Cerebralbore101

User Score
8.4

Presentation - 10
Gameplay - 8.0
Value - 9.0

Enter the Gungeon is a roguelike shoot 'em up. You play as one of four gun wielding characters trying to erase their past. After choosing between the crackshot Marine, the rogue Pilot, the violent Convict, or the resourceful Hunter you'll in a starting hubworld known as the breach. From the breach you'll dive into a dungeon that constantly reshapes itself, with each playthrough. This dungeon is known as the Gungeon, because everything in it revolves around guns. There's no memorizing levels here, because it's as if a sadistic dungeonmaster is reshuffling the layout of entire levels, each time you attempt one. Even the bosses rotate randomly. Running through rooms, gunning down waves of cute bullet enemies, you gradually receive more weapons, items, and abilities. If you keep going your character can eventually become powerful enough to make even Jetpack Ninja Dinosaurs blush. Beware though, because each new level of the Gungeon is steeply harder than the next. In later levels bullets are flying all across the screen like mad. Death comes quickly and often in this game. Upon death you lose almost all the loot you just hoarded, and are sent back to the starting hubworld, (known as the breach) to try again from square one. Or so it would seem. 

Your Gungeoneer is cursed. Death is no escape for them. Much like Dark Souls each time you die you are simply reborn. As you delve into the Gungeon's depths you'll occasionally find other cursed souls locked in cells. Freeing them sends them to the breach, where they stay forever (yes, even after you die). They are cursed after all. These fellow lost souls will offer to help you out in various ways. One offers you elevator rides immediately to deeper Gungeon depths, allowing you to skip earlier levels. Another lets you start with slightly better gear, for a terrible price. Free enough of them and not only are your subsequent playthroughs easier, but you'll find a vibrant community of eccentrics to interact with, between deaths. Any progression you make within the breach is permanent, but progress within the Gungeon only lasts until your next death.

 Every time you defeat a boss you are given galaxy credits. These galaxy credits stay with you after death. You can then spend credits in the hubworld to "unlock" new weapons, items, and abilities. These three types of "unlocked" gear aren't given to you right away though. Instead they are added to the list of randomized loot that a certain burly shopkeep sells. And this cantankerous barkeep only sells items in the Gungeon. Where you can die. And lose all your loot again. You can also find these "unlocked" items in treasure chests within the Gungeon, but some of those treasure chests may have a taste for human blood. 

 Most levels in this game have three different bosses that can spawn at the end of a level. These bosses are extremely difficult, showering a hail of bullets down on you, in various patterns depending on the boss. Luckily Gungeoneers have two aces up their sleeves to avoid the seemingly unavoidable. When avoiding every last bullet looks impossible Gungeoneers can Dodge-Roll out of danger. This Dodge-Roll not only works in the exact same manner as Dark Souls' Dodge-Roll, but is the namesake of the studio that created Enter the Gungeon. The split second period of invincibility you get from Dodge-Rolling lets each Gungeoneer slip out of death's grasp. When the hail of bullets is too intense for even a Dodge-Roll to help, you can use a blank, your ultimate Ace-In-The-Hole. Blanks immediately delete all enemy bullets onscreen, but must be replenished and are rather rare. Dodge-Rolls on the other hand are infinite, but must recharge for a second, before being used again.

The game feels impossible at first, but eventually even dodging the most insane spray of bullets feels like childsplay. If you have a good combination of weapons, items, and abilities, killing enemies can feel like childsplay too. There are hundreds of different pieces of loot in this game, and sometimes you'll just feel like Rambo. Weapon and item combinations can get ridiculous.

During one playthough I was running around with a rocket launcher that shot bees. But because I had the fat bullets power up these weren't ordinary bees. They were giant bees. And because I had the shadow bullets power up I got to fire two rockets at once. Another time, I found a useless water gun in a chest, but later on I found a snowball gun, that could be merged with the water gun to make a more powerful gun! Oh yes, did I mention this game has guns inspired from just about every movie and videogame out there? Want to use a Ghostbuster's Proton Pack? That's a gun in the game. Want to shoot the Cerebralbore from Turok 2? That's a gun. Rachet's R.H.I.N.O? Yep. Fire away!

Enemies in this game are ridiculous. Most of them are walking talking bullets, that worship a gun that can kill the past. Living grenades kamikaze attack you. Gangster Ghosts teleport behind you, wielding Tommy Guns. Bosses are even more ridiculous, such as a muscle bound crow that wields a Gatling gun Rambo style. Everything in the game revolves around guns to a hilarious and charming level. Keys to chests are bullets. Ordinary objects like a banana or the letter r become deadly, because they "look like a gun". 

I really enjoyed this game, but winning is often a case of whether or not you were lucky enough to get good gear. Every new level of the Gungeon, demands that you have better and better loot to survive. The last update to the game was supposed to make treasure drops more generous. But even after that there are still runs where you simply can't get good enough loot to finish. 

I don't like it when games intentionally waste my time, and even though Enter the Gungeon has about 15 to 20 hours of original content, it took me 70 hours to beat the game. Sometimes you'll play flawlessly, only to have the game rain useless peashooter weapons down upon you, so that you don't have enough firepower to take down enemies at later levels. Other times the game will give you plenty of powerful weapons, but no health. Ultimately though, the time wasting criticism is a flaw that all Rogue-likes have. So if you enjoy shoot 'em ups, and you enjoy Rogue-likes then this is a must buy. 

8.4/10