Review: Enter the Gungeon

"Vital shortcuts" no one ever uses them lmao

I disagree about the tinker. in games like these, shortcuts aren't for progression purposes. You take shortcuts in roguelights not because they are normal progression but because they are for those who are confident enough in their raw skill that they can get by in the late game with fewer resources. You take shortcuts in spelunky because you're confident you can get by with just the whip and 4 bombs. You use the shovel in Binding of Isaac because you think you don't need the items from the floor you're on. These games are all about resource management, and using shortcuts eliminates most of your buffer for resources. What I'm getting at is, for the most part, shortcuts aren't there for progression purposes, but for mastery purposes. The tinker is geared to be an overarching passive thing that you only seek out in earnest well after you have become able to consistently win runs. You're not expected to have 250 shells and 5 keys until long after you've gotten consistently good at winning complete runs. Which is also why it doesn't net you any serious benefits to have shortcuts available if your playstyle isn't focused around it, and indeed using it can lock you out of certain endings.

This is understandable since it's such an early review but your points on the tinker are a total misundertanding of the game. The shortcuts are not meant to be taken as progression but as something that's certainly going to hinden your run and should be used on very specific situations like hunting down an enemy for Friffle or just practing against a specific foe. Therefore it is widely known fixing the elevators as secondary as it can be. Being mostly made after completing the game multiple times to unlock some special treats. The RNG is brought to zero if you activate hard mode, you'll always get the amount of bullet cases and blanks needed if you are playing with that goal in mind.

I've been playing Gungeon as the ONLY game I play since release and have cleared it with all 4 characters and beyond, and beaten secret levels. This review just feels... wrong... By my own personal opinion and experience as the review is his. The Tinkerer isn't necessary, You have to go out of your way to do his things and that's intentional. I next to never even use the elevators, they aren't well recommendable. It's purely a side affair, Gungeon has lots of side affairs and things to do and unlock. You're not meant to do everything in one run. You play to try, not to win. It's difficult by design and based around the idea of doing runs after runs. Runs that sometimes have a specific goal in mind that changes up playstyle from same thing you do every other time, such as not unlocking chests to save keys, not buying from shops, not using blanks, trying not to get hit for a Mastery or to save up Armor, trying to do this or that for Secrets. And the first floor DOES have a fine spawnrate. It's the same as any other floor in that regard. I've gotten weapons on floor 1 that carry all the way to the final boss / final-final boss and items I never want to drop for something else. As with any rogue -game the main progression occurs outside of a run. Unlocking new drops, unlocking new NPCs, even unlocking new player characters, is important and adds every little new inch and chance of eventually winning a run. Unlocking items that grant health, slow enemy projectiles, new guns, new shops, minigames, challenges. And anything can happen, even on the first floor. The game just gets more packed the more you unlock and progress without the mindset that a run's purpose is to win.

I like how you use the snake boss as "tons on bullets on screen". oh sweet child of summer just wait for the 4th and 5th floor bosses...

DO NOT mistake this game for binding of isaac or Rogue Legacy, this game does not get easier with passive ugprades/RPG elements, a large majority of it is skill, and that holy grail of 'git gud' everyone is talking about these days.

What I like about Enter the Gungeon is that there are stopgaps against bad RNG. If you don't receive a gun anywhere on a floor, the boss is guaranteed to drop one instead of a powerup. If you don't find a key by the time you reach a shop, it will always have at least one. The only problem with the RNG is that the droprate for heart pickups is so low that I generally end a run by getting worn down rather than overwhelmed, an ironic twist for a fast-paced shmup/bullet hell.

Not a single line talking about the guns in a game about guns ?

I agree that the Tinkerer's demands are far too high, especially for the first shortcut. I'm just ignoring him for now. I disagree that there's only 15 hours worth of content here. The main gimmick of this game is discovering what guns there are and their pros and cons, and I feel that this review ignores that aspect a little.

15 hours of fun? More like >100 if you want to beat most of the content.

5:45 that wasn’t a boss, wasn’t even a mini boss, you didn’t need to restart

The best thing to start your morning with.

I think you've gotten really good at the voiceovers for these videos. It really hits the mark of sound energetic and interesting to listen to, without feeling unnatural and "show-y". I know how difficult VO can be to nail, so great job, dude.

I haven't even been bothering with Tinker because I find myself under-powered for a floor if I skip the previous ones. Also, like you said, the first main goal shmup players have is the 1 credit clear. Skipping the first floor would technically invalidate that.

Each floor has at least 2 chests, a shop, and a boss room. If you empty your guns before switching to better ones (to maximize the value of reloading them) and don't spend ammo on room that pose no threat (IE entire first floor) you should have enough ammo to last you through the entire run. That said, the Tinker can go die in an elevator shaft.

Im 50 hours in and havent given the tinker anything at all.The tinker isn't a 'mandatory progression mechanic' or anything, it's just a way to let you practice later floors so that you can be better at dodging the later floors' attack patterns.

You state in the video that you've never really got into rogue-likes, so some of your misinformation is a little understandable, but that doesn't change that this is probably your worst/most-misdirected review I've seen on your channel. You talk about being frustrated by a roguelike from not feeling like you've unlocked all the shortcuts and mastered the game at the 10-hour mark. Woah. I think I sincerely speak for everyone in the comments when I say that if I felt like I mastered a rogue-like and got all the shortcuts, and felt like I was near familiarity with everything in it and could regularly ace playthroughs by 10 hours in, I would feel like I was ripped off and there would be no reason to ever pick up the game again. There would be no replayability. These games are not meant to have a normal game length where you play through a story, see everything like a scenic tour, unlock everything, and beat the boss once, roll end credits all within 10-30 hours. These are games you can pick up and replay for 50, 100, 500 total hours over the course of months, years even. They're games you get addicted to, but you play on-and-off while doing other things in your life or playing other games as well, but you see yourself unlocking new things in the game, becoming more and more familiar with all the elements, and becoming better at the game. Why do you do this? Cause the core game is fun, you feel yourself getting better, and discovering new things is fun and interesting. I don't mean to sound pretentious and say "you just didn't get it", but you really didn't get it. I'm not saying you can't, just that maybe you had the wrong mindset going into it. Imagine playing Binding of Isaac and getting mad that you haven't faced Satan yet or unlocked the curses or got mad at how long it takes to upgrade the shop, but you haven't even unlocked all the characters yet, or haven't even faced mom's heart yet. These games have multiple, different paced milestones and rewards for you to work towards so you don't get mad at not yet being good or knowledgeable enough to attain the more challenging ones, which you WILL be ready for by the time you get the other accomplishments taken care of. Once again, it sounds like a lot of work, but like you said in the video about Enter the Gungeon, the game is just wicked fun in and of itself. Playing for short isolated sessions is its own reward, and the new elements introduced as you make slow progress keeps you interested and makes you feel like there's still new things to discover. I would argue, that of all the game-types you could spend your money on, rogue-likes like these are hands-down THE most bang for your buck, and no-brainers for ANYONE to add to their collections.

saw this game at e3 last year and just had to get it, been having a lot of fun with it but my main problem IS 1st floor drop rates. it needs patched you shouldnt be getting item drops that are totally useless without another item, and there are certain items you straight up dont want from a chest, youd rather have the option to buy it

I mean The tinker issue isn't really an issue Its intentionally difficult to meet his requests so that you aren't unlocking the elevator 4-5 hours in

Agree with most of it, but not the shortcuts - I'm surprised someone actually uses them. To me they are exactly that - a very end game gimmick that I have to do weird shit for to accomplish.