Indie game review: Enter the Gungeon (2016)
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0.000 HBDIndie game review: Enter the Gungeon (2016)
<html> <p>The game that I am going to be reviewing this afternoon is one that I discovered several months ago, though I wish I had found it sooner, it's called Enter the Gungeon. This game was something I stumbled across during a Steam sale, and I had heard nothing about it before I purchased it. Honestly, after playing it for a bit I was fairly surprised that I hadn't. It was developed by Dodge Roll using the Unity engine and was published by Devolver Digital. It received a worldwide release back in April of 2016 for the Steam platform, Linux, and Playstation 4. It later on saw a release for the Xbox One in April of 2017, and finally a release this past December in 2017 for the Nintendo Switch. The version of the game that I will be reviewing is the PC version on Steam, however. </p> <p>The genre of Enter the Gungeon is labeled as a bullet hell/rogue like shooter. So, if you're interested in this genre of games, then I'll just tell you now you should definitely pick this one up, as Enter the Gungeon will certainly be for you. I personally was pretty interested in this game after reading about it, as I very much enjoyed the Binding of Isaac series, and figured from the reviews on Steam and screenshots that this game had to be at the very least moderately decent in comparison. Boy, I'll tell you now it's a lot more than just decent. I was so pleasantly surprised with this game that I again find myself shocked that no one really talks about it too often. </p> <p>https://i.imgur.com/vR0a2qV.png</p> <p>Enter the Gungeon uses a bit of an oddball setting for its narrative, placing you on a distant planet in the universe which is inhabited by living bullets and other bizarre types of lifeforms. Within this strange new world is a large, dark fortress which harbors a gun within that can be used to kill your own past. At some point though, a destructive force besieged the fortress and decimated it leaving only ashes behind once everything had settled. After some time, the fortress was rebuilt using the highest of possible security measures, leaving quite a few challenges behind for the player to deal with while trying to find the gun. </p> <p>The game gives you the option of playing as 4 different adventurers. Each of these characters has their own backstory, as well as a biggest regret that they seek to kill using the gun hidden within the dungeon. Besides having their own backstories, they also each have their own unique loadout and abilities. You'll be using these loadouts and abilities of course to enter and explore the Gungeon. Along the way of exploring this strange place you'll find yourself rescuing non combatants which have their own dialogue and information, as well as items which you can purchase usually. So, as you can probably tell the story of this game isn't anything super linear where it is emotionally compelling, so if you're interested in that look elsewhere. The real fun of this game comes from the way it plays and its challenges. I'd definitely say this game is more gameplay driven than anything. </p> <p>https://i.imgur.com/iRthCaJ.png</p> <p>The controls for this game are absolutely solid, whether you're using a gamepad or the keyboard to play. I tried both, and though I prefer the gamepad I found that the mouse/keyboard works quite well on it's own and nothing ever feels clunky. That's pretty good praise from me considering I hate mouse/keyboard. If the controls weren't solid, then there's no way this game would be able to stand on it's own legs. That's of course because while shooting in one direction, you'll also have to be evading and dodging in another direction to stay alive. The evading and dodge rolling in this game is especially important, even more so than the gunplay, and really doesn't allow for overly aggressive players to triumph on top through the levels. Between using the roll feature to cross pits, you'll also have to use it to leap over bullets so you don't take damage. This means it's pretty much a key feature of the game that you must dodge and evade while fighting constantly, otherwise the swarm of bullets on screen will be your undoing. </p> <p>Obviously as you play along, you'll get to encounter the somewhat adorable enemies of the game and engage them in combat over and over again, since the game sports rogue like features. By this I mean that you'll be repeatedly entering the Gungeon over and over to unlock new firearms to use as well as new abilities for your character. Thankfully the game never gets to be too tiring or boring while doing this, as each dungeon is randomly generated giving you a new experience with each entry down into the Gungeon, not to mention the hundreds of different guns you can find and use and all of the numerous amounts of different bosses in the game. With all of this in the game, there's quite a bit of content to keeps things fresh in between all of the chaotic fighting you'll be doing. Though, I do know that this won't be for everyone, as many people aren't too keen on grinding in