Enter the Gungeon is an intense, roguelike, bullet hell game with an insane level of skill involved. One of the first things you will notice in this game is its unrelenting difficulty. While it seems easy enough at first, in order to beat the final boss you must: master dodge rolls, learn the boss’ attack patterns, use your blanks to stop enemies attacks, and use your weapons and items to their peak efficiency. Not to mention actually reaching the final boss, which means defeating many rooms of enemies, each with different layouts.
An example of one of these enemies is the Lead Maiden, which takes no damage until it attacks. To defeat the Lead Maiden, you must prepare for it to open, then dodge its attacks while attempting to kill it as quickly as possible. Each of these factors make the game more challenging, and means that there is always more to do.
Each floor in the Gungeon is unique in regard to bosses, enemies, room layouts, and secrets. Every one is guaranteed to have two chest rooms. One will give a passive or active item, and the other will give you a weapon. There are also secret rooms that have pickups, chests, shrines, and NPCs. There are many different items and guns, with many references and jokes that can be found in chests and over the dungeon. For example, there is a bullet that shoots guns that shoot bullets. There is also the lowercase letter ‘r’ that shoots the word ‘bullet’. These are only a few of the 243 guns, and many items that you unlock throughout the game. Furthermore, every floor has a shop, and some have other NPCs that you rescue from jail cells. Rescuing NPCs also gets you quests and more guns and items. With all this, there is always more to enjoy!
Though strategies used in the game take a lot of time to learn, there are things to do even after beating the game. There are 4 starting characters in single player mode, each with different abilities and weapons. In addition to those characters, there are four secret characters that you can unlock; the robot, the bullet, the paradox, and the gunslinger. I will not list how to unlock them, so as to avoid spoilers, but it is a difficult and unique process for each one. For the starting characters, each has a different playing style. The Hunter starts with a crossbow and a sidearm with infinite ammo. There is also a passive item, which gives them a dog (which you can pet!) that has a chance to give free items. This includes keys for chests and door, ammo for guns, health, and shields to prevent damage. The Hunter’s crossbow is a good weapon, dealing high damage for the first few floors and being able to one-shot any basic enemy. However, it has a clip of only one, before having to reload. All in all, the Hunter is a great starting character.
All the other characters have similar depth, but these descriptions will be brief. The Convict has a infinite ammo revolver and a shotgun. She has a Molotov that makes an area of fire, and deals more damage as she loses health. The Marine has only one gun, but with infinite ammo. He reduces spread on guns and can call an ammo drop. The Pilot is a hard character, with the worst basic pistol, but he has noncombat abilities that give him an extra slot for active items. He also has a lock pick that can be very useful and a discount on shop items. Every character’s unique play style means that there is more content for players to enjoy.
Enter the Gungeon stands out from most games due to the high quality for such a cheap price. The game is $15.00, and the only DLC (downloadable content) is a joke about DLC. This game has been slowly improved over the years by frequent free updates, the last of which came out quite recently. The game is even presented with a great visual style. All of this together makes it a must-buy for people ready for the challenge it offers. However, a few people have had problems with the game’s difficulty, claiming that it requires more luck than anything. This is simply incorrect. Every run of the game you improve by learning boss attack patterns or how to clear floors without taking damage. Early in the game luck can help but it never is the main reason for your success.
This game is related to engineering in multiple ways. In order to code the game, people had to code in basic parameters. Even beyond the coding, the way each weapon is added and tested involves the engineering process. They begin by defining the problem, which is what item/gun doesn’t exist, before researching other guns to figure out how to balance the new gun in comparison. Then, they choose which idea they will work on. They develop a prototype of the gun and test it, to make sure that it doesn’t break the game. The creators continue modifying it until they are satisfied. With all of this, going through the engineering process for each weapon and item is no small task. Overall, the game had to be coded and every item had to go through the engineering process.
Here are some great resources for more information about the Gungeon, along with the link to buy the game:
- Steam Store Page: Look at the trailer, reviews, and description here, and buy the game.
- Enter The Gungeon Wiki: This has everything you need to know about the game, including every gun and item.
- The Company’s Page: This gives an overview of a few mechanics, and shows trailers from past expansions.
- Extra Info: This article is useful to learn things that aren’t in the tutorial. There are spoilers, but notifications inform you beforehand. I would suggest to avoid the spoilers, so as to make the game more interesting.
- Tips and Tricks: This is a useful Reddit thread to find out more about the game.
