With plenty of roguelike games hitting the market day after day, the industry always seems to be saturated with the genre. In recent years, however, some software houses have managed to overturn this formula under a thousand new facets, such as procedural card games. However, it is not an experience like that that we want to talk to you today, but an indie title exactly in line with the canonical characteristics of the genre: Enter the Gungeon.
From the boys of Dodge Roll - thanks also to the fundamental publishing of Devolver Digital - a videogame apparently not particularly attractive for everyone has arrived on the market, especially due to pixel art graphics certainly not in step with the times. From the not too heartening premises and from a team that had to deal with its first production, could we therefore expect a homework, or perhaps a completely unexpected surprise? Let's find out together in the next few lines!
Bullets against bullets
Once you have landed in the game it is immediately possible to notice, already in the tutorial phase, how all the characters are actually weapons or bullets, except for the playing protagonists. With a curious aspect these almost invite you to continue on in the adventure, which turns out to be extremely easy and at the same time interesting at the beginning. It does not take long to realize that you are faced with a particularly implicit narrative, but at the same time communicative and intriguing. With dialogues that wink at the 8-bit era, the characters begin to communicate almost immediately, but without having understood much, the time has come to enter the Gungeon, armed only with curiosity and some extravagant notion just learned.
Exact. A dungeon made of bullets, because the seemingly almost peaceful enemies gradually begin to get angry with the passage of time, or rather of the rooms. We find ourselves in front of a series of walls connected to each other perfectly, with a map able to clarify any doubts (but not the thousand secrets). In fact, as you proceed you will find literally hundreds of interesting interactions, with non-player characters or even with weapons.
A peculiarity of Enter the Gungeon is also theArmonomicon, a book that contains information on all objects found and characters encountered and acts almost like a wiki. Immersing yourself more and more in the experience it is possible to notice how an apparently non-sense and caricatured story is actually well written and structured, and above all difficult to discover. In fact, by concluding the game in many ways, it will be possible to deepen the plot of each of the characters and why they ended up inside the Gungeon.
Clean up every room
Leaving aside the excellent narrative sector, the real core of Enter The Gungeon lies without any doubt in its gameplay. The Gungeon is formed as already mentioned by many rooms, which although they seem really positioned by hand are inserted procedurally - a feature that in the long run will see them repeated too frequently, especially for the few models present. These are teeming with monsters that look like firearms, who will use firearms… and who will be defeated with firearms! But don't imagine the classic pistol and shotgun, because the game literally has more weapons than enemies. Get ready to wield laser beams and talking guns, going through whatever it is in the minds of the developers to create bullets. All the contents are not available right away because to find almost every object you will need to perform some actions, but fortunately never open the real wallet. Whether it's buying them from new NPCs that are unlocked in the course of the adventure, or performing particular actions, it will take hundreds and hundreds of hours to fill the Armonomicon - and luckily the game will never get bored since every time the treasures obtainable in the Gungeon will become more than you can actually remember.
In addition to shooting, it is always necessary to have maximum concentration, to know by heart the patterns of each enemy, the layout of each room and trap, and to be able to dodge the myriads of bullets ready to decrease our health. Experience also teaches you how to better manage your currency (just to change bullets) and get to the last room armed to the teeth, and maybe even without too many curses or malus. Each run is in any case different from the previous one and to adapt and make the correct choices it really takes a lot of attention, but everything comes by itself and the ability to clean the rooms is always sufficient to repair some action that turns out to be wrong in the other floors. The obliterators, for their part, manage to save from desperate situations, and also to activate some temporary bonuses if you have the right items in the infinite inventory. We are talking about small devices able to repel all the surrounding enemy fire ... and the eventuality of unlocking the secret chambers of some floors.
We cannot fail to notice how a team with a very low budget has managed to create an amount of content outside the norm. By sacrificing the graphics sector, the development studio managed to bring both solid and varied gameplay to the screens. Without particularly upsetting the dungeon crawler formula - simply by inserting a lot of style and various well-thought-out ideas into the experience - although ultimately not revolutionary.
Shoot wherever you want!
We had the chance to try Enter The Gungeon in its Nintendo Switch version. It doesn't take long to realize how unique it is to be able to test your skills wherever you prefer, as long as you are careful to save at the right times and don't risk losing all the progress of some particularly lucky run. The game already features all paid updates itself and the possibility of playing co-op with two controllers is shown in great shape in portability. In the Nintendo Switch version the loading times are perhaps a bit too long, especially considering the graphics sector.
Graphically, the title remains faithful to its other versions, with a pixel art all in all well made and satisfying to the eye, which in the long run manages to be appreciated and desired. With even its typical sounds and characters present, the game undoubtedly manages to capture practically anyone, as long as you are ready to test yourself and not lose focus for even a thousandth of a second. In case you are a completist and want to get to the head of every single mystery, managing to fill the Armonomicon in its entirety, we recommend the game's wiki that presents every single detail that the title does not reveal. However, we assure you that being guided by the latter is at the same time an excellent idea, especially for those who are not interested in unlocking every single detail, at least not immediately.
