Quick Look: Enter the Gungeon

I was wary of this game at first because of the existence of Nuclear Throne, but it turns out that they're fairly dissimilar. I haven't put too much time into it yet, but I'm liking it quite a bit. I probably overall prefer Nuclear Throne's rawness and dance hall airhorns, but this has got some neat tricks.

@bisonhero: I'm on ps4. Not sure how the PC handles it with m+kb. There's actually an item pickup that gives you a laser sight, so it's definitely a concsious decision on their part. It really isn't that bad though. I wouldn't let it prevent you from trying it out (you could always refund it on steam).

Looks like it's gotten a lot more personality since last I saw it. Had a really hard time telling it apart from Nuclear Throne previously.

Also, while I assume the sound is supposed to be some kind of ricochet, I can't help but hear a Michael Jackson-esque "whoo" whenever the basic bullet enemies die.

I was going to complain about this being another pixel art rogue like, but they really stuck to their guns on the theme.

Bought this today because of the quick look and sunk a few hours into it. Loving it so far. It's going to be a great change of pace for when I get too frustrated with Dark Souls next week.

Don't actually like the style, but this game brings so much fun that's actually worth my free time.

You're looking for Hyper Light Drifter then!

@mub: Oh believe me brother, I've found it and I saw the light! Great game and right up my alley. It's great that we still get enough diversity that for every 10 roguelikes that others enjoy, I get a single beautifully crafted linear experience.

I hope the game inspires other indie devs to make more single player, full games rather than another procedural generated game

In fact, not only are they not inherently about meta game unlocks, there's a strong (IMO) case to be made that roguelikes shouldn't be about meta game unlocks at all. Mark Johnson, developer of Ultima Ratio Regnum, has a good blog post about it. The basic thesis is:

The existence of an unlock system tricks the player into thinking their “progress” derived from a failed playthrough is in the unlock, not in the skills and knowledge they gained (or should gain) by understanding how they died. This, in turn, makes for weaker players (and/or lowers the skill ceiling some players can achieve) by failing to “force” players to confront their decision-making processes, and thereby improve at the game.

I find this comment surprising. Personally, I would describe games like the Division as a more raw, concentrated form of upgrade-driven gameplay then roguelikes. Most roguelikes do have some form of finding better weapons/equipment during a run, but they're generally as much or more about tactics than upgrades.

Are you thinking of a game like Rogue Legacy when you say this?

You'd think that someone who's so into Metal Gear would know how to pronounce nuclear.
Wait, what am I saying?

@gee_rad: I'm thinking of the fact that those games are about "the run" more than anything else. You enter the game and begin your run, trying ultimately to get as far as you can or to beat a score, while in the process augmenting yourself with abilities, shortcuts and such. Games like Assassins Creed or The Division are about the whole, with the upgrade loop being a part of a larger narrative. Thats what I mean when I say it's distilled into a purer experience - in that there isn't a whole bunch of other stuff weighing the game down, it's almost pure gameplay for gameplays sake.

MAN, that soundtrack!

That's interesting, I don't find that confuzing or lazy at all, once I realised the scaling is there, it just became one more factor to be aware of. You get more passive skillsitems as you go deeper so this makes total sense to me.

Thing is the number of passives seems rather low compared to number of guns, and it feels like most of them do not add significantly to your damage if at all. This game isn't like Isaac where you are all but guaranteed to be getting stronger from floor to floor. You get more variety of gun choices, but not as much on the passives that augment ALL your guns. Plus you have stuff like the gun eater and witches to throw away guns you've used up to get a new, full gun.

@kill3rpastry: came here to highlight exactly that.

You dont really need a reticle for a dual joystick shooter especially with auto aim, who puts aim assist in a DJS?!?!?!?! Then Jeff turns it all the way up? WTF is going on here!

I initially wrote this off as a Nuclear Throne rip off but after this quicklook I'm way into it. Looks full of cool, original ideas. Might pick it up after Dark Souls 3.

@subscryber@quipido@alavapenguin@the_nubster@verysexypotato

Thanks for all your opinions, guys! I ended up getting Enter the Gungeon and I'm really liking it!

@humanity: This game wouldn't work any other way, the randomness is what makes it enjoyable.

If your not dying a lot and getting different guns and passives then whats the point?

@zachlentsch: I dunno, I never said they should make this game different, I just said I don't particularly care for this style of game. The last thing I'd be advocating is that games I don't enjoy but others do undergo radical change just to appease the individual at the cost of everyone else.

The castle in the title screen looks to be a damn near pixel perfect copy of the one in one of the old NES Ninja Gaiden games.

Bullet.

@andheez: I was thinking the same thing. Isn't the point of these things like being able to successfully aim and shoot enemies? I got the game last night and started with turning the auto aim off. I was actually surprised how far I got at my first go, Binding of Isaac experience coming in handy, I suppose.

They open books in Gungeon by shooting them.

THEY OPEN BOOKS BY SHOOTING THEM!!

1:35

Dan it is Nuclear not Nucular.

@professoress: bullets > reading

@ripelivejam: The pen is mightier than the sword... however... BLAT! BLAT! BLAT!

This looks dope as shit. Think I'll have to check it out, once I've got some free time.

Looks tough, but fun. Thanks for the QL guys. :-)

This game has hundreds of weapons, yet you end up using the starting gun for like 90% of the time. Enter The Gungeon is kinda awesome, but I feel it prioritizes hard over fun. I fucking hate that starter weapon, it sucks hemorrhoids, so I guess I have to go back to The Binding Of Isaac for some rouge-lite action. Also a hard game, but at least it gives you good runs often enough to keep you going. I'm about to give up on Enter The Gungeon for good.

Wow, this looks amazing. The extra stupid part of me not playing this yet is that I own it and already have it downloaded on my PS4

Anyone else watching this due to the Switch release today?

@madmatt213: Yep! This is a candidate for something to play while I'm visiting family over the holidays.

@jbick89: I ended up buying it last night, it seems to run great on Switch so far, though I only tried it docked. Haven’t seen anyone complaining that it runs poorly in handheld. It really scratches that itch so far for me.