Enter the Gungeon (2016)

Enter the Gungeon starts out as a satisfyingly difficult top-down shooter with plenty of unlockables and variety at first - it may not hold up after lengthy play and can become quite a slog but beneath the bloat is a very entertaining core.

Inside a firearms-themed dungeon (the Gungeon), the player chooses from a selection of Gungeoneer characters to traverse 5 (plus some secret floors) dungeons to find a mythical gun that can kill the past. Inside these procedurally generated halls the player can find items both active and passive and a variety of guns, all while avoiding flurries of various bullet patterns. It can be quite the uphill battle, as skillful play comes down to "don't get hit" but with at least three different types of bosses that can spawn per floor and a large assortment of baddies (which can be quite spongy if you don't have a good gun on hand), a little bit of luck may make or break your run as you practice your skills.

Luckily there's a large array of very satisfying weaponry at hand. Silly things like magic wands, tridents, demon heads, black holes, bullets that fire guns, and an array of perfectly normal guns await, most of which have various uses (and depleting ammo). A variety of chests and secrets also await, rewarding thorough and methodical exploration. For the first few runs and eventual wins the excitement of learning about new guns and items on the fly can be very engaging, but a full run through the Gungeon takes a very long time and can make a bad run feel exhausting. Throughout the game the player can win permanent money through boss fights and unlock weaponry, and the best weaponry that feels necessary to nail a good run is hidden behind these unlockables.

One has to strap in for hours upon hours upon hours of play (even if they're really good) and with a variety of DLC additions and endings behind endings behind endings Gungeon only rewards the most obsessive players that can put up with its repetition to improve their skills and get to the bottom of the Gungeon. Every now and then there'll be surprises and strategies to keep people interested but it's a tough sell to keep going after the 50th run or so. Some co-op helps, though the game is very geared towards making runs feel much less doable with a friend (so have fun instead!)

Visually the game is a feast of chaos - amidst its dungeon looks and the variety of cute bullet-based designs (and boss pun names) there's plenty of wacky effects and explosions that satisfy that need for an intense experience. Enemy bullets are easily viewable by the player so nothing gets lost in the chaos as well. The game relies on a LOT of references so get ready to chuckle at Metal Gear, Dark Souls, and other games getting a shoutout through their cool weaponry and items. Music is high energy but somehow less exciting than I would expect. The music WILL get stuck in your head after enough hours but I'd hardly call these electronic tracks a classic.

Enter the Gungeon is intimidating - not just because of the high skill level it demands for consistent runs but how the enormous amount of unlocks and long playtimes per run can exhaust as well as excite players coming in. Don't be afraid to pull away when that magic is fading, as there's certainly magic to be had within.

TL;DR - A frenetic twin-stick shooter that is all about guns. Their commitment to make everything gun-related is what I found most charming about the game, but it's no slouch in the gameplay department either. It has an amazing selection of guns which makes every run feel fun and unique. And although it proved too difficult at first, it is incredibly satisfying when I started to master the game's finely-tuned combat.

ROUGELIKE TWIN-STICK SHOOTER - Battle through the Gungeon, facing enemies and bosses, in search of a powerful weapon that can erase your past.

PROS:

++ Polished gameplay. In a game as intense and difficult as ETG, it is important for the controls to be polished. And it delivers on this end. Movement, dodge rolling, shooting, etc. all feel responsive.

++ Skill-based gameplay. It was satisfying to notice how far I improved throughout my time with ETG. It's a roguelike in the truest sense of the word. No run-breaking meta-progression (besides unlocking more guns and NPCs). Beating the game requires the player to improve their general skill and knowledge of the game's mechanics, enemies, and weapon synergies. In fact, there are actually many hidden systems that prevent a player from getting a lucky run, such as the fact that when you find a rare chest, your probability of finding another one in the same run significantly drops. And the game also actively rewards the player for mastering the combat. One example of this is getting increased rewards when beating a boss without taking damage. To me, this has been the most satisfying roguelike to beat because it really did come down to my skill improving that led to my success. The longer I play it, the easier it truly gets.

++ Amazing selection of weapons. Besides the moment-to-moment gameplay, the biggest highlight is easily the selection of weapons. The game pulls from many famous franchises such as Metal Gear Solid, Ghostbusters, Mega Man, Dark Souls, Duck Hunt, Men in Black, and dozens more references that I don't have space to mention. Even the guns that are not based from other franchises were all very creative and fun to experiment with and use in combat. It was always exciting to get a new gun and to see what it was capable of. The armory kept the game feeling fresh, and continues to make the game feel fresh as I play through the end-game content. Even at this moment, there are still a handful of guns I've yet to unlock which gives me great reason to keep playing.