games these days. </p> <p>https://i.imgur.com/XkAh4tp.png</p> <p>So, how do you do the grinding in this game? Well, most of the guns in the game are ones that you have to buy with the money which drops upon clearing a boss creature out. And, as I previously mentioned you'll be doing a fair bit of rescuing while inside of the Gungeon, and these people often times are the ones who will be selling you the items you've been thirsting after. Some of these characters even give you special tasks for you to clear, such as killing a certain amount of creatures within the Gungeon, clearing specific levels using only one specific firearm, or even the occasional mini game which can lighten the mood up a bit for you. So, you'll be basically just doing every quest/challenge you find and trying to clear bosses over and over for the grindy bits of the game. </p> <p>Again, with all of these little additions of content there is so much stuff to be done and found in the game. After dozens of hours of playtime, you'll probably feel that you have only really delved into the start of the game due to how much stuff there is to find and do. This isn't even touching upon the secrets that are hidden in the game either, which is another thing entirely that you can search for as you run around blasting things from room to room. I've got about 30-32 hours of playtime with this game, and I don't even feel like I have done all that much with everything considered. This game certainly can give you dozens of hours of entertainment, possibly even a 100 hours or so worth, making it well worth the price of $15. And, that's not even taking into consideration that the game goes on sale fairly often! </p> <p> https://i.imgur.com/iwU2ZUi.png</p> <p>While there isn't very much wrong with this game, there is one or two things I could see which would keep people from wanting to play the game. First off, I'm sure considering the type of game this is you'd expect there to be a multiplayer of some sort but alas, there isn't. I don't personally think this is an issue, as I don't think it would work with this type of game but I have seen some people complain about it before after reading others opinion on it, so I figured I should mention it here. While there isn't a multiplayer to the game, there is however a co-op mode which will allow you to run and gun with a buddy, something that I very much think works and fits in. It's especially useful as the second player has the ability to bring the first player back to life should they die, saving your buns when things get really insane. It's not like a castlecrashers style co-op though where you can play with 4 people, sadly. </p> <p>Maybe the only other thing that could scare people away from the game is the difficulty of the game itself. The start of the game is fairly easy for the most part, with the first few floors not posing much of a risk to the player and allowing you to fall into a false sense of comfort and stability with your performance. After the first handful of levels though, things really take a sharp turn and the enemies, as well as the difficulty, both go from 0-60 very quickly. You have the ability to spawn at the start of each chamber if you so wish, though you'll be better off doing a total start from scratch as you build your character up and continue to progress. The reason being that respawning will have stripped you of all of your work up until then anyways. I wouldn't say this is at the level of games like Cuphead or anything with difficulty, but it can be frustrating at times. </p> <p>You can generally clear the game in just around an hour or so, but of course you'll be continuously playing through it to unlock more and more things, and that hour is only taking into account if you have a perfect game where you don't die and have to restart. While the game isn't going to make you want to destroy your PC or anything (Well, unless you have some salty anger problems), you might find yourself a bit frustrated at times with it. I personally knew things were going to be difficult going in, as I haven't played a game like this that didn't present itself with a fair amount of difficulty, but I like that and think that it adds to the challenges of the game. I won't say I never got upset, but I think that's part of the fun of the game. </p> <p>https://i.imgur.com/ABVi4tG.png</p> <p>So, I'd definitely recommend you check out Enter the Gungeon. Especially so if you're a huge fan of running and gunning style games with rogue like elements thrown in there as well. The amount of content and entertainment you get for the small price is probably one of the best bangs for your buck that you'll find in a video game. While it does get a bit tedious feeling at times due to the repetition of things, that feeling doesn't tend to last for too long before you're scrambling around trying to survive a barrage of bullets. Overall, the game could use a few tiny improvements, but it's solid for the most part. While it won't be for everyone, the people who do connect with it will definitely enjoy it. </p> <p>Well, that's it. Thanks for stopping by to check out the review. Appreciate it! </p> </html>