Enter the Gungeon is a top-down shooter and dungeon crawler in one. The game follows a band of misfits seeking to shoot, loot, dodge roll and table-flip their way to personal absolution by reaching the legendary gungeon’s gun that can kill the past. You begin each playthrough by selecting a hero—or teaming up in co-op—and battling your way to the bottom of the gungeon by surviving rooms filled with vicious enemies and terrifying bosses. While the game features everything you’d want from a great roguelike, it suffers from a few issues on Xbox One.
Throughout the course of the playthrough, the gamer gathers precious loot, discovers hidden secrets, and talks with opportunistic merchants and shopkeepers to purchase powerful items to gain an edge. While shell casings are the currency to buy temporary items like keys and health refills, Hegemony Credits can unlock better items which randomly appear in the gungeon. These are earned by defeating bosses so it’s quite the grind.
Enter the Gungeon features meticulously hand-designed rooms within a procedurally-generated labyrinth. The challenge increases the further you go along. The gungeon responds to even the most modest victory by raising the stakes and it’s quite a spike in difficulty. The game requires precise timing and a lot of dodging to be successful. Reloading is also a challenge and you have to count your shots and reload right afterwards. The speed at which you can unload your clip into foes plays a virtual role.
That’s pretty much it for gameplay. The title features pixelated graphics so it’s a very distinctive game. That’s where the praise ends unfortunately. When there are a lot of effects on screen, the game stutters and this can lead to issues especially when you’re fighting bosses. For example, the Bullet King, as the name suggests, shoots a lot of bullets at you. This can cause noticeable slowdowns and micro stuttering. This is a little confusing because the game isn’t a demanding title by any stretch of the imagination. Hopefully the developers will fix these minor problems soon.
Enter the Gungeon can’t really be described by talking about gameplay and visuals. While roguelikes can come across as challenging, this game is fair and one can excel with the right amount of practice. Spamming the trigger or continuously dodging won’t get you anywhere. You have to use all the skills at your disposal, from dodging to using limited blanks to neutralize bullets. While these games seem daunting at first, Enter the Gungeon really opens up once you defeat the first boss.
I’ve played games like Rogue Legacy and Toy Odyssey before and I have to say that Enter the Gungeon is by far the most accessible. Even though the trailers may make it seems like you’re constantly surrounded by bullets, there’s always a way to avoid them. The game isn’t hard for the sake of being hard, it just requires patience and some practice.
Summary
Overall, Enter the Gungeon was worth the wait for Xbox One owners. The title is a lot of fun and remains that way despite the challenge it poses. If you love games like Rogue Legacy and Crypt of the Necrodancer, then this is the game for you. However, if you’re new to the roguelike genre, this is also a great starting point which will teach you well.
Antonio was a regular ICXM contributor between 2016–2017, publishing 112 articles across game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative.