of multiple summons happening around you while you desperately try to restart.
What doesn’t work well is change. The waves behave in the same way over and over, and there aren’t any new arenas, so each level feels like a small remix instead of a real step forward. The monsters that soak up bullets also slow things down by making early levels last longer than they need to. But for a game meant to take your mind off things, the fighting can be fun for short periods of time.
Money and XP both help you move forward. With XP, you can unlock new nuns that are meant to have different stats, but they feel the same in practice. No matter if the character says they are faster or more durable, Nun of your Business still works the same way.
So, progression doesn’t really change your approach; it just adds new looks. In this game, money is more important because it lets you buy new guns, but even here, progress stops quickly. Once you get the magnum, the shotgun, and finally the grenade launcher, all of your other weapons are useless.
The XP and money methods make you feel like you’re moving forward, but they don’t really make the game more difficult. After a few steps, moving up is just a routine and not a reward that makes you want to do better.
The game’s graphics look and feel like they were made by a cheap Unity project.
There isn’t much difference between the 30 levels when it comes to the churchyard area, the tombstones, the fog, and the general layout.
The motions are stiff, and the enemies’ movements sometimes don’t seem to fit with what’s going on around them. Still, the drawings of the characters, especially the nuns, are surprisingly good. Their clothes, shapes, and over-the-top style are clearly given a lot of thought. The enemies are cute, silly, or just a little scary, but Nun of them are very realistic. The game goes for charm over reality, and while the presentation isn’t perfect, the quirky designs make the graphics stand out even though they’re not very complex.
The soundtrack works, but it’s not very rich. The effects of weapons work, but they don’t add much weight. Enemy sounds aren’t very loud or present at all, and there isn’t much background noise. The music, on the other hand, fits the crazy mood and makes the serious setting more fun.
The reload and impact sounds are pretty basic, and the fighting can feel eerily quiet at times, which takes away from how intense it is.
In this game, the characters don’t have voice acting, but players can add their own fun by reacting to enemies, weapon choices, and chaotic situations. In general, the sound design does what it needs to do but never takes the experience to a higher level.
Nun of Your Business is embarrassingly simple and sometimes badly put together, but it’s clearly funny for how cheap it is. The strange nuns, silly enemies, and over-the-top tools in this game make it fun to be silly.
The game’s loop is boring but fun for short periods of time, the upgrades aren’t very deep but give you enough power to keep you interested, and the graphics and sounds are rough but cute. It’s not a game for people who want meaning, variety, or a long-term experience.
Instead, it’s best as a quick, mindless, and funny shooter that you can finish in two to three hours, get a platinum for, and laugh at how silly it is that holy sisters are shooting demons in a cemetery. It’s a cheap game that does what it’s supposed to do and not much more.
