Enter the Gungeon Review

Many games have laid stake to the Action Rogue like genre for a while. One of its kings being Binding of Issac.I think it is more subjective on the topic of the best of the best for any genre. Hell there are people out there who think personally Final Fantasy 8 was some sort of god-tier JRPG. While my opinion is it was not that great and to me the most bland and weak installments in the name sake. Hey what do I know I am one of the other many who also think that. Anyway, Enter the Gungeon takes the format of rogue like, tosses in Smash TV, a Binding of Issac item system. Then for a party favor some bullet hell. Plus keeps its own personality and charisma with the few similar play styles to the games mentioned. Lets begin with the games story.

It is rather simple in format in which the games story plot unfolds. You are one of four characters: The Marine, the hunter, the prisoner, and the pilot. All sporting their own starter items and all of the sort. All of which must master the randomly generated dungeons before them. To locate a legendary gun said to kill the past. I guess each character has some terrible past of which they could wipe out with the said gun then start a new. Just my guess not a fact or truth behind this guess solution to the story. With that said I found the story pretty charming and right to it. I did not need a extra long story. So it gave me what I wanted for a twin stick shooter. Some plot, a gun to fire and some enemies to mow down.

Gameplay is like that of a few rogue likes you perhaps played in the past. This is not a bad thing at all. But it also keeps its own persona. You are usually surrounded by gun shells aiming… sorry the puns will run wild in this review.. to destroy you unless you fire first. Controls felt pretty smooth and responsive. Dodge rolls and aiming and picking off enemies felt rewarding if I played well. The further you move along you can also find plenty of items and guns to dash along with. Many being parody items, others being their-own-thing. Along the way the game is randomly generated so things usually do not recur where you can keep track of it all of the time. Some bosses do repeat on resets or death on the first few chapters/levels I discovered. As I assume each level has its set of own bosses you could possibly fight for the end round. Rooms shape and form appending always on a random roll for folks who are clueless to this format. It takes characteristics from the theme of each chapter, lets say kingdom, and moves slight things around and that is about it. You have many things to use along the environments such as flip-able tables you can use as defense, with that said enemies can also use them for defense against you, via the first tier bullet enemies. The game itself is covered in secrets. Like shop vendors, extra weapons, and more that we will not spoil. The soundtrack is fantastic. With a trance like upbeat grove every step of the way. Fans of great game music will love this one for sure. The guns themselves all have their own checks and balances. Examples: range, attack speed, attack damage, and ammo size. These have large then normal advantages. Also nerf-like adjustments here and there. Weapon balance was a thing I personally always look for. Because I want to feel overpowered. As well as feel humbled sometimes where I know a limit to my firepower. Which for anyone is understandable unless you are a entitled cry-baby. Controls play a big time factor in any game. The Mouse and Keyboard controls work pretty well for the PC side of things. Gamepad Is my preferred choice in most games like this. Just is. One problem I had with the gamepad controls is the aiming camera taking half of the screen away from me, tilting it toward where ever I aim, leaving the other side blind-sighted to my vision. Is this a big problem? It can be specially in most cases of you deal with a ton of enemies at points. Getting blind sighted by projectiles is pretty much make or break. Another issue is breaking pots or barrels leads to nothing inside of them. I can like the idea of having breakable objects in the game. Just wishing you get a few bullets(currency) from them would be even better. Giving you a incentive to break the darn things. Otherwise I just ignored them after awhile and rushed through rooms. The four core characters are all pretty fun to use. All exact in movement, only departure is their preset items. All having alt weapons, and a few perks. One shame comes to the game at least at the time of the game is there being no online co-op. Unless you do some semi-complicated tunneling. But who has time for that. Alias, my final thoughts below.

In Closing:

Enter the Gungeon offers all the helpings of a addicting gun fest of pure bliss. You will know full well we will stream this from time to time. *shameless plug here*. From a simple but great idea was made even better with a touch of Nuclear Throne, some Binding of Issac, and its own flare for fun wacky guns. If you love the replay-ability of any of the games mentioned this game holds its own in a deep  way.

Get this game if you have a solid arcade like experience. Hell I wanted another Smash Tv, even if it had adorable bullet enemies. :3

 Highly Recommended – Contender for Game of the Year so far!