Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition

Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition

released on May 05, 2021

Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition

released on May 05, 2021

A remaster of Nongunz

Nongunz is a roguelite action-platformer described as “The Binding of Isaac meets Cookie Clicker.” Battle grotesque creatures, kill quickly to maintain your combo meter, and rescue worshipers to become part of your idle army to buy upgrades.


Released on

Genres


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

I've got absolutely no idea what's happening here

the first day or so with nongunz is an interesting experience. the game leaves it up to the player to decipher how its various systems work, and this is actually done really well. the game feels sufficiently cryptic and mysterious, and discovering the various systems that are available makes for an enjoyable enough metagame (at first).

however, nongunz's systems (ie. the state carried forward between runs) don't really seem to serve the moment-to-moment gameplay that makes up the majority of the game. this game is brutally hard, and a long run can end in frustration with one or two small mistakes. this sort of game works better on the roguelite side of the spectrum, since the player can counter brutal difficulty with new unlocks or creative build ideas. since these sorts of systems aren't available, enough unfair losses just leads to a permanent quit.

game looks great though, other than the seriously questionable glitching effects that happen in the main hub.

very bad encounter generation that straight up forces you to take damage as you spawn into a room often, unfun movement and combat, altogether unrewarding

Action-platformer meets roguelike meets clicker meets Voynich Manuscript. It's a cool concept, but the total lack of signposting (or even any language at all) leaves the player with practically no direction

I originally got this on PC and I thought that I had only ended up abandoning it due to getting distracted by other things, so I picked it up again on sale on PS4, only to realize that, no, I did play this more than I thought on PC and I gave up because it just gets old and boring.

The first thing to comment on and the reason I want to like the game more than I do is, of course, the aesthetics. The game looks cool as hell! There's also the pretentious stuff with the "hidden" story that seems inspired by Superhot, but I never really got to that part. The actual game, though, is just a pretty boring action platformer with very vague and dull roguelite mechanics. There are no especially cool items to find and no real metaprogression system. The idle game is just about building up the ease with which you can buy a slightly better gun for the next run and that's about it. There's just too little actual game here for me.