It’s been hours since I got my hands on Enter the Gungeon, an upcoming PS4 and PC release with a decidedly different take on the traditional dungeon crawler formula, and I’m still trying to figure out how Dodge Roll managed to create what could be one of the best indie games of 2016.
On the game’s Steam page, Dodge Roll describes Enter the Gungeon as a “gunfight dungeon crawler” that sees players trying to recover “the gun that can kill the past” from somewhere deep in the heart of the titular Gungeon. But that’s only half the story. When I asked Dodge Roll founder Dave Crooks to describe the game before some hands-on time at PAX South he called Enter the Gungeon a “bullet hell dungeon crawler roguelike top-down shooter.” But even that isn’t completely accurate description.
“We call it a bullet hell game, but it’s actually a little more deliberately-paced than a bullet hell game,” Crooks said. “You really kind of have to learn what everything is going to be doing to master a room.”
Perhaps the best way to explain Enter the Gungeon is to explain it piece by piece. At its core, Enter the Gungeon is definitely a dungeon crawler; one that should instantly feel familiar to those who’ve logged serious time with The Binding of Isaac or Crypt of the Necrodancer. Players make their way from one room to the next, defeating whatever enemies they encounter along the way and rounding up any extra firearms (or other loot) they come across. But making your way from room to room, searching for loot and slaying your enemies, is only one part of the formula.
Unlike many dungeon crawlers, which tend to draw their inspiration from high fantasy settings, Enter the Gungeon’s entire aesthetic is inspired by firearms. There are enemies who look like shotgun shells, rifle ammunition and even a mini-gun toting bird boss that looks like it uses ALL of the steroids. And it only takes a few of them to fill the screen with gunfire. We’re not talking about an Ikaruga situation or anything. But it didn’t take long to see why the studio felt the need to include invincibility frames for the dodge roll and a cover system in the upcoming dungeon crawler. Without both features, beating Enter the Gungeon might not even be possible.
The gunplay itself is relatively straightforward. Players move with the left analog stick, aim with the right analog stick and use the right shoulder button to pull the trigger. Equipped weapons can be rotated at will, provided you’ve looted something other than the default firearm during your current run, and (when things get really rough) players can click both analog sticks to push all enemy gunfire off the screen. That last ability is limited, based on the player’s current stash of Blanks, but can be a real life saver if/when you stumble into a room you weren’t quite ready for.
As Crooks touched on, the real challenge in Enter the Gungeon is figuring out to protect yourself when the proverbial shit hits the fan. On paper, the enemies in Dodge Roll’s upcoming dungeon crawler aren’t especially tough, particularly if you find ways to isolate them from one another. But there are plenty of rooms that lack any significant cover, filled with enemies that fire their weapons frequently, and its these moments when Crooks says players will need to be a master of the dodge roll. In fact, a desire to channel that aspect of the bullet hell genre is why the studio added invincibility frames to the dodge roll.
Interestingly, there’s also an aspect of persistence to the game. Much like Crypt of the Necrodancer, which let players gradually improve the game’s loot tables over the course of the campaign, Enter the Gungeon gives players a chance to unlock powerful new weaponry with each playthrough. Obviously, there will be some runs that don’t amount to much more than a Game Over screen. But steady growth of the game’s armory offers some semblance of progress, even as players are forced to dive back into the Gungeon time and time again.
As if all that weren’t enough, Enter the Gungeon also supports cooperative play. Which is important because I’m not sure any sane individual could watch another person play the game for more than a few minutes without wanting to grab a controller and jump in on the action. I didn’t get a chance to play the game with a teammate during my PAX South demo; however, a large television in the Devolver Digital booth gave fans a chance to play the game together. And I didn’t see a disappointed face on the couch.
Truth be told, the only bad news from my time with Enter the Gungeon is that Dodge Roll still hasn’t decided on a launch date for the project. The game is currently expected to make its debut sometime before the end of the year, on PC and PS4, but Dodge Roll isn’t even ready to narrow that launch window down to a specific month. But if the final build of the game proves to be half as entertaining as the version I played at PAX, Enter the Gungeon could easily become one of the best indie games of 2016.
Enter the Gungeon is being developed for PlayStation 4, Windows, OS X and Linux. The game is currently scheduled to debut sometime in 2016.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more PAX South coverage throughout the remainder of the convention.
