I enjoyed the first Enter the Gungeon quite a bit. It’s a solid game, with a good level-by-level design, interesting items, and fun visual style with snippets of fascinating world building. In fact, it’s the most-played game in my Steam library, at just over 1,172 hours. To say I like the game is an understatement, and I’ve spent many hours familiarizing myself with the various items, enemies, and odd little mechanics.
It originally released in 2016, and we got the final content update, “A Farewell to Arms”, in 2019. After that, the only new content for the series came in the form of a spinoff, Exit the Gungeon, which had a different gameplay style and overall feel. That was the end of it. So, you can imagine my surprise when, at the beginning of April, they announced a proper sequel.
This excites me quite a bit, although we don’t know much. That teaser shows off some familiar gameplay, a new boss, and familiar characters rendered in 3D. I look forward to seeing more in the future, and in playing it when it comes out next year. At this point we can only speculate, but this isn’t the first time a roguelike made the jump to 3D in the sequel.
Risk of Rain 2 stuck the landing quite excellently, keeping the core gameplay loop and concepts, while turning the 2D roguelike into a much larger 3D space, with more ways to traverse the environment, avoid enemy attacks, and battle through the hordes. Enter the Gungeon 2 isn’t going for precisely the same approach, as it seems to be maintaining the top-down view of the original, just with 3D graphics. I like the art style, and I’m sure that the developers will be able to do more with the experience they acquired from making the first game, but there is one thing I’m slightly concerned about.
The original game involved quite a few bullet-hell elements, with many projectiles flying in specific patterns that you had to avoid while returning fire. The sequel seems to be maintaining those elements if the attack shown in the teaser is anything to go by, but the 3D graphics may throw a wrench into things.
A large part of bullet-hell games is clarity, and that’s extra important for roguelikes, considering how punishing the difficulty can be in them. My concern is primarily how the new graphics will interact with that. Depending on the camera angle, it may be tricky to tell when a shot is going to hit you or not. It doesn’t seem like they’re going to be incorporating height into the gameplay, but it is going to be part of the graphical style.
However, if those issues can be avoided, I believe that Enter the Gungeon 2 could be a better game than the original. The new graphics look amazing, and I look forward to trying out the new guns and items. And, of course, fighting through rooms full of enemies in each chamber of the Gungeon.
What do you think? If you’re excited for the game, or if you have experience with the original, feel free to reply in the comments or join us for further discussion on the Boss Rush Discord.
Featured Image: Dodge Roll
Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast about Video Games
The Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast about Video Games – is the flagship show of the Boss Rush Network and Boss Rush Media. Each week, hosts Corey Dirrig and LeRon Dawkins are joined by friends, fellow creators, indie developers, and industry veterans to discuss the latest in the world of video games, including news, rumors, new releases, and what they’ve been playing. They also answer listener questions, debate important industry topics and Boss Rush Banter discussion points, and feature a rotating weekly segment. New episodes post every Monday.
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