There is not a single thing in the entirety of
Enter the Gungeon that you haven't already seen elsewhere. Everything, counting both the items and gameplay mechanics, gives the player a vague sense of
déjà vu. One could argue that makes the end result feel bland, but there is a second side to that statement - it makes you immediately familiar, too.
The basic game loop presents itself as a cautious evolution of the established roguelite-twin stick shooter formula, as already seen in
The Binding of Isaac or the
Nuclear Throne. Simple, arcade gameplay, borrowing some elements from bullet hell games, molded into a resemblance of a slot machine through the use of RNG mechanics sprinkled on the top, long shelf life ensued by the addition of unlockables. It has enough variety to keep the player engaged, and the random nature of weapon drops means that even underperforming players will, sooner or later, find something that will let them finish a run, giving a taste for more. Still, I believe EtG suffers from the same fundamental problem
Post Void does - that is,
the curse of the first zone. Probability of the player character dying (in most cases) increases in the later levels, as you encounter new kinds of obstacles you had no way to train against - and the only way to have another shot is to spend significant amount of time getting to the same place again. The result of that is that most of the time playing is spent in the same first zones that quickly become trivial, seeming like more of a bother or a time-waster rather than a rightful part of the experience.
Frankly, I can't say much about the audiovisual presentation of the game. It is a standard, competent pixelart, serving its role in a proper way. Same with the music - except the catchy main theme. Everything about this side of the experience is just...
ok. It just is there, and does what it is supposed to - unlike, for example, the aesthetics of
Primordia or
Pathologic 2 that live in your head for weeks afterwards.
The worldbuilding of Enter the Gungeon is not barebones - it barely exists. Much like its characters, trapped in a loop of constant repetition, the game itself bases its identity on a set of references to mainstream geek culture most of the people playing the game will immediately feel innately familiar with. Much like the culture itself, built mostly around a regime of mutual interrogation concerning the knowledge of a set of given memes, EtG keeps throwing references at you to make you feel at home - and it usually works. Whenever you arrive at the end of a run with a given character, you enter a special level (which, by the way, you will most probably lose the first time) presenting some of their backstory - but then, all of these are popculture references too. I cannot recall a single fact about the setting of the game - but I remember there was a
Doom reference. A stark contrast, let's say, to The Pale of
Disco Elysium I still remember since playing the game in 2020.
All the examples I gave served a singular purpose - that is, to highlight how much of an average game Enter the Gungeon is. There is not a single aspect of the experience that's outstanding in any way. Is it
fun to play? Yes, if you can get over seeing the same castle and cave over and over again. However, considering the fact that there are countless other games out there that do everything EtG does, but better, I implore whoever is reading this review to consider doing something else with their fleeting time on this plane of existence. Even
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, while from a mechanical standpoint still being a glorified pachinko machine with bullet hell mechanics, at least has a memorable aesthetic style and an inquiry into issues of childhood trauma and religious upbringing.
The guns may be less diverse than in Gungeon, but Nuclear Throne's combat is so much more impactful and satisfying than any encounter you can find in the former. Weapon management is a nightmare too. There's no limit to the amount of weapons you can hold here, so you spend so much goddamn time cycling through all of your held weapons. Nuclear Throne has a hard 2-weapon limit and switching weapons is more of a toggle. There is a button that kind of works like this in gungeon, but its not nearly as fast or as streamlined like in Nuclear Throne.
Hell, even taking into the account the levels of weapon diversity between the two games, it all feels aesthetic in Gungeon. You may be shooting a gun that shoots out a bunch of miniature guns, a giant magless 800 round supersoaker, or a weyland-yutani pulse rifle with a grenade launcher attachment but their impact and damage feel pretty much the same.