Enter the Gungeon

Enter the Gungeon is a top down twin stick shooter, and top to bottom it’s all about guns. The enemies are bullet people wielding guns and the money is shell casings. It’s as if at a board meeting people just spewed every idea they ever heard about guns and no one told them to stop, and all those ideas made it into the game. Everything revolves around the concept of a gun dungeon.

All the bosses are dumb gun puns, like Ammoconda or the Beholster. Every weapon you could possibly imagine seems to be represented in some fashion, from squirt guns to real guns like the M16, all the way to iconic video game weapons like Megaman’s hand. Even some dumb stuff made it in like a barrel that shoots fish or a mailbox that shoots letters, but with its last bullet of its magazine it shoots a package. Some guns are reimagined to be more literal representations of their name. The Stinger is a pretty ordinary rocket launcher that has been featured in many other games, but in the Gungeon, explosions weren’t enough. Bees needed to erupt from those explosions.

A lot of the joy to be had with Enter the Gungeon comes through its silliness, which is on full display with its rogue elements. There’s a lot of references, a ton of guns and a bunch of puns to discover, more than enough to elicit a, “No way,” or three. Encountering new enemies might even elicit the same sort of response. They are all so and excessively thematic and wonderfully designed. These things, more than the gameplay instill a motivation to uncover the Gungeon’s many secrets and explore its depths.

The core twin stick gameplay is solid, but not terribly remarkable. Unless you happen upon some great upgrades, the movement feels slightly too slow and enemies feel a bit spongy, taking a few too many rounds to put down. At the outset, Enter the Gungeon feels a lot more manageable than other roguelikes, giving players plenty of defensive tools. Health and ammo drops regularly upon clearing rooms. There are blanks that can clear the screen of bullets in a pinch and true to the developer’s name, you can always dodge roll through bullets. There are often several guns or upgrades per floor to make you stronger, and there are only 5 floors to shoot through. Yet, as is so often this case with roguelikes, there is always that one room or boss that can derail an entire run, so finishing the game can be quite the challenge if you don’t find some good equipment.

In this case it really is a quantity over quality, but for Enter the Gungeon it works more often than not. The sheer number things to discover, gives each new run a sense of hope and opportunity. On the flipside is what might be the game's biggest flaw, a slow buildup. Every run you’re starting with the same boring weapon on the hunt for something cool, and sometimes it takes far too long to find anything. It's not a game that lends itself to being rushed through, so starting over and experiencing the same slow ramp up over and over can suck the fun out of it. Some grievances regarding the gameplay might not even be apparent if the game was a little more consistent or handed out its crazy guns more like candy.

It’s rare to find something as committed to a theme as Enter the Gungeon is to firearms. The sense of humor is irreverent and relies on references, but it only bolsters that thematic commitment. The slow buildup is a nigh fatal drawback that makes other warts stick out a little more, but it’s such a commendable display of an unwillingness to compromise, to say that the game isn't much more than competent by itself would only be s(h)elling it short.