++ Various bosses & enemies. Just how there are tons of guns, there are also a great deal of enemy types that keep the game challenging and varied, and keeps the player always on their toes. Each room you enter becomes a combat puzzle and you're trying to figure out how to handle the enemy composition you've been dealt with, with the guns you have, without taking any damage. And on the topic of enemies, I really enjoyed the bosses. They all had fun patterns to learn, they were creative, and they never felt unfair.

++ Secrets. There are TONS of secrets. Secret treasure rooms that are only unlocked with blanks. Secret chambers like the Oubliette, Abbey of the True Gun, or the Resourceful Rat's Lair. Secret characters that can be unlocked. Secret mechanics like Jammed and Magnificence. Secret weapon synergies. There is just so many secrets to discover in the game, and it really does make exploration feel exciting.

++ End-game content. Even after beating the 5th chamber's boss (High Dragun), there is still so much to do. Unlocking all the characters, killing the past of each character by building the gun that can kill the past, and if players are still craving an even greater challenge, Bullet Hell and the Lich awaits. It really is a seemingly simple game that has incredible depth once you start digging.

++ Charming. The whole gun themed dungeon is just charming. Lots of gun puns and they really went all-in on this theme.

CONS:

-- First chamber RNG. It could have just been a skill issue, but the drops you get in the first chamber can really define your entire run. I've had many times where I get no gun, or get no decent gun, and it really ends up affecting my overall run. I wish there was at least a way to offset this in the following chamber.

-- Grind-heavy. There are a lot of unlockable guns and items, but a good handful them require a good amount of grinding for a special type of currency that only bosses drop, or hunting specific enemy types.

I won't lie. I kinda disappeared off this website. And I blame Gungeon. I couldn't figure out how to review it. It's a game I love and hate and admire and desire more from and shade and... It's complicated. I don't even know if I have the vocabulary to accurately describe what I like and what I don't like about a massive but focused procedurally (uncertain if this even qualifies as procedurally) generated dungeon crawler shmup roguelike.* But I think I can encapsulate my feelings well with a short story. I played this game for sixty hours without beating it. Then I had a wild run. I got the most powerful gun in the game randomly from a chest and I got two little assistants firing at every enemy. I was on a Gungeon high. I was beating floor after floor with relative ease. Then I got to the boss of the whole game. I'd been here before. The Dragun had killed me many times in the past. I was ready for a vicious battle... But I kinda just wiped the floor with him. And it didn't feel good. It felt like I just got the right chests at the right times. A game that I had been fighting and enjoying for over sixty hours kinda just sputtered out. I was mad. But not for too long? Because once the credits finished rolling I just decided to play it again. The randomness both makes and breaks the game so it is hard to be too frustrated with the game. When all the other emotions wash away, I love this game. It is crushingly difficult, but a blast at the same time. And your console is feeling lonely without it.

Gunna keep playing until I'm able to beat it with the peashooter.

*That sentence seems procedurally generated!

ETG had some real potential. The gameplay is smooth and fast-paced, and the bosses are quite neat. Unfortunately instead of making a proper game they made a roguelike with randomly generated maps and no permanent progression system. You end up having to play the same first level over and over again. I just don't see the appeal.

Compare this to a game like Diablo. It has far more variety in enemies, items and maps. It has more classes that are far more diverse. You quickly progress through different areas. Your character becomes stronger over time and you can transfer items to new characters to speed up their progress. It's better in every way because they decided to make a real game.

6/10

I'm not the biggest fan of roguelikes because I like constant progression more and I hate repeating levels (even if they are procedurally generated), but if a roguelike has a decent system in place to keep progression fluid and worthwhile then I'm down. For example, Darkest Dungeon is phenomenal.

I don't really feel the same way towards this. What little reason there is to continue on once you die is not enough to give this game a glowing review. It's a shame because the gunplay is fantastic; flipping a table is endlessly satisfying, and the guns are varied and exciting. I like this kind of action as well since I grew up with top down shooters, and it flirts with the bullet hell genre often (which I also love). I just wish there was more meat to it, because I didn't feel much reason to keep going on.

160 runs and still havent gotten even the fake ending. This game is insanely hard, and I suck.

Very fun though, and very reminiscent of other rogue-likes/rogue-lites like Risk of Rain and Binding of Isaac. A pretty good purchase if you are into that kinda stuff. I bought it about a week and a half ago and I'm at over 80 hours. So good.

Game is easier when you play co-op with a friend, cause you can revive eachother really easily and also having an extra person around to pew-pew-pew bullets is always helpful. There doesn't seem to be an increase in difficulty that I can see, other than not being able to pull the screen in two different directions when you are playing (so you gotta stick together). Got to the very end (not even the true end!) and got killed at 20% of the boss health. Bah!

I'm also playing Gladiator Begins on psp on my phone, but I cant tag more than 1 game. Beat it on normal and they asked if I wanted to beat the game on hard. New Game+ is super difficult. Enemies are tougher and your items get smacked off you with less hits so you really have to learn how to parry.