Enter the Gungeon

I've lost more Saturday nights to this game than I care to admit, and I have zero regrets. Enter the Gungeon sits at the crossroads of bullet hell shooter, twin-stick action, and roguelike dungeon crawling, and the combination is almost unfairly compelling. You pick one of four Gungeoneers - the Marine, the Convict, the Pilot, or the Hunter - each with different starting weapons and a unique passive ability, then descend into procedurally generated chambers packed with enemies that are, fittingly, living bullets. The core loop is tight enough to feel mechanical and surprising enough to feel alive. Every run throws randomised room layouts and weapon drops at you, so no two attempts play the same. The arsenal is the headline attraction: over 200 guns ranging from shotguns and rifles through to genuinely absurd creations like a gun that fires sharks, a gun that shoots other guns, and weapons that reference a dozen different gaming touchstones. Ammo management matters too - most guns have a finite clip and run dry, which forces you to cycle between your loadout rather than one-trick your way through. The dodge roll is the heart of the combat system, granting a window of invincibility frames that lets you slip through bullet patterns that look impossible on paper. Learning when to shoot and when to roll is the game's core skill, and it clicks in a way that feels genuinely rewarding rather than punishing. Blanks - consumable rounds that wipe all projectiles on screen - round out your defensive toolkit and serve as a pressure valve when rooms get truly overwhelming. On the difficulty front, be honest with yourself before buying. Gungeon does not hold your hand. Each boss is a pattern-reading puzzle wrapped in chaos, and permadeath means a bad run ends in a full restart. That said, an unlock system gradually populates your runs with more interesting items the more you play, and there is a meta-progression rhythm that keeps total newcomers making visible headway even when they are dying constantly. Casual players can absolutely enjoy it; they will just die a lot first. The boss variety across the five chambers is excellent and each floor has its own visual theme, keeping things fresh visually even on your thirtieth restart. For the couch crowd, co-op is local-only and capped at two players, which is the biggest caveat worth flagging. The second player is locked into a character called The Cultist rather than choosing from the main four, which is a little limiting. Both players share the same camera rather than a split screen, and enemy health scales up by 40% in co-op to compensate for the extra firepower. The Cultist does get co-op-specific items and there is an exclusive boss fight accessible only with two players, so the mode has genuine thought behind it rather than being bolted on. Remote Play Together via Steam also makes the local-only restriction less painful if your co-op buddy is not physically present. Four-player couch tournaments are out, though. If that was the dream, look elsewhere. Controller support is solid and a gamepad is genuinely the recommended input method here given the twin-stick nature of the combat. Keyboard and mouse works, but there is a spread mechanic on projectiles that some players find frustrating with mouse aiming. The pixel art is gorgeous and the soundtrack pulses at exactly the right energy. After years on the market and with Overwhelmingly Positive reviews from nearly 90,000 Steam players, this one has been tested thoroughly by the community and holds up.

Riley · Scout Team

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