Enter the Gungeon
A lot of my weekend has been spent fixing up my PC. For a long time it was booting from a HDD, unbeknownst to me (somehow). Not only that, the boot drive had both Win7 and Win10 on it, so the BIOS had to make executive decisions on where to go. All unnoticed until I added more RAM, and found myself somehow within Windows7!
Anyway, a bunch of wiping, downloading and fixing up and I’m now with a far more efficient system; booting from an SSD with a huge HDD sitting there holding lots of files (mainly game files).
I also discovered that the Xbox One default controller works perfectly out of the box with Windows10. So it was time to dig into the archives to play something that would make use of it. And something that would make use of the Xbox One controller more than the Steam controller, which I also have sitting near my desk.
Enter: Enter the Gungeon.
The issue with this game & it’s compatibility with the Steam controller is that the touchpad on the Steam controller makes no sense with games like this. Hotline Miami is another example of a title that gets let down by the touch pad.
What is Enter the Gungeon?
Hotline Miami is a good way to describe how Enter the Gungeon plays out. It controls similarly, but is a very different title.
ETG is more of a roguelike with varying challenge rooms where your job is to wipe out all of the enemies, twin-stick shooter style. It’s available on PS4 & PC, and either will work perfectly well. But if you’re a PC player, make sure you have a controller in-hand as that’s where this title really sings.
There are four unique characters that you can play as while you enter the “gungeon”, a procedurally generated hellscape filled with bullet head enemies, ghosts and exploding boxes.
Each gungeon can become a true hellscape. It’s not unusual to progress through walls of bullets that fill the screen. Which is fun, because you can dodge through them. But timing is key. Which is the real point of this title. Timing.
Jumping through bullet walls, hitting your targets and moving with enough precision to avoid bullets while dishing out enough damage is the name of the game here. And my god it’s fun.
Roguish
Rogue-like titles have been coming thick-and-fast, and ETG is a great, fun example of one. The Rogue-esque elements to this title are simple: the game has no real story mode. You just enter the gungeon over and over and try to get as far down as you can before losing all of your life.
As you go through the gungeon, you’ll rescue characters that can sell you items to improve your chances are you get into harder areas.
And when I say harder, I really mean it. The one blocker to this title is that it’s really, really hard. And it gets progressively more difficult to breaking point. But it’s addictive nature and quick-to-get-into-action attitude lends itself to endless rogue-like gaming.
The game is finely balanced. You need a tactical nuance to clear each room, and determination to not get killed. And that’s what keeps it from being too twitchy or too slow. It’s fast without being overwhelming, and slow without being dumb. It has no multiplayer (but has co-op), so what the developers have done is stick to what’s good about rogue-like games: lengthy sessions where you sweat it out to achieve some small sustained reward.
If you like anything about rogue-likes, then get this game. If you’re not up for a challenge, don’t bother.